My experiments with Hindi

As our proficiency grew, we discussed many topics, including the Ramayana, agriculture, gender issues, culture, weather, crime, politics, HIV/AIDS, shopping, terrorism, transportation, and even cooking. I studied the names for family members — uncle, aunt, father’s older brother’s son — finally resorting to a family tree to track all the different titles Indians use to address their relatives, including Masseejees, Salleejees and Daddeejees.

The decor in the classrooms finally came into focus. Indian elementary school charts giving names of fruits, vegetables, body parts, geographical features, and animals became familiar to us. One day, our instructor brought a large city map. She asked us to give directions in Hindi to get from the zoo to a hotel, including when to turn left, right, or cross a bridge. She moved a plastic orange horse (a class favourite) all over the map, as we stopped to visit the railway station, took a swim in the river when we forgot the word for bridge, and finally ended up at the hotel. Practical applications such as this have proved very useful here in India, especially when directing taxi-wallahs around town.

Our instructors took us to visit temples, mosques, grocery stores, and restaurants, even the most current Bollywood films at a local cinema. On each field trip, we completed tasks in Hindi, including interviewing Hindi speakers about their lives in the US and in India. All of these experiences improved our knowledge of Indian culture and values, while building confidence with spoken Hindi.

Studying Hindi was my job for six months, making it easier to focus on the language and absorb aspects of Indian culture. We had weekly feasts, with contributions from the Hindi, Urdu, Bangla, Nepali, Tamil, Malayalam, and Pashto instructors. We visited an instructor’s home for a hands-on lesson in Indian cooking, enjoying the fruits of our labour over an enormous lunch.

I knew my studies were having an impact when my instructor asked me to participate in the annual South Asian languages department mela. Dressed in a sari and holding a diya, I spoke in Hindi about the meaning of Diwali to an audience of foreign diplomats and language students. Other students performed traditional Punjabi dances, applied henna, sang songs, and greeted visitors to the mela with a tilak.

Learning Hindi was a challenging yet rewarding process. Professionally, I have found it useful to speak Hindi so that I can understand radio and television broadcasts and follow breaking stories without having to wait for translation. I can engage Indians who otherwise would be inaccessible to me. And I can reach out to others in their native language, even if they do speak some English. When I arrived on the job, I gained an instant rapport with co-workers when they learned I spoke their language. My colleagues enjoy fooling others into making jokes at my expense in Hindi in my presence, only to tell them later that I understood everything being said.

Six months of learning Hindi greatly helped my transition to India when my family moved here in July. It did not feel like a strange place, nor did I suffer much culture shock. Knowledge of the language and culture has made me a more effective diplomat and opened a doorway for me to explore a vast, ancient and complex culture. Many other American diplomats have taken the time to get to know Indian language and culture through the opportunity afforded to us by the Department of State. Such exposure to language makes us more empathetic, and build bridges of trust and understanding.

The writer is an assistant information officer, US Embassy