Language Barrier

I grew up in Chennai for 22 years. I speak decent English and fluent Tamil. And I even learnt the art of switching between 'local' Tamil and 'home-breed' Tamil like a pro. Learnt Hindi at school with minimum interest. It was useful in making Hindi movies and soaps a little more tolerable... So, to sum it all I could jump from English to Tamils, with much ease.

After moving to the US, I met only a few Tamil speaking people. So I developed a great camaraderie with the Kannada speaking folk at school. My curiosity to understand their conversation, ended up teaching me Kannada.

Now, I am surrounded by Kannadigas ... I am so used to the language now, that I sometimes think in Kannada while speaking in Tamil. I even end up always adding a few Kannada words in my conversations. The problem is that I know what I am saying, but no one else really does. So they stare with the "What-is-wrong-with-you" look, and I wonder the same about them. So there is some miss-communication . This kind of puts me in a spot where I look foolish for having said something so spontaneously but unconsciously.


Here are a few instances where I really fail to say the right thing..
1) I request for "Sowtu" instead of karandy or ladel.

2) When I need to say "Oh!! Really??", I end up saying "Howdha" in that musical tone.

3) When I have to say, "OB adikadhada", I say "Oothla" pannadhada...

4) When I badly want to drink coffee, I say "Coffee Baykku" instead of "Coffee venum".

5) Worst is when I want to sleep, I end up saying, "Nidhdhey barthaa Idhey" with an annoying intonation picked up from a friend here. I should have instead said, "Thookkam varudhu".