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Namaskar! Welcome to a new episode of Talk Show with Dinesh.
In the last episode, I had interviewed resettled Bhutanese senior couple and talked about their life style.
In this episode, my guest will be talking about her experiences of learning English in Australia.
She is sharing her difficult and some funny experiences she had faced due to the language barrier.
My today's guest had no any idea about English language before coming to Australia.
But, she is learning English with new hopes and energy.
Within 4 -5 years time in Australia, she had learnt a lot.
She can be an inspiration to many of us who are struggling to learn English as a second language.
Now, let's watch and hear her experiences.
Namaskar! Welcome to the show. How are you doing?
Namaskar! Thank you. Yea, I am doing good.
Q. How is your life going on in Australia?
Life in Australia is great. I am living a very happy life here.
I am learning a new language; English. I am enjoying it. I have learned many new words in English.
Now I know how to greet people in English, when we meet them or before any conversation.
I feel happy to learn English but I sometime feel that I could have learned more if I would have came earlier.
Q. That means, you have started learning English only after resettling in Australia?
A. Yea, I was completely unaware about English language before coming here.
...I have started learning English language only after arriving here.....
I was taken to some English classes and they taught me how to write my name in English and other few words..
...Now I can write my name in English
How did you feel when you first arrived in Australia leaving the refugee camp?
At the beginning, I felt bad because of leaving all my relatives and neighbours, I felt that I am not meeting
...any of them in my life time again. I was only thinking when can I return back to meet them.
But now I am feeling happy because my two sons' families are here.
..My daughter in law, grandson, grand daughter, we live together.
It's not similar to Nepal as we don't have lot many relatives here but the life here is much better.
In refugee camp, it was a very tough life. collecting firewood, charcoal under the sun every time.it was tough
..No matter, whether it was raining or sunny, carrying rice from distribution center...It was very hard time.....
..here, I am living far better and happy life.
Q. How do you normally spend your time?
Being with grandson and granddaughter....it's very easy for me to spend time with them.
Q. As you said earlier, you're learning English here, I would like to listen what you have learnt..
Q. If you want to buy a product from a shop, how do you ask the price of it?
A. I will say "How much?" I can understand when they tell it's price.
It's not difficult here, because all the weight and prices of all products are already tagged.
Here, I find very easy to do shopping even if you don't know English language.
Q. That means, you feel more easy doing shopping here in comparison to Nepal?
A. Yea, I became more smart doing shopping...
Q. Okay, You now can go and buy products of your choice, am I right?
A. Yes, I can buy the products that I want to buy. I am confident enough to do that.
Q. That's good. Okay can you share what else you had learnt in English?
A. I had learned the names of vegetables, and few other basic about our day to day activities...
....I have learned new words like; potato, vegetables, cooking, eating, chilli, hungry, angry.......
Q. ha ha.. you have learned so many things in short time....that's great.
A. yea..also I didn't know what meat means? I am vegetarian so once I was asked whether ....
... I will eat meat or not? I said yea I will eat meat. They brought meat for me and I was shocked. Then I realized what meat means in our language....
Not only that, I also learnt that mutton, pork, chicken ...these all means meat products.
Q. Oh yea..okay that means, no one can confuse you with these meat things any more...
A. Yea, Now I will not get confused like before.
A. I also learnt other new words like; onion, garlic, ginger, carrot, radish etc...
Q. How did you manage to learn these new words?
A. I went to English classes and learnt from my teacher.
Q. OKay, I got it. You went to English classes...Am I right?
A. Yes, I went. I learnt A B C D ... up to Z and also I can write my name in English.
Q. That's great to hear that you can write your name in English.
A. Yea, now I can write my name in English.
In Nepal, you didn't know how to write A, B , C D......Your name and English words..
I knew nothing. My life was spent just by cooking food, collecting firewood, and other house works.
Q. Do you feel like you could do more if you had came in Austria earlier?
I feel like, I would be able to do a good job here and also I could drive and do many things...
..Still I have hopes, that I can learn English and do more things...
Q. That means, you still have energy and hope of learning driving here?
A. I have the energy and willingness but I don't have English language skill required for driving..
Q. I think that, you are learning English so fast despite the fact that learning new language is hard...
...and also considering your age, you are doing great.
A. Yea...I am still learning. Other things I know are: Curd,  yogurt, butter, brother, sister, grandmother, grandfather,
daughter, father, mother etc...
..Grandson, Grand daughter....
Also, the way they speak is very different.
Also daughter-in-law etc.. I also listened differently
A. Yea, the word is same but the way they pronounced is different.
A. Yea, we their way of speaking is very different.
...The way they pronounce the word is very different to us.
Though we  learn English words, but it's hard to pronounce as they do...
A.Yea you seem so confident in learning English and you have knowledge about their way or pronunciation too
Yea..How do people greet and talk to you when they meet you on the way..?
A. They say "How are you doing?" And I reply saying " I am good, thank you"
A. Also I knew that I have to say " I am lost" if I get confused to get my way to home.
Once, I was lost in Melbourne City while I was going to my English Class.
Me and My friend were lost and we were so afraid because we had no idea about the place.
I went to one of the staff and said we are lost. She directed us to catch one of the bus....
Then we got off at Glenroy Station and finally we reached our destination.
Q. Oh, you did great by asking. What did you say when she asked  your name?
A. I said "My name is Hira.."
Q. That means, you had learnt to say "Your Name" and "I am lost" at very beginning of your arrival.       A. Yes.
Q. Okay, you were taught at the beginning to say your name and to say "I am lost" if  you get lost.
Yes, they taught such basic things at the beginning.
They had taught many new things to deal with difficult situation if arises..
It helped me to get my way back to my school. Otherwise I would be in a great problem.
It would be a nightmare if we didn't know what to do when we get lost.
Q. Do you know how to operate mobile? A. No, I don't know to operate but I can speak if someone dials for me.
Q. Are you learning to operate phone? A. Yes, but due to my eye problem it's tough to learn.
Q. Okay let's talk about your home? After many years of life in Refugee camp, you are living in your own home...
...How do you feel to be in your own home?
A. I feel very happy to live in our own house after long time.
Here is no any tension of rains, snakes etc like in refugee camp.
Q. Before coming here, How people used to talk about Australia life?
A. People used to say that, our life in Australia will be as a refugee and we won't get citizenship also..
But, I didn't believe them. I just replied them that people are living there so it shouldn't be bad for only us.
Q. Now you got citizenship? A. No, not yet, but we had applied for citizenship.
Q. That means, you are finding Australia better than you used to listen about it in Refugee camp. A. Yes
Q. Did you ever get afraid of your life in Australia before coming here?
No really. But in first few months, I got frustrated because of new language and transportation issues
But Now I can go around my house and visit my neighbors  on my own.
Q. That means, you feel more happy and satisfied here in comparison to your life in Refugee camp.
Yes, I am very happy, hopeful and energetic despite of my age. I am satisfied with everything  here.
Q. Are you still interested in learning English? A. Yes I do.
Q. How do you feel when your grand children speak English with you?
Yea, they speak English but they speak very differently. It's hard to understand them.
I sometime ask them to speak clearly.
Q. Are you learning English from your Grand Children? A. No, not yet. But I will learn from them in future.
Lastly, What do you suggest to many Bhutanese who are still in Camp and not accepting the resettlement process
..due to many bad rumors about the life in Australia. What do you think?
No, all the bad things we heard were false. Nothing is bad here as we used to listen in camp.
Till now, everything is good. That's all I can say because we don't know what will happen in future.
Q. What ever we used to listen are just a rumor and it is completely wrong.
A. People used to say that we may not be getting enough to eat, place to live and many bad things but..
Here we are living in our own house, we have our own car....we are living a happy life here.
Here we have freedom to follow our culture and traditions. We do go to our temples...
Q. To sum up, you are very happy to live in Australia. A. Yes I am very happy here.
Okay, thank you for your time and sharing your experiences with us. A. Welcome.
This is all we had prepared for this episode.
Our objective is to promote our culture, tradition, lifestyle . We hope you all will support us to meet our mission.
Please give us your feedback and suggestions to improve us.
I will see you all in another episode with some other topics.
I am signing off from this episode. Thank you. Bye Bye, NAMASKAR!
