For the past three months I have been attempting to learn Hindi. As with many things, I am not naturally gifted at Hindi or learning languages, my one strength is I have a lot of perseverance! Which is just as well when it comes to learning Hindi which I actually secretly love.
A few years ago I attempted to learn Spanish, I had done it badly at school, mainly due to the rest of the class spending the lesson constantly messing around! I was enjoying learning Spanish but there wasn't the same need as there is with Hindi. Some of the people I interact with on a daily basis only speak Hindi and a fraction of English so I have to speak Hindi which is what fascinates me. I'm a Gemini, I love to communicate and I try to solve everything with communication in one form or another, so I love the fact that I am conveying a message and that by speaking in my broken Hindi I am conversing with someone I wouldn't be able to otherwise.
It makes me smile when I come out with some broken sentence in Hindi and the person responds. I'm like, wow! They understand me! The hate relationship comes in because the language is mushkil....hard! There are days where I feel like I make progress with it and my vocabulary is improving and I probably know around 200 words in Hindi but my sentences leave a lot to be desired! I tend to get by with a mixture of English and a couple of words of Hindi chucked in there. With the exception of one Uber journey I took, whereby when the driver heard me speak a fraction of Hindi he felt this was a perfect opportunity to converse with me for twenty minutes in Hindi! Whilst perhaps not focusing too much on the road either! Despite me informing him I knew 'toda Hindi' (little Hindi) this didn't seem to matter to him and he persevered with 'But madam Apka.....for the next twenty minutes. Firstly it was actually very good of him as we did have a conversation and I actually understood most of what he was saying purely from understanding just a few words and bless him, more importantly he understood what I was saying back to him.
The ones who are probably the most forgiving of my Hindi are the children at school who despite their being a huge language barrier, speak in short sentences for me and try hard to understand me. There are a few children who understand me better than others and so they end up being my translators! I have a long way to go when it comes to learning Hindi but working with the children and being surrounded by it helps a lot, certainly for the listening part.
My speaking of Hindi though, well that involves mashing Hindi and English together in the most interesting sentences! So although I love learning Hindi because it opens up a new way of communicating, I also hate it because it's taking too long for me and often when I try to construct my sentence I still have it wrong. The world loves a trier! Fortunately so do my Hindi teachers who I see twice a week, who are patient with me and determined to teach me despite me forgetting things from week to week!
A chunk of my weekend usually involves Hindi practice and making these little flash cards that you can see here! Thank goodness for breakfast cereal boxes.....they make great flashcards!
Then it's going through my books and reading something from a previous class that I realise I hadn't taken in at the time.
I'm hoping that by the end of the year, along with being able to make amazing roti's that are soft and puff, I will be semi fluent in Hindi and be able to hold a good conversation together and understand most of what people say. Who knows if i'm being over ambitious.....but then I have just mastered how to make soft roti's, thanks to my friend, who speaks almost no English, so there is hope;-)
A few years ago I attempted to learn Spanish, I had done it badly at school, mainly due to the rest of the class spending the lesson constantly messing around! I was enjoying learning Spanish but there wasn't the same need as there is with Hindi. Some of the people I interact with on a daily basis only speak Hindi and a fraction of English so I have to speak Hindi which is what fascinates me. I'm a Gemini, I love to communicate and I try to solve everything with communication in one form or another, so I love the fact that I am conveying a message and that by speaking in my broken Hindi I am conversing with someone I wouldn't be able to otherwise.
It makes me smile when I come out with some broken sentence in Hindi and the person responds. I'm like, wow! They understand me! The hate relationship comes in because the language is mushkil....hard! There are days where I feel like I make progress with it and my vocabulary is improving and I probably know around 200 words in Hindi but my sentences leave a lot to be desired! I tend to get by with a mixture of English and a couple of words of Hindi chucked in there. With the exception of one Uber journey I took, whereby when the driver heard me speak a fraction of Hindi he felt this was a perfect opportunity to converse with me for twenty minutes in Hindi! Whilst perhaps not focusing too much on the road either! Despite me informing him I knew 'toda Hindi' (little Hindi) this didn't seem to matter to him and he persevered with 'But madam Apka.....for the next twenty minutes. Firstly it was actually very good of him as we did have a conversation and I actually understood most of what he was saying purely from understanding just a few words and bless him, more importantly he understood what I was saying back to him.
The ones who are probably the most forgiving of my Hindi are the children at school who despite their being a huge language barrier, speak in short sentences for me and try hard to understand me. There are a few children who understand me better than others and so they end up being my translators! I have a long way to go when it comes to learning Hindi but working with the children and being surrounded by it helps a lot, certainly for the listening part.
My speaking of Hindi though, well that involves mashing Hindi and English together in the most interesting sentences! So although I love learning Hindi because it opens up a new way of communicating, I also hate it because it's taking too long for me and often when I try to construct my sentence I still have it wrong. The world loves a trier! Fortunately so do my Hindi teachers who I see twice a week, who are patient with me and determined to teach me despite me forgetting things from week to week!
A chunk of my weekend usually involves Hindi practice and making these little flash cards that you can see here! Thank goodness for breakfast cereal boxes.....they make great flashcards!
Then it's going through my books and reading something from a previous class that I realise I hadn't taken in at the time.
I'm hoping that by the end of the year, along with being able to make amazing roti's that are soft and puff, I will be semi fluent in Hindi and be able to hold a good conversation together and understand most of what people say. Who knows if i'm being over ambitious.....but then I have just mastered how to make soft roti's, thanks to my friend, who speaks almost no English, so there is hope;-)
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