हिंदी

नमस्ते! आप कैसे हैं? बहुत अच्छी?

What's up everyone?

I started on this last night, but just got to finish today. You guessed it: Hindi!

If you don't know Hindi, I know you know someone who does. India has about 1.2 billion people, and it's only logical that there are a lot of immigrants that came to America to live. Unfortunately, lots of Indians get a negative stereotype, and that's not fair. Not every Indian is a taxi driver or an operator of a convenience store.

But I digress, we all know someone who speaks Hindi. And I'll bet that you already know some Hindi, ESPECIALLY if you do yoga!

My lesson was actually pretty fun. I got to learn how to ask for directions, and how to say things are over there, or over here. The main thing I wanted to get from this lesson is the monster that is Devanagari. This alphabet is gorgeous, but it's super hard because there are so many letters and modifiers to the letters. It's almost like drawing hieroglyphics because everything is connected by a horizontal line, which you can see in the title and in the opening line. From what I've concluded from the alphabet that I handwrote with each sound, the words are spelled phonetically. The hard part is knowing exactly what sounds/letter you're supposed to use!

The first time I saw Devanagari script, I honestly was wondering what the hell I was looking at, and I still kind of feel the same way, but it is definitely getting easier, and it will continue to get easier with practice.

I do need a dictionary though because Google Translate didn't show me how to spell some of the words I needed for this lesson. GT and Omniglot.com did do a good job of helping me out, though.

It's not that difficult of a language to learn, the only tricky part is the grammar.

For instance:

English Version: Where is Main Street?
Hindi Version: Main Street where is?

Once you get past that, and the need to change word endings depending on gender, you're good. It's a fun language. I definitely will keep this going (even though you know I'm going to keep them all going!)!

नमस्ते,

Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira