Mera naam Katie hai. Aap kaise hai?

I am slowly but surely learning Hindi. Trying to pick up a totally foreign language is a good way to make yourself feel over-the-hill. Suddenly I realize just how far gone my capacity for language is. Pity. I'm beyond the point in psychological development where I can even distinguish between different sounds if they aren't familiar. In addition to being a depressing reminder of my old age, Hindi classes have been a real lesson in humility. Since the script is completely different I have to sound out each word like a kindergartner every time I'm asked to read aloud. "M..ai Vi-d-yaaar...tee-ni hoo?" The sentence structure in Hindi is also completely foreign. Essentially, Hindi is Yoda-speak, where the verb is always in the wrong place. For example, to say "The pen is on the book," one would say "kitab pur kalam hai," which literally translates to "book on pen is."

Hindi and English are the two national languages in India, but that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone speaks them. There are well over 100 dialects that people speak as their first language and if they go to school they'll learn some Hindi as a second language. English is taught as a third language for most people, but those who speak it are generally more fluent in English than I am...which is another lesson in humility. In Hyderabad most people speak Telugu, so the shaky, ill-pronounced phrases of Hindi that I'm picking up will really only be helpful to me when I travel to places like Delhi or Mumbai. As a result of trying to communicate in Hyderabad, I think I'll return home to the USA speaking only in the present tense in one syllable words using lots of facial expressions and hand gestures.

If nothing else, I will leave my Hindi class with a new secret code to write in. I practiced writing in Hindi script by writing out the names of some of my blog readers in the picture above...or at least, I think I wrote your names...I'm still learning. Can you guess which one is yours?