From: Assefaw, Yonatan (yassefaw@tcfbank.com)
Date: Fri Sep 04 2009 - 11:38:37 EDT
Lived too long in the west
Recently a friend called his
mom to find out how she is doing and
and he want to know if she need anything
from abroad to send her and his mom
told him that she does not need anything
except she want him to return to his
homeland back.
When he asked her why
her reply was that she would like him
to fill out a new DV again so he can
immigrate again to west. He said Why
would I would do that ? Well, she said
those who have recently immigrated with
DV have build new houses and open new
business and you on the other hand I am
not sure what you are doing there ?
The moral of the story is that those of us
who live in the west, we have obligations
the reason we have immigrated. I believe
that my responsibility is to transfer the
information have gather so far in my own
language to share my people back home.
The information I gather can be useful
for coming generation to be used that I
believe to be important to me and my
society. What I have discover though that
I don't even know my own culture well.
My challenge is now that I have gather
enough information, I can even express
it well my own language because I learned
either in deutsch(german)or English. The
vocabulary that I use in Tigrinya are limited.
So, I decide that I need to published my work
even if it is written with broken Tigrinya.
Moreover, I even found out that we don't even
use our own geez numbers. It is about time
we need to rive it again and start using them
regularly.
How important is it to teach children their own
language, culture, alphabets and geez numbers ?
This month Tigrinya will start in Minnesota with the
School year calendar. The Children will come to learn
Tigrinya alphabets, grammars, and math.
It is fun to teach children Tigrinya alphabets
whenever you ask them if the know a word that
starts with this letter "Ha" they will say "Halai"
They remember the word used at home. It is fun
to teach children. Please teach in your own community
the mother tongue. Knowledge is power.
Finally we lived too long in the west, we have to make
sure the children learn their own alphabets and geez
numbers. The least parent can do for their children is
teach them read and write their own mother tongue.
The question for the day
does your child know how to read or write Tigrinya ?
Yonatan Solomon
Mathematician
Minneapolis Minnesota
USA