Abdullah
As usual, you have brought life into what is usually one of my dry threads
Thank you so much, i truly really am grateful for it.
i think it's wonderful to receive first-hand accounts of one's personal experiences. One of the benefits of Gupshup, perhaps, that we have such a diversity of posters.
You are extremely privileged to have grown up with this language Masha'Allah. Neither of my parents speak siraikee; meray rishtidaaron mai sai only one of my Khalus and one of my Phuppas speak it fluently. Khalu is from Dera Ghazi Khan; met some of his family for the first time this summer and looooooooved aspects of their mannerisms... their hospitality, for example. Even though it was the first time they were seeing me, and to them all i was was a quiet, shy 22 year old "From Canada", they were some of the nicest, most hospitable... just people with no pretensions. It was so much fun to spend time with my Khalu's nieces, we got along superbly Masha'Allah.
>>My siraikee at times sounded phony and unnatural in the beginning, but I stuck to it and became quite good. My siraikee at times sounded phony and unnatural in the beginning, but I stuck to it and became quite good.<<
ahhh how i can relate to this. When i went to Pak, everyone expected that my Urdu would have a Canadian accent with it. Thankfully after the first few days, all the jokes stopped
i insisted that i wanted to speak in Urdu with everyone; just something about conversing in another language isn't there.
Do you mind if i ask whether your parents spoke predominantly in Siraikee or in Urdu with you? If they ask you something in Siraikee, which language do you feel more comfortable responding in? It is a wonderful language, although i didn't really understand any of it when it was spoken infront of me. But, like you said, it's not just the language but the accompanying Siraikee culture as well... so much in there that others (like me) could learn from - about generosity, hospitality, humility.