Much of our family has been studying Hindi for the last few months. I have been the most “diligent” - - I took a Berlitz course for the fall semester, and now I am taking an intermediate “adult education” class at the American Embassy School. This is first language I have studied with any intensity since I was 20 years old, when I learned Hebrew. In my teenage years and early twenties (university), I had studied French (middle and high school), Ancient Greek and Latin (college), and Hebrew (some high school, and mostly junior year abroad in Israel). I only achieved real fluency in Hebrew. (Maybe no one is even expected to achieve fluency in Ancient Greek and Latin…not many people to converse with.)
So that makes Hindi the first language that I am learning as a full adult, and also the first language I am learning AFTER all of my experience and formal training in teaching ESL. It is the first time that I am both learning the language, and conscious of the meta-processes. I know that the popular approach when I did a master’s degree in Applied Linguistics was a “cognitive approach” to language learning….”behavioral” approaches where you memorized phrases were out of vogue. But I actually feel that I am most confident when I memorize key phrases, and then substitute “key words” in the appropriate slots. I have memorized and I can fluently say “may hindi sikh ra hi hu” (I am studying hindi); as a result, I can *also* say fluently any other verb in the present continuous….”I am walking” “I am running” etc. etc. I apparently like the fill-in-the-slot method more than constructing whole sentences from scratch, where I need to worry about the vocabulary AND the syntax simultaneously and inevitably get tongue-tied and shy. I wonder whether language learning is really like diets. The reason there are a gazillion how-to books out there, and people swear by different things, is because different diets are more tolerable for different people. In my case, for example, I can easily skip meals, but hate skipping chocolate…and a diet that is low on “real food” but enables some sweets is definitely more sustainable for me. For Amnon, though, I think the reverse would be true. Maybe language learning is like that too, and we all need to find our “customized approach.”
Another point of interest for me is watching my kids speaking Hinglish. Our maid Chandana speaks English, but she speaks with Hindi syntax. Sentences come out like “subject-indirect object-object-verb” - - such as, “Kimbo paper poo poo making.” As my kids try to be understood when they speak to Chandana, I notice that they often use Chandana’s syntax. I wonder whether it becomes easier to learn a new language like Hindi, when you first begin speaking your OWN language (English) with some Hindi structures. Interesting topic for future experimentation…
While on the topic of Hindi and English, I have become ever more sensitive to the fact that translation from one language to another requires more than just translation. I remember studying in contrastive analysis classes in graduate school, and during MBA-days, about the fact that you cannot conduct an advertising campaign by just translating from one language to another; in come cases, the meaning doesn’t transfer well; there is a lot of culture in advertising. One stellar example that I noticed on the back of a truck, advertising bottled water; if I recall correctly, it was something like: “boond boond vishwas hai” (“I trust every single drop.”) The translation is straightforward, but the meaning is very India-centric; I don’t think a similar campaign for bottled water would “work” in the US. In US, the value proposition would be more like “this water is derived from the springs of X or the mountains of Y, and tastes fresher and better.” In India, “trust” is a key issue; you can TRUST that our water is pure is a critical message. Another India-specific factoid is that water that is NOT pure doesn’t just “taste worse,” it is unhealthy….hence, the ability to “trust every single drop” is a far more compelling and meaningful value proposition.
There are other instances here where Indian English has evolved different usages than American English, and American English should adopt many of these. At first I thought that the Indian person speaking to me was making an error and was not that facile in English…As I saw these expressions being used more often, I realized they were part of the dialect. In Indian English, “I will revert” means “I will get back to you.” Another common expression in business: “I will do the needful.” Lovely, and concise. A common expression on the telephone: The person picking up may say “Tell me?” I first heard this repeatedly from the superintendent that cares for our apartment. I concluded that it meant “So, Sara…tell me what has gone wrong THIS time? Plumbing? Electricity? etc…” But now I realize that it simply means “what’s up,” and is a translation from the phone greeting in Hindi “bolo.” There are signs on the roads that say “Left turn not free.” During the Commonwealth games, with foreigners in town, I saw “translated” placards that said “No left turn on red” And finally….no one here says “bless you” when you sneeze. In fact, sneezing has a bunch of superstitious undertones…(I found this on the internet: “it is a sign of evil to sneeze just once and then stop.”) It is probably more appropriate if the sneezer apologizes, since one sneeze is bad luck and you are not supposed to leave the room (I think) unless some time elapses, or the sneezer sneezes again.
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