A World Apart, A World Together
/It is almost certain that your life and the life of SIL LEAD staff member Kuchhat Narayan Chaudhary have been very, very different.
You likely did not grow up in a small farming family in Gobardiha village in the Dang district of Nepal, and you probably never had to help with plowing and grass cutting after school, or with taking the family’s sheep and buffalo out to graze.
While you were clearly given a good education (You can read! Hooray!), it is unlikely that you were so poor that you did not have enough notebooks and reading materials, and therefore had to practice your writing using a stick in the sand. You were never seen as a weak student as a result and punished (corporeally) very frequently.
But like Kuchhat, you may have had a parent who valued education. Although Kuchhat’s father was illiterate, he spoke often of the power of education and the importance of science. And although Kuchhat’s parents needed help on the farm (which was their only source of income), they thought it more important to send their children to school—so important that they sometimes did without food as a result.
Kuchhat listened with rapt attention as his father told stories from Ramayan and Mahabharat—epic literature that his father had learned from a Hindu monk who had come to his village. That monk had taught Kuchhat’s father Ayurvedic wisdom, and about the value of education and science. All of this inspired Kuchhat to do better—to one day write books of his own. So he worked hard in school and at home. He read and re-read the words on calendars and cast-off newspapers. His grades improved, and although his parents were unable to pay his school fees, Kuchhat’s school principal selected him for a scholarship that allowed him to continue on to secondary education—where he excelled.
With the support of a German professor, Dr. Matthias Gruendel, Kuchhat earned a Master’s degree. In his thesis, he outlined a better, continuous assessment system for students—a system that would make it easier for underprivileged students like himself to be evaluated not for what they have, but for who they are. He went on to work for UNICEF, USAID, the Max Planck Research Institute, and most recently SIL LEAD.
Kuchhat has lived a life different from yours, but in many ways he is just like you. He has a family—a wife and daughter—who he cares about deeply. He wants to make a difference in the world through meaningful work.
Kuchhat highly values his culture, as you likely value yours. He believes that every language is a culture, and that each culture has indigenous knowledge that ought to be valued and preserved. Not merely as some sort of historical artifact. Rather, he believes that the culture of a place is directly or indirectly linked with its ecosystems and that local language, therefore, helps to preserve and protect the local environment.
Kuchhat has traveled extensively in his native Nepal, and speaks with affection of the natural diversity. He points out that Nepal has over a hundred and twenty languages (that’s a lot of cultural knowledge!) and that a lack of mother tongue education is causing some of these languages to go extinct. He believes that the fight to preserve indigenous languages is a fight to preserve the biodiversity and natural beauty of Nepal. There are words in his own Tharu language to describe the seasons, clouds, stars, and rain. There are words for architecture, plants, insects, and animals. These words are going extinct, and Kuchhat believes that a threat to those words is a threat to what they describe.
Kuchhat credits SIL LEAD for his enthusiasm for language, and admits that his prior neglect of language has cost him opportunities in the past. With SIL LEAD, he hopes to help reduce the disparity of learning that currently exists between first language Nepali and second language Nepali students. To sustainably preserve all mother tongues (and, by implication, their ingrained cultural wisdom), Kuchhat argues, there need to be widespread changes to the language policies of his country.
Working with SIL LEAD has given Kuchhat a “golden chance” to focus on early grade reading and has allowed him to contribute some of his ideas for the preservation of the indigenous languages of Nepal to the government education system.
He is grateful for this opportunity, working with what he calls some of the world’s top language experts to protect indigenous languages through education. Kuchhat has the greatest respect for all the SIL LEAD staff with whom he’s interacted. He feels that they have supported him and taught him a great deal about developing student reading materials and teacher guides based on the best critical pedagogy.
While Kuchhat may have had a very different childhood from you, he lives in the same world. His concerns are likely yours as well, and his hopes, if realized, would make your world a better place.
We’re grateful you’ve taken the time to hear Kuchhat’s story, and encourage you to join him and SIL LEAD as we fight for our shared future through the preservation of languages, and the cultural—and even environmental—wisdom they contain.
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Kuchhat would like to offer his heartfelt thanks to: Dr. Paul Frank, Dr. Agatha J. van Ginkel, Dr. Joy Peyton, Mr. Jeff, Mr. Daniel, Mr. Norbert, Mr. Christof, Mr. Rajib Jones and all the others with whom he has worked on early grade reading.