Why the Bible?

As I said in the first post, I wanted a Hindi/English Bible for Christmas last year.

Why the Bible?

Reading the New Testament in Spanish in high school was really enjoyable and challenging but I love that it is a book that is translated into so many languages. The Bible has been translated into over 2,000 languages, making it the most widely translated book there is (The Quran is in over 700 coming in at #2) . I like that it is a book that so many people from all over the world can and have read...Here are some more reasons...

I am a Christian, so the Bible is where my religious beliefs come from.

I was both a religious studies and philosophy minor in college (well actually both were areas of emphasis in my second major. Long story, you can watch my YT video if you want more on that)

The Bible consists of many types of writing. It has proverbs, short stories, history and lists.

I suppose these are just a few of the reasons I picked being able to read the Bible as my Hindi goal. Though I do read the Bible in Hindi and Portuguese on Regular basis, I have a long ways to go...

The water lily painting was a part of my exhibition East Meets West which was a response to my trip to India. My art is a major reason for my love of language. Check out my art blog for more art. 

Lily Pads and Lots,
from The Lily Pad Project
Watercolor
Aprox 11x15
$220

Call for Hindi Writing Topics

Dhokra Clay Base...West Bengal, India. More on my Art Blog.

What do you want me to practice writing about in Hindi?

Pehele, please send me some easy topics so I can practice (vocab, tenses, verbs etc). My goal is to write about a page every week this month (though I'm not making any promises to post them to this blog in a timely manner, magar main khoshish karongi). If it goes well I will continue through March.

Dusra, I would also be up for suggestions for online kids books in Hindi to read.

Tesra, anyone willing to proofread, let me know...

haha they might be rough but I'll include the English of what I'm trying to say which should make it a bit easier.

Phir se dhanyavaad doston! 

You can find me on Facebook or Twitter. If you want to read more about my India inspired artwork check out my other Art Blog.

Hindi Bible for Christmas

Well I have officially received my Hindi Bible for Christmas!!!

I had my husband pick a verse to hear in Hindi.

He picked the common 2 Corinthians 5:17 (If you are unfamiliar with the Bible and want to read the Hindi in the photo, look for the number 17. It is the text following that which I'm talking bout.)

"Therefore if anyone is is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

I am proud to say that I was able to read through the verse, unsure about several words. 

"ma - si - ha," I was stuck on this new word for a good amount of time. 

As I read, my husband pointed out that I should take some time and listen to what I was saying with a couple of the words as I sounded out.

"ma - si - ha" I repeated....oh, Messiah! That's cool.

It was neat that he was able to understand some of the words even though I was oblivious to the sounds I was making.

Conquering the New Testament is a beast I am ready and (well not so much ready as I am) excited to take on this new task of learning Hindi while reading.

Never-Ending Hindi Resource List

In a previous post responding to those of you asking how I am learning Hindi. I said that I use as many resources as I can and promised to share a list.

I learned about keeping "never ending resumes" in college. It's the idea that you build a resume that grows as you do. This list is the same way. I will continue to add resources as I find, discover and use them.

Enjoy the resource list below. I will post some details about these in future posts. If you have specific questions, please ask. 

Conversational
Learn Hindi on FB (Anil Mahatho)  
Pimsleur helps a lot with sentence order but only for a small portion of sentences 
Chatting and texting

Grammar
Learning-Hindi.com
Anil Mahato on YouTube
Hindi U on YouTube

Vocabularay
Crazi Lassi on You Tube
MyLanguages.org 
hinkhoj.com

Speaking
Spending time with Hindi speaking friends
Creating YouTube videos in Hindi "Black Girl Speaking Hindi"
Mango - log on through a public or University library database list

listening
Hindi U on YouTube 
Bollywood Movies and Songs
Guli Guli Sim Sim - Sesamie Street
Shaka Laka Boom Boom - Kids show

Writing
Flashcards
Writing in the script for my typed notes from Learning-Hindi.com
      I will post a pdf file of my notes when it is finished

TenguGo Hindi App is the best I've found for the alphabet 

Beelingual - this app allows you to select texts and has some great tools for studying a variety of reading topics

Reading
Kids Stories
Alphabet phone App - My favorite is TenguGo Hindi
looking at Hindi meems on Google+ and then using the translator to check and learn the words I don't know
Mango
Hindi Bible
Learning-Hindi.com has some great reading lessons

Beelingual - this app allows you to select texts and has some great tools for studying a variety of reading topics

Thinking
Pimsleur Lessons
Mango
HindiPod101 helps with all areas
Doulingo it's out!! I just finished the tree and am writing a review!

Misc.
Flashcards
Painting using Hindi (Helps things stick) 
Sign Language (mathcing signs or actions to words will help with recall)

http://taj.chass.ncsu.edu/urdu/

A friend just sent this site to me. I will tellyou more in the future 

I will be sure to make a list of the Best Places to Start and to my Favorite Resources. I will continue to update this list as I find more resources I find helpful and I will continue to edit and revise...this post is a work in progress :)

What are some of your favorite language learning resources?

How I Am learning Hindi and The Brain

My Indian Culture Class and a Volunteer/Friend...More about my students

People all over the web and in real life have been asking how I am learning Hindi and honestly the answer is that I am using as many resources and techniques as I possibly can. There are many arguments for the best method and honestly I think that many of these arguments are valid; however, none are complete. I believe that more than one tool is necessary for learning a language.

Your brain doesn't function on one level but many. Learning a language is not learning one skill but many at the same time. The more connections we make the more we will retain.

Teaching language arts to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities has helped me to see the varied ways that the brain learns. Though my students brains work differently than many of us, it's almost easier to understand and more plain to see these layers.

Oversimplified, the more teaching styles you can combine into one class the more brain activity will take place creating more connections which means more will be retained and recalled later because of these connections.

This is especially true with language. It is is fascinating to see the differences between how reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills are developed. These four areas are developed at different speeds and through different types of practice. They are also different for different people.

Another critical aspect to language learning is being able to think, both on the subconscious level and the more structured grammatical level. Both of these are essential to understanding a new word order and sentence structure and therefore language.

Pimsleur argues that language learning in schools is messed up because we focus so much on grammar and though I 100% agree that the way kids naturally learn is ideal and Pimsleur was onto something huge with this idea, I also realize that the world a baby grows up in is different than the world an adult lives in. That being said I am using as many children's resources for learning Hindi as I can and surrounding myself with the beautiful language while using other more traditional adult language learning resources at the same time.

I suppose this is enough for one post. I will list the resources here soon and plan to share specifics about individual ones later...

Texting

Some of my Anti-Trafficking artwork featuring Indias Natiaonl flower

 

Haha someone just asked if I use Google Translate to text in Hindi…The answer is no…But I’m curious to know if they asked because my genders, tenses, sentence structure and spellings are all wonky or because were surprised they could understand…lol chalta hai yaar, main khabi nahin samajti hoon (Oh well friend, I will/may never know)

I Can Read Hindi!!!

This past semester I have really been challenging myself to learn some new things…a new language being one of them. For those of you who have never taught yourself a language or a new alphabet, it can be really frustrating because it just feels like you suck all the time…

I just went back and looked at one of the beginner lessons on a blog I have been using and it totally just made me feel good about myself.

I only had to look at the transliteration (English alphabet) for one letter and the rest was a piece of cake. So I can’t quite read a kids book yet, or understand much at all, or think quick enough to speak, but I have made some good progress…and knowing that I have made this progress helps to keep me going.

Be sure to check out my Art+ blog to see how Hindi (and Indian culture) is inspiring my artwork.