Do You Mind Not Knowing What is Going On?

Show card for my Art in India exhibition.

A Nepali Indian friend asked if it bothers me ”when people just speak in Hindi?” She continued, “I think it would drive me nuts if everyone around me was talking and I couldn’t understand.” This is a good question…

The simple answer is “no, it has not bothered me yet.” I really enjoy observing and using these times to learn and listen. Every time I have wanted to understand more or need clarification I always ask.

So why does it not bother me? Haha probably because I am a bit socially awkward to begin with. I don’t mind observing nor do I mind that isolated feeling while in a large group, in fact I really enjoy it. I love people but am fairly introverted. That “alone in a crowd feel” can be incredibly nice…though I don’t really feel alone with my Indian friends. Most of the time I can pick up enough….though the times I am lost are nice too. Sometimes I just don’t talk even when I do know what’s going on. I suppose it’s less awkward to have the language “barrier” as an excuse.

The most important reason I don’t mind is the answer to the question “what is the best way to learn a language?” To go to the country…unfortunately I tend to do things backwards. I go to the country then a month after returning home decide to commit to learning the language. Spending time with people speaking the language you are trying to learn is really the only way to pick up a language…

The other friend in the car joined in and stated “they don’t do it on purpose, it’s just habit.” We continued the discussion for a bit longer (and by we I mean I continued to ponder over the question in my head…I will share my ponderings in future posts.)

I nodded in agreement as we continued to sing along to Bollywood music and drove off.

Hindi Vocabulary Lists

Assorted art from the #TheLilyPadProject

Why recreate the wheel...here are 13 great Hindi word lists to take a look at.

These lists can be used in several ways. You can memorize them or take each word and write a sentence (which I find quite helpful).

1. My First Phrases from Hindi for Christmas

2. Anything Anil Mohato is great! This is one of his vocabulary videos (video below).

3. Common verb list (short but could be learned in a week)

4. Days of the week and directions from linguanaut.com

5. Numbers  from linguanaut.com

6. Adjectives from linguanaut.com

7. Vocabulary from linguanaut.com

8. Survival Terms from linguanaut.com

9. Grammar Tense Practice from Hindi for Christmas

10. Urdu lists from linguanaut.com

11. Hindi Words that come from Arabic from Namaste-America

12. Yet another list of Arabic words in Hindi from Baheyeldin

13. A third Arabic, Urdu/Hindi, Punjabi word list from PakPassion.net

Enjoy the Journey

Relax and enjoy the ride...

Seriously this is one of the most significant factors I've noticed making a positive impact on my ability to recall words and think in a language.

When I get tired and really begin to relax is when foreign languages really flow. I remember late nights playing Uno and between 1pm and 4 I understood wayyy more Hindi than normal.

In Brazil mornings were rough but by the time i sat down to dinner with the families I was able to converse quite nicely.

Enjoying the process has helped me to relax. I'm not perfect or even good, but I am much farther than I was a year ago and in 5 years I will be significantly farther than I am now.

I am where I am and that is a beautiful spot to be.

How did I study Hindi? Months 12 - 15ish

The Wyoming Cricket Team!!! 

Well I am taking a short sabbatical from my Hindi learning. June - August.

I will spend this time refreshing Spanish and studying Portuguese.

I plan to use the same first 3 month process that I did for Hindi except will be in Brazil and possibly Argentina :) and I will be much farther ahead when I start and I will have a better grasp on how I learn best...

The first 15 days will be review of Spanish as well as studying Portuguese basics.

The 3rd week will mostly be Portuguese as will the next month and 3 weeks. There is a good chance I will come out of this with decent Portunol. Which is basically a mix of the two (and arguably not a real language, just the reality of what happens when you speak Spanish and end up in Brazil.

 

Going into this I can read, write and speak Spanish (at about B1/B2 level, which is certainly higher than my Hindi) I can't understand Spanish much anymore, but I think this will come back fast. I can also read Portuguese.

I am still debating about whether I want to refresh my Hindi a bit while traveling just so I don't loose all my Hindi or if I should just go 100% into Portuguese...I'm leaning towards taking an actual break and giving my brain a rest and just focusing on easier languages (No matter what Indians tell me Hindi is hard for me and Spanish and Portuguese are much easier for me).

By the time you are reading this I will have already been in Brazil for a month (Be sure to check out my new blog FeliciaFollumSharingLife.blogspo.com, where I will post everything from Brazil) :p See you when I return :) and I will hopefully have some answers to all the questions below (and more likely on FB and YT)...

How did I study Hindi? Months 8ish - 12

After my frustrating spell of not being able to understand anything that was going on around me to the extent that I wanted, which actually didn't bother me for a long time. You can read more about that initial phase in my post, Do You Mind Not Knowing What is Going On?

Henna
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I began to focus on general ideas and let go a bit. I used Hindi a bit more and often times could follow conversations depending on topic. 

My comprehension varied (and still does) based on many things including but not limited to time of day (the loopy exhausted phase right before I should go to bed actually is by far the best), a glass of wine often helps as well, and topic (I understand making food plans, playing cricket, and surprisingly I catch more in political conversations than expected but not pro cricket conversations) etc....

There are several types of people currently in my Hindi learning journey...

People I speak nearly entirely in Urdu with

People I randomly speak Hindi phrases with and they randomly throw in easy to understand phrases. This is where a couple of my closer girl friends are.

People who think I know nothing and over explain everything.

People who are always curious if I know what's going on. I especially have fun when I get to say yes to these people.

People who encourage others to speak in Hindi to me

People who are critical and correct me a lot or tell me just to speak English because it is easier

People who make me speak Hindi

People who simplify their words and speak slowly and make me speak only in Hindi

And people who forget I don't really speak Hindi and just speak it anyways (which are my favorite) and then are shocked when I understand or reply...

I think that having all of these people groups is an excellent way to learn and I would like to thank you all!

Bahut dhanyavaad dosten!!! 

How did I study Hindi? Moths 6 - 8 ish plateau

With some friends celebrating Holi!!!
Holi hai!! Holi hai!!

Well, I spent most of these months being frustrated that I couldn't understand as much as I wanted, 

while simultaneously trying too hard to pick up on every individual word, 

having to ask everyone to repeat what they had said or explain, 

meanwhile I awkwardly and honestly didn't know if I had understood what had been said previously (and I still don't always know if I'm actually understanding or not)
but I had to respond every time someone asked if I had understood...

UGH this was a frustrating time in the process.

Part of me feels this time was wasted but I know it wasn't I just don't know what I learned yet...Maybe patience or maybe how to not spend time when learning a language. Either way I made some great friends and I enjoyed nearly every moment of it.

How did I study Hindi? Months 4 - 6

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For the 4th - 6th month I kept to my daily schedule with more focus on the script...since by the end of 6 months I wanted to be reading.

I used TenguGo a lot for 2 weeks then continued to review and work on conjuncts, which I still need to keep working on.

This time period was less rigid and I spent time making basic sentences in my head.

I also used the audio bible to attempt to follow along. Which I learned was really difficult. It is much harder to follow along than actually read. I have since learned that this is because you actually learn a picture of a word and see the picture rather than the letters. Now there are a few words I can do this with in Hindi but not many. This is why we can R3AD TH1S. We have a general picture of the words "READ" and "THIS" and our brain doesn't really check each letter. Anyways...you can read more about my journey learning to read in "I Can Read Hindi!"

How did I study Hindi? Months 1-4

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How did I study?

For the first 3 - 4 months I had a strict schedule where I checked off my daily assignments. My goal was to become familiar with 30 words a day and learn 10 vocab vocab words and 5 phrases.

I had a flashcard each day.

When I had a rigid language learning schedule I had a you tube culture day or a movie day worked into every week ;) just to switch things up and keep it fun.

You can see my Never Ending Hindi Resource List to see more of the details.
 

What Does English Sound Like to Non-English Speakers?

I found this video many years ago and thought it was really fascinating.

Over the past few months I have been around many languages. Many of these languages I don' t understand a word of. Others I can pick up one or two words, or even a phrase.

Stumbling upon this video after being exposed to all these languages was certainly a new experience. It almost feels normal to listen to as I am, in a way, used to hearing sounds and even associating meaning with the sounds, but when strung together these sounds become gibberish.

What do you think? Do you like the sound of English? Is this an accurate depiction of the language?