"It's Greek to me" - you have heard that phrase right? Well, I am proud to say that I managed to learn Greek pretty well. Living in Greece for so many years made it unbearable for me not to understand what people were talking about. And I was in love with the country, the man (!), culture, music, basically everything - so the motivation was there!
A peculiar thing was that learning Greek made me forget French. I could still understand French when I heard it, but when I opened my mouth to speak, only Greek words came out. Like there was room for only one foreign language besides English inside my head.
So, now I am in India. Luckily I find that most people speak and understand English. Still, my never-resting curious side wants to understand what they say- the salesmen in the shop smiling to you, the giggling children. Nooo, don't really need to know it all - but it could be fun to understand something and maybe also to say a few phrases!
So - I joined a Hindi Crash Course, with Manasi- - the star I introduced you to earlier. Ok, to sum up: Greek is a piece of cake compared to this language! I tell you! We were gathered up a bunch of eager-to-learn-ladies and had tons of fun, but it is haard. I think it is a very sound-based language and I like how it sounds:-) Like me you probably know namaste (greeting/hello). However, I will share a few more useful phrases with you (just to make you wanting more:-) - theese could be good to know:
- Mera naam John nahi hai = My name is not John.
- Horn mat bataiye = Don't honk!
- U-turn lijiye = Take a U-turn!
- Ha = Yes
- Na/Nahi = No
- Kripya/Please = Please
- Shukriya/Dhanyavad/Thank you = Thank you
We also learned some interesting facts like:
- The name for tomorrow and yesterday is the same: kal (- very interesting!)
- There are at least 3 words meaning but: par, magar, lekin
- The verb always comes in the end in a sentence
- To make a sentence negative, add nahi before the verb.
So did this wake your interest in learning (more) Hindi? I want to learn more - and now I'll go out and practice! Stay tuned dear reader:-)
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