Hindi Class

Just began my Hindi classes finally at Gujarat Vidyapith, a school actually started by Gandhi ji! Every Tues, Thur, and Fri from 8:30 to 10 I have class. I must say the sitting on the floor is killing me though! The class is for foreigners only, so it's an interesting mix. It seems there are a number of German students there, working for an NGO. I spoke in German with one girl, but I must admit that it was really difficult to speak it while also in the process of learning Hindi! I ended up asking a question in German and then responding to the answer with a Hindi 'thik hai' or 'bahut accha'...There are a couple Americans also working at an NGO, another American whose husband is pursuing a business here, and an Iraqi. It's pretty amusing to hear Hindi spoken with so many accents. I was really confused for awhile when we were saying where we are from in Hindi. The one girl who I thought was from Germany, kept saying she was from Gemini. Until I figured out it was her accent, I thought it was maybe some military base or something!

Meanwhile I think our teacher must have been an aspiring Bollywood singer in her youth! It's really amusing because at least every class she breaks into song. She actually wrote a book on learning Hindi through bollywood songs. It was really amusing the other day because we had a new student named Rosa, short for Rosalin. Our teacher said everyone here would call her Rosa because of a popular movie of the same name, and then proceeded to tell us the whole plot of the movie. Finally she said, but that's ok, I will call you Rosalin. To which the student responded, but what if I like Rosa??

Anyway it's a new fun something to do and to meet new people. And I get a kick out of busting out a new Hindi phrase in front of my Indian friends, and they get a big kick out of it as well - especially when I busted out, 'aap se mil kar bahut khusi hui' - very glad to meet you. I was pretty surprised myself that I remembered it all...!