Anybody studying your SO's language?

[Imua 0]

I am currently studying Nepali and having a hard time - I can read along very slowly in Devanagari and am trying to learn a few vocabulary words every day but the hardest part for me is grammar - somehow it just doesnt stick and I end up having these wierd 'pidgin Nepali' conversations with G.

Devanagari isn't as difficult to learn as I feared it would be - compared to Tibetan it's a breeze. Tibetan is actually related to Devanagari(one reason I found D to be relatively easy) but it has these nightmareish stacked letters - you might have a stack of 3 or 4 letters, only one of which is actully sounded, or it might be a different phoneme entirely. My name in Tibetan is actually spelled 'sGrolma' but pronounced 'Dolma'

Anybody else studying your SO's language?

[Jasman0717 9]

I tried to learn Spanish once, what a mess so there is no way I can learn tagalog

[maya62 7]

LOL Dolma... I am trying to learn Devanagari (and Nepali) too. There are some of the plain old single letters I still haven't got yet! And I have no excuse because I have two teachers-in-residence now. Except that we are working on English most of the time... I think I finally got the "tra" stacked letter under my belt. I have resigned myself to the idea that I will never speak Nepali as well as S&A speak English (unless of course we move to Nepal and live there for several years ). But I have occasional bursts of effort...

We speak Neplish around the house every day, but it doesn't usually go past talking about being hungry, tired, come here, let's go, and of course, sweet nothings...

And we say "dhanyabad" WAY too much!

Maybe we should start an online Nepali language class and teach each other...

Maya

[*JG* 2]

Not studying it. But, I pick it up along the way and do speak Patois on occassion. It's not exactly an official language.

[Putali 0]

On occasion I will crank out some Nepali phrases from my brain and ask my mother-in-law-to-be how the weather is in Chitwan. Or I will ask my nephew-to-be "Khana kanu bhayo?" which I've discovered is somewhat of a greeting... to ask if you've eaten yet. I've had the chance to watch some bollywood movies and actually understand a lot of what they were saying because the languages (and script) are both sanskrit-based. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my culture's defunct native alphabet, alibata, was also derived from sanskrit and some words are even similar and conversations are built around the same context. The most difficult thing for me is the pronunciation, although, Rajan says when I get it, I really get it :D :D :D

[Ron/Sharon 0]

I'm getting pretty good at understanding what Sharon is saying now days, it isn't the language just different words we use for the same objects, here construction boots are ropers there, a toilet here is a stool there, here we sit there they set and the list goes on and on.

[ELW 5]

I'm getting pretty good at understanding what Sharon is saying now days,

That's funny! You are right though, different countries speak English quite differently!

I was living in India for 21 years and it took 2 years of hard study and some tears (my mouth could not pronounce the 54 alphabet letters!) before I could finally speak and understand Telugu. I learned it first by memorizing as many words and grammar as possible, and then by TALKING TALKING TALKING to as many different people as I could. I was also lucky because I was living with an elderly lady who didn't know a word of English!

There were a number of foreigners living in the same area, who were struggling to learn Telugu too. However they couldn't get beyond speaking a few choice phrases even after years, because they did not interact enough with the locals and only studied behind closed doors. The key is practice talking & hearing the language as much as possible!

Now at home my husband still only speaks broken English and we have to remind each other many times a day, to try to talk only in English! It is so much easier conveying things in Telugu because there is so much English he doesn't understand! But I gotta be good and speak more English at home or he'll never learn.

[sakurasama 0]

I was living in Dharamsala when I met my fiance so I picked up some Tibetan in the year I was there. I recently signed up for a Tibetan language class and was so proud of myself. When I announced to him that I was going to study Tibetan, he asked me, "why?" Deflated, I said, "to talk to your mom". He pointed out that his mother spoke a regional dialect and wouldn't understand the Lhasa Tibetan I would be studying. I went to class anyway but as soon as I realized Tibetan is a tonal language my desire (confidence?!) evaporated. Now I am happy with the little phrases I know, like, "how are you? and "I love you"!

[Nikita2Charles 32]

Having been to Chennai for business several times, and stayed there for a couple of months working on a project, I learn some Tamil, pick up a few Hindi phrases here and there while in Navi Mumbai, there are so many languages, so it was kinda weird, we had a couple of colleague who are indian but can only converse in English, because each one has their own language, I think it was more a matter of pride since lot of people learn the national language Hindi.

So at work i like to suprise the H1 guys working on projects here by addressing them in Tamil, Hindi and so on.

Yepidi Irrukinga? they would say WHAT?

Others would just reply naan nalla Irruken then ask where you learned the language and so on.

Unga Peyar Yenna? give them a little bit more shocked, so at time they would ask me to repeat because they couldn't beleive what they just heard.

Edited September 2, 2007 by Nikita2Charles

[MrsAyilliath 0]

Hubby's native tongue is Malayalam and OH BOY how difficult it is to pick up. I tease him and tell him he's not a good tutor because I can't learn the way he teaches. Hindi is a bit easier because there are so many people who speak that and those who speak other Indian languages usually also speak Hindi.

[Imua 0]

I'm getting pretty good at understanding what Sharon is saying now days,

That's funny! You are right though, different countries speak English quite differently!

I was living in India for 21 years and it took 2 years of hard study and some tears (my mouth could not pronounce the 54 alphabet letters!) before I could finally speak and understand Telugu. I learned it first by memorizing as many words and grammar as possible, and then by TALKING TALKING TALKING to as many different people as I could. I was also lucky because I was living with an elderly lady who didn't know a word of English!

There were a number of foreigners living in the same area, who were struggling to learn Telugu too. However they couldn't get beyond speaking a few choice phrases even after years, because they did not interact enough with the locals and only studied behind closed doors. The key is practice talking & hearing the language as much as possible!

Now at home my husband still only speaks broken English and we have to remind each other many times a day, to try to talk only in English! It is so much easier conveying things in Telugu because there is so much English he doesn't understand! But I gotta be good and speak more English at home or he'll never learn.

I hear you on the difficulty in pronunciation - I'm still having trouble differentiating between voiced and voiceless consonants - G is patient but I must be driving him crazy when he is trying to teach me...

Can you find DVDs in Telugu? I find watching movies and news programs really helps, also listening to music.

[Imua 0]

I was living in Dharamsala when I met my fiance so I picked up some Tibetan in the year I was there. I recently signed up for a Tibetan language class and was so proud of myself. When I announced to him that I was going to study Tibetan, he asked me, "why?" Deflated, I said, "to talk to your mom". He pointed out that his mother spoke a regional dialect and wouldn't understand the Lhasa Tibetan I would be studying. I went to class anyway but as soon as I realized Tibetan is a tonal language my desire (confidence?!) evaporated. Now I am happy with the little phrases I know, like, "how are you? and "I love you"!

Tashi delek Sakurasama-la, kerang kuso debo yin peh?

And there's the extent of my Tibetan, except for a few prayers.... When I started studying Nepali I found my Tibetan disappeared - I hadnt been studying that long anyway... I still found it was helpful to learn the alphabet, amazing I can still slowly read in Tibetan - understanding is a totally differnet matter...

[ELW 5]

I'm still having trouble differentiating between voiced and voiceless consonants..

Can you find DVDs in Telugu? I find watching movies and news programs really helps, also listening to music.

At least in Telugu, though consonants are stacked up like in Devanagari, we pronounce every one! The spoken words are exactly as they are written so that's good. (Except if the people are illiterate, then they will say "sa" instead of correct "cha" and etc. )

Telugu movies are available in plenty online, sometimes I watch them and can understand most of what's said.

[agnar 0]

I'm still having trouble differentiating between voiced and voiceless consonants..

Can you find DVDs in Telugu? I find watching movies and news programs really helps, also listening to music.

At least in Telugu, though consonants are stacked up like in Devanagari, we pronounce every one! The spoken words are exactly as they are written so that's good. (Except if the people are illiterate, then they will say "sa" instead of correct "cha" and etc. )

Telugu movies are available in plenty online, sometimes I watch them and can understand most of what's said.

it's amazing to hear tht you understand telugu movies. nice to hear that .

agnar

[ELW 5]

it's amazing to hear tht you understand telugu movies. nice to hear that .

Tons of jokes in the movies, that only us who lived there a long time and know the culture, can understand.