A Mushroom Spring Roll, an Umbrella, and a Monkey: Chatting with Tibetan Monks in Mcleod Ganj

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Three young Tibetan monks and one woman sat in a semi-circle around me--warmly smiling and contorted into various positions to fill the small floor space between us. They had ushered me here--gesturing with their arms and saying, “Please, come, come” and I had sat--succumbing their welcoming smiles and eager energy. In the absence of language, they stared at me with great anticipation--as if I might magically light on fire or begin to distill great wisdom. Now what?

Minutes before, we had signed up to volunteer for the one-hour English conversation course, where newly-arrived Tibetan refugees practice English with native speakers. We had been instructed to go to the “library”--a small white light-filled room packed with about 25 Tibetan English students and 8 other volunteers. There was no discernable system in place. Instead, each volunteer just drifted to small groups or pairs of Tibetan English language students and began. No paperwork, no props, and no plan.

After we exchanged names, the next few minutes felt something like an awkward first date as I asked each of them getting-to-know-you questions. I learned that none of them have pets, no one celebrates a birthday, they have been in India for as little as 1 year, and they were all enrolled in the English Level One course during the day. One of the monks possesses a greater command of English and unwittingly dominates the conversation--often interpreting for the others between bouts of pressured broken speech. I tried to curtail this by directly soliciting responses from the others. I gesture to the quiet woman and say “And how about you? Do you have any brothers or sisters?“ Still, after several mildly-successful attempts, I revised my plan.

Drawing on my own brief experience as a Spanish language student in Guatemala, I decide that it was best to just play a game. Something that would build vocabulary. Something that would force participation. I am not sure why I thought of this, but the road trip game “I am going to my Grandma’s house” popped into my head. I decide to go with it. This is a memory game that requires participants to recall in order what the other players have just said. For example, it might go something like this “I am going to my Grandma’s house and I am going to bring an apple.” The next person would repeat this sentence and add an item, so something like “I am going to my Grandma’s house and I am going to bring an apple and a sandwich.” I think this game sometimes also follows the alphabet, so participants have to generate items in alphabetical order (I.e. apple, book, cookie, dog, etc…), but I am pretty hazy on the details and figure that just generating any vocabulary words was good enough.

At first, our game is deeply altered and hardly resembles the real game. The monks each begin with the phrase “I am going to my Grandma’s house” but then add several other details before selecting an item to bring. One monk tells an elaborate story about getting bitten by a dog after being attacked by a monkey en route to find fruit. I find myself nodding and--when I think he has finished--I say, “so…you are going to your Grandma’s house and you are going to bring fruit?” The monk nods enthusiastically. And it’s on to the next monk. After two rounds, they catch on to the game and we are all laughing wildly. I am amazed and tickled by their vocabulary. The heavy-set monk says that he is going to bring a mushroom spring roll (and I commend him on his vocabulary choice). The quiet women will bring an umbrella and the toothless monk will bring shoes. The talkative monk exclaims, “Oh, Gran ma need big house!” as he slaps his knee and laughs. We all join in and the items become down right silly. I add the term “popcorn” to the list and they seem to like this. Each repeats the words “pop” and “corn” several times--smiling widely at this inane term and relishing the mouth position required to say “pop.”

The game passes in this matter for nearly 20 minutes before it is time to go. We lumber up from our positions on the floor and exchange bows in goodbye. I decide that this might be a good time for a round of high fives and I pass out an enthusiastic high five to each student. I’ve found that high fives always go a long ways and I figure this situation is not an exception. They strike my open palm with joy and we are swept up in the mass exodus of the tiny library.

When I meet Pierce outside he proudly tells me that he spent the entire hour talking with a Tibetan medicine man. He informs me that “his Tibetan medicine man” (as we quickly term him) used the word “defamed” in conversation. Needless to say, the Tibetan medicine man was not in the English Level One course. Pierce asks me, “So what did you do with your person?” I am a little embarrassed to admit that I played “I’m going to my Grandma’s house” with my group of four, but I tell Pierce anyway. He laughs at this and we make our way down the dusty street.

I am feeling giddy from this interaction and need a chai to settle down. We sit at a chai stall for a few minutes and watch the people pass by. An elderly Tibetan woman solicits assistance from Pierce to get up from her perch on the bench next to us. Pierce, like a dutiful grandson, helps her to her feet and fetches her cane. Suddenly, I am disappointed that we didn’t get pictures with our language partners. We resolve to walk back to the language center and hope that perhaps “our” monks and medicine man will be lingering outside the center. When we return, they are--of course--no where in sight. After a few more minutes of searching, I find one of my monks--the heavy-set monk with facial hair--sitting near a tea stall with his friends. Pushing aside my fleeting shyness, I sheepishly approach him and ask for a picture. He is happy to take a picture and smiles for the camera. He offers me tea, but I am again feeling shy, so I beg off and instead, we head down the street to relish another chai and the memory of chatting with a Tibetan monk.

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Comments

[Mom and Dad]

ahh..games!!
I think your choice of a game shows your natural instincts leading to learning and fun. Great choice! Bet the medicine man was really interesting.

[J Bier]

What a fun adventure! I've got to compliment you on your ability to think on your feet, I never would've thought of the Grandma's house game. That's awsome :)

[Tammy]

the joy of
I have been teaching English conversation and basic grammar in McleodGanj since early December and will be here til mid-March... the joy of laughing and learning with and from these people will stay with me always and I hear some of the same sentiments in your post... Thank you for sharing your article with the world! http://sacredsojourns.blogspot.com