Read Me First

An Explanatory Note About the Documents and Their Translations

Beerelli Seshi, M.D.
BSeshi@multilanguaging.org
BSeshi@outlook.com

The documents included here, along with their translations, are:
DOC1 – Founder and President’s Message
DOC2 – Content, Syllabus and Curriculum
DOC3 – Biographies
DOC4 – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and Answers, Read Me First and Read Me Last—What Next?

Dr. Seshi wrote these documents originally in English.
They have been translated into the four languages Telugu, Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit by native professionals/experts.

Translations of the project documents are presented in three different ways:

i) Continuous single-language or stand-alone format (DOCs 1-4):

• These are text files prepared using MS Word.
• They consist of text of a single target-language translation without providing the original/source language (English) or transliteration of the target language.
• For every original document in English, there is a separate translated document for Telugu, Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit.

ii) Sentence-by-sentence (triplet) format (DOCs 1-4):

• These are also text files prepared using MS Word.
• For every original document in English, there is a separate translated document for Telugu, Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit.
• However, they are arranged sentence by sentence and provide the original/source language (English) and transliteration of the target language.
• A document for Sanskrit, for example, contains:
  • Original sentence in English.
  • A Sanskrit translation in Devanagari script.
  • Rendering of the Sanskrit sentence in the Latin alphabet.
• Each triplet is separated by a single-space line; ends of paragraphs are indicated by the paragraph symbol, ¶.

iii) Word-by-word format using spreadsheets (DOCs 1, 2 and 4):

• Unlike the above, these are spreadsheet files prepared using MS Excel.
• For every original document, there is only a single document containing the original language, word-by-word translations of all four translated languages in their respective scripts and the four corresponding transliterations in the Latin alphabet.
• The document is arranged as in the sentence-by-sentence translation.
• Thus, there are nine entries/rows on a spreadsheet for each sentence, followed by the insertion of a blank row.

It is possible that for the same word in one language (for example, for "water" in English) there may be two equally appropriate words in another language ("jal" and "udaka" in Sanskrit, in this case).
Similarly, for a word like "hoped" in English, there may be two equally appropriate expressions in Urdu ("tawaqqo ki jati" and "umeed ki jati").
Correspondingly, for a word like "providence" in English there may be two equally suitable words in Telugu ("bhagavanthudu" and "devudu") and in Hindi ("ishwar" and "bhagavaan").
The same issue would arise if translation were to be done from one of these languages into English—for example, "hoped" has several appropriate synonyms, like "wished," "longed" and "desired."
Keeping this in mind, care has been taken and cross-checking has been done to maintain consistency of translation according to the context among all three formats―for a given word in each sentence in each language.
That some words have several meanings will be discussed in the class.

There exist many common words or roots among some or all of these languages (Telugu, Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit), but this is not evident in writing because of their different scripts.
The purpose of the use of transliteration is to:

1. Reveal their underlying relationships.
2. Enable even individuals who are unfamiliar with these scripts to experience a sense of the target language and form a better idea of the proposed comparative language-learning method.
3. Ultimately reach the widest possible readership for this proposal on the web so it can be evaluated to its fullest extent.

When considering class textbook lessons as part of the "Our Languages" subject:

1. There will be no need for transliterations because students should have learned the respective scripts in preschool or nursery school.
2. The class book can follow a five-sentence-by-five-sentence format or a full lesson in English followed by a full lesson in Telugu, Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit, respectively.
3. However, the word-by-word format, to be called "Wordbook," necessarily follows a five-sentence-by-five-sentence format because its purpose is to enable the student to inspect side by side, word by word, and sentence by sentence across five languages.

It should be further realized that unlike class textbook lessons, DOCs 1-4 are necessarily advanced documents meant mainly for parents, educators, policy decision makers and interested citizens.

Long sentences can become too unwieldy to read in the spreadsheet Wordbook format.
Also, one is not expected to go to a Wordbook to look up the word-by-word translation for a word obvious within the standard translation (five-sentence format or full lesson format).
Nonetheless, these documents are being productively utilized as examples not only to illustrate the essential underlying concepts of the proposal but also to investigate the limits of the new language learning system and to meticulously document them as they are observed.
It is hoped that these insights would come in handy while devising the class textbook lessons for the students, where small, simple sentences may be the norm, but that depends on the level of the class in question.
It is safe to say that it is a complex and important project, and that there is going to be much to learn and develop from the forthcoming feedback once its implementation begins.