Language isn't a problem anymore

Though priviledged to be born in the beautiful valley of our capital city, I have spent most of my life in the southern belt. My parents were working in the Government and had done their schooling from India. They were well conversant in Lhotsamkha and hindi. Since they were working, they used to be transferred after certain period but luckily or unluckily it was always in the southern region and that too always near the border. Maybe because of all these factors and the fact that we used to converse in lhotsamkha at home, we children also used to talk in that language only. Another reason was at that time speaking Dzongkha was not that compulsory. Now after growing up, we sometimes like to blame it on our parents and we even questioned them as to why we did not speak Dzongkha at home like others. But maturity says that it is easier to put the blame on others but fault was ours also in some way.

In school it was no better since we used to speak lhotsamkha and sometimes english but dzongkha was rare. Even the dzongkha lopen used to explain it to us in nepali. I used to score good in other subjects but because of less marks in dzongkha, my percentage would come down drastically. I could never rote or mug up so I could not perform that well in dzongkha. So in totality, my dzongkha was very poor both spoken and written. Somehow I managed to get through class ten and as I wanted to pursue in science I got my admission in India. After that I completed my graduation and masters from India only. But while I was there, I used to speak dzongkha with some bhutanese friends since it was matter of prestige too. Otherwise, I used to speak in dzongkha only when spoken to or when I used to visit my native village where they can't understand or speak anything other than dzongkha.

Even when I started working, I did not face any problem since people speak english and lhotsamkha along with dzongkha. The thing was even the job I landed up with was in the southern border town only. It was only after I met my better half and got married, that I started speaking dzongkha at home and also in office. I must say that I have improved my vocabulary and I must thank my better half for that. It was only after marriage that I got interested to watch dzongkha programs, movies and listening to dzongkha songs. Now I even think in dzongkha sometimes.

So now I can proudly say that language is not a problem anymore - at least spoken.