SFC: Language - A barrier for New Sikhs?

Waheguru ji ka khalsa waheguru ji ki fateh.


coming from an "oldie" ( just relative to you all...but deep inside i feel as young as anyone else out there...) of 56 years who is very very fluent in Both English and Punjabi, being a trained Misiionary Gyani from Punjab university and B.A Hons in English / Economics from Univesity of Malaya, I can see the need of the English speaking Sikhs whose first language is NOT Punjabi. My wholehearted support for this venture.

This is one "sacred cow" that we got to "slaughter" one of these days..the days of ONLY PUNJABI are going....over the horizon...Love of Punjabi/Gurmukhi will come sooner rather than later once a Sikh becomes Committed to Guru JI...insisting on Punjabi at the very beginning dulls the spirit and may drive people away.

jarnail Singh

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igAwnI jrnYl isMG iF`lo "ArSI" mlySIAw

Dear Nam Hari Kaur

Thanks for you r very interesting post and it seems that Akal Purakh has showered you with his grace and hope same for anybody looking for it

I

Quote:

have concerns myself about Sikhism or the lifestyle of some who are Sikhs - especially 3HO Sikhism here in America and have begun to watch for others to connect with to brainstorm with about our various issues. I do not want to be specific here in this post but perhaps in another one if there is interest.

[
you r are most welcome to disscuss the issues here on this forum


Jatinder Singh

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PrIdw kwl^ØI ijnI n rwivAw DaulI rwvY koie ]

Off-Topic:

Nam Hari Kaur ji,

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post and experiences detailed.

Waheguru.

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jau qau pRym Kylx kw cwau[[ isr Dir qlI glI myrI Awau[[ iequ mwrig pYru DrIjY [[ isr dIjY kwix n kIjY [[
..................................... gurU swihb (AMg 1412)

Nam Hari Kaur ji...

I liked listening to Kirtan and the Granthi speaking in punjabi as well, however, i would get much more use out of it if i knew what they were talking about. Yes, i agree that the Granthi should speak in both punjabi and english, and/or have a projection screen so people cans ee what is going on (another user suggested it). I agree that every Sikh should try to learn gurmakhi, and it should be encouraged for new Sikhs if they want to take the SGGS and Kirtan to the next level. For beginners like me though, i want to learn the fundementals and teachings of Sikhi, it should be available at a gurdwara - not just the interent. The internet is not always the safest and best place to learn.

The gurdwara should be a place of learning, not confusing. And it should eb the first place to look for info, not the interent.

Somewhere on forums, I had read that a few gurudwaras have these kind of equipments, which facilitate reading in English on screens, of what is being said by Granthi ji. Anyone who has seen that kind of gurudwara may shed more information abt this.

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jau qau pRym Kylx kw cwau[[ isr Dir qlI glI myrI Awau[[ iequ mwrig pYru DrIjY [[ isr dIjY kwix n kIjY [[
..................................... gurU swihb (AMg 1412)

Dear Arvind Ji - We have a laptop and a projector at our local Gurudwara in Connecticut. We have downloaded a software called "Gurbani Researcher" from "SikhiToTheMax.com". It is a wonderful software which lets you search any shabad from SGGS and prepare a powerpoint presentation which can be navigated easily to display the line of shabad being sung by ragis. The shabads have a line by line english translation displayed which makes it very easy for everyone in the sangat to understyand the meaning of the shabad.

You can download that software and try it out yourself.

Regards,

Baljeet veer,

Thanks for the reply

Khalsa_Starr, how about looking into this in more detail, and then proposing this at the local Gurudwara. Here, I assume there is a requirement of dedicated resource, who is going to look into the shabad at the site/presentation, so tht it cud appear on the projector. And yes, sikhitothemax.com is a site, I always get onto to look for meaning of Guru Sahib.

Thanks again Baljeet ji.

Best Regards.

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jau qau pRym Kylx kw cwau[[ isr Dir qlI glI myrI Awau[[ iequ mwrig pYru DrIjY [[ isr dIjY kwix n kIjY [[
..................................... gurU swihb (AMg 1412)

I thought sikhitothemax.com closed ages ago? It doesn't appear to be working for me..

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I have the software on a CD. I will see if I can locatethe CD and upload the software here.

Regards

CC, In between, the site goes down. Even today morning, it was reported down.

Aman Veer, may be you need to tell some location to Baljeet ji, where he could upload the software (or any file to be uploaded by anyone), if needed.

Regards.

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jau qau pRym Kylx kw cwau[[ isr Dir qlI glI myrI Awau[[ iequ mwrig pYru DrIjY [[ isr dIjY kwix n kIjY [[
..................................... gurU swihb (AMg 1412)