Quels sont les contextes, les personnes, les intérêts qui ont fait de chacun de nous la personne plurilingue que nous sommes aujourd'hui ? Je vous invite à jeter un regard en arrière pour identifier dans le chemin parcouru les facteurs principaux de votre plurilinguisme.
I would say that my parents are largely responsible for my multilingual identity. The language that they spoke to me, a language which was the first language of neither my parents, was the language that I picked up as a child. They also chose to send me to a Catholic primary school, which meant that I never learnt an oriental language at school. It seems to me that my parents did not feel close to Urdu - my father was born in a Bhojpuri-speaking family and my mother in a Kreol-speaking family. Although my maternal grandfather read Urdu, he never spoke the language. So, unlike many Muslim families who have kept a link with Urdu, my family did not really do that. Maybe my parents felt we were Mauritians and that Urdu was not really 'our language'. My parents thus seem to have made a pragmatic choice - choosing, speaking, using the languages that they thought would be of educational value.
Comme bien d'autres personnes, la famille et l'école ont été les premiers facteurs de mon plurilinguisme.
La famille, pour les différentes langues créoles : le créole mauricien essentiellement, mais aussi, en intercompréhension, le créole seychellois par mon grand-père paternel puis le créole guadeloupéen par des membres de ma famille par alliance.
Comme j'ai fait toute ma scolarité et plus tard mes études dans un système français, je dirais que le français est presqu'une deuxième première langue ; alors que j'ai appris l'anglais comme une langue étrangère à la différence des Mauriciens qui ont fait leur scolarité dans un système anglophone. Dans ce système francophone, j'ai eu à apprendre aussi le latin et l'allemand ; des langues qui sont passées plus ou moins aux oubliettes comme je n'ai jamais eu l'occasion de les pratiquer en dehors de l'école.
La formation doctorale puis le milieu universitaire à Maurice m'ont amenée à développer et diversifier ce plurilinguisme acquis par la famille et l'école. Mes compétences en anglais se sont nécessairement développées avec la lecture de travaux scientifiques et l'activité professionnelle. Puis, l'intérêt pour le Mozambique, m'a incitée a suivre un cours d'initiation au portugais. Le portugais m'a conduite à l'intercompréhension, l'intercompréhension aux langues romanes et à un enthousiasme pour développer mes compétences plurilingues vers d'autres langues encore, dont les langues orientales, enfin !
L'apprentissage des langues en intercompréhension est fa-bu-leux. Je ne trouve pas d'autres mots !
My ability to speak/ use multiple languages is due to both my immediate and my extended family. My maternal grandfather's native language was Bengali. His family migrated to Mauritius from Bengal, India. My maternal grandmather's family were from Orissa, India. They both spoke Bhojpuri and Hindi at home. Bengali was restricted to only a few specific terms for e.g. the term 'dada' which in Bhojpuri refers to one's paternal grandfather is, in fact, used in Bengali to refer to one's elder brother. So, that's how my mother, for example, calls her elder brother. My paternal grandfather was a Hindu priest. So, he learnt Sanskrit and was fluent in it. My mother teaches Sanskrit and is also fluent in it.
My paternal grandparents are native Bhojpuri speakers. My father and his siblings transitioned from Bhojpuri to Kreol when they started going to school. When I was younger, my mother would speak to me in Hindi while my father opted for Kreol. My mother also introduced me to basic Sanskrit. I was exposed to French and English at school. I consider Kreol to be my native language, English to be the language that I am most comfortable in after Kreol, Hindi as my 3rd language, Bhojpuri as the language that I understand but rarely use and French as the language that I would prefer not to use! I rarely use Sanskrit (except for liturgical purposes).
In summary, I owe my multilingualism to both my family and the Mauritian education system.