Our Interview with Raul Sethi

 – Good afternoon Raul. Nice to meet you here in our newspaper editorial. As we already know February 21st was The Armenian Language Day and you were one of the activists who took part in the event. What did you experience and what emotions or impressions did you have?

– Hello and thank you for the opportunity to express my thoughts and feelings. 

Yes, it was as you say “hayoc lezvi or” and it’s a big day for Armenia and for us and being a foreigner I got the opportunity to be a part of it and to be in Oshakan village. The Minister of RA Tigran Sargsyan and a lot of other important people were also there to acknowledge the big event.

 I speak Armenian a bit and I was there to celebrate it and to present Armenians with the poem that I created myself. It was devoted to Armenia. I also had a speech to give and I am really very proud that I had the chance to be as one of Armenians that day. That’s how I got involved in this beautiful and interesting event. It was a very nice experience.

– And how did you learn about the event, and in general where do you have the information about the comming events from or where do you get help from?

– Well, the department of Armenian Language in Yerevan State Medical University helped us a lot and organized our participation in that very event. That’s how I got involved. But we also have International Student Parliament and I am the member of that Parliament and sometimes I get the information from there or very often the Dean’s office informs us about the events and as they know I speak Armenian, they tell me to contact the department.

– Ok Raul. What about the emotional part? What feelings did you have and what was the utmost effect that you got?

– I am in the nation called Armenians. And it's a completely different thing for me, different people, different culture, different traditions and different language. I belong to India. And when I came here one of the most important things for me was to be able to communicate with people. Of course people helped me a lot in the University in the streets but then I got the idea: how nice and easy it would be to communicate and to have the relations if I learned the language… So slowly and steadily I started learning Armenian, being very attentive during my Armenian classes and my armenian friends also helped me a lot. And it was really very interesting how I started to speak and I got a lot of remarks from Armenians and how people reacted when I used to speak in the streets. And it gave me an immense pleasure to be in different nation and to be able to speak their language. And it was high time for me to be in Oshakan. And of course it's a big deal to me to have a chance to meet the Prime Minister of the country, I was so lucky. And I am really thankful to the University to have the opportunity to be the part of such great event. And I feel I am respected in this country, people love me and I am really happy. It's a big deal. And we try to represent ourselves as real Indians, and to be good ambassadors of our country and we really get a warm welcome from you and the poem that I wrote in the last edition is about it, about us.

– As you speak both Armenian and Indian languages so well, have you noticed any similarities or better to say have you found any similarities in Armenian and Indian cultures?

– Oh yeah, yeah. Very nice question. I know that Indo-European languages have the same tree from Sanskrit. So Hindi and Armenian are actually from the same tree and thus there are a lot of similar words and it really helps us and you know Indians learn Armenian quickly though I must admit Armenian Language is difficult. And also I would like to add that the language I speak is not the literary Armenian, it’s street language, the real, pure Armenian is quite difficult but very nice. But still I am proud that I can communicate and actually I am learning every day. Your learning process stops when you die.

– Raul I wonder if you ever thought of organizing Indian Culture day for us, for Armenian students, just to get to know India better.

– Oh this is a nice idea, we should think about that. Right now we are planning a debat in 3 languages, we are talking to the members of Parliament, and the next idea will be the one you suggested.

– OK Raul I am thankful to you for sharing your experience and your thoughts and our best wishes for you further success in your studies and personal life.

– It's a pleasure for me. Thank you.

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