Aspirations, to aspire, to breathe....OM. Relaxed? Meditative? Not really. When novices first learn to meditate it is common guidance to focus on ones breathing. Maybe it is no coincidence then that our dreams and goals-our aspirations- are a derivative of this simple life enabling action- to breathe. And while this advice seems simple, trying to meditate for only five minutes, focusing on breathing, for an inexperienced person can seem an eternity. A common theme this past week has been the essential but often overlooked activities and items we take for granted and almost ignore. In a different context however, these same elements become very salient if not the focus.
On a normal day, it is easy to only pay attention to what is new and innovative or what is difficult or out of whack. This is what the news media feeds on and I am an addict. TV ads and news anchors generally annoy me so my medium of choice is the newspaper: print or electronic. On a given lazy day I can spend hours perusing the newspaper: the OCregister, NYtimes online, google news, the comics. As a self-proclaimed news junkie (I have a headline and email checking compulsion) even trivial headlines catch my attention. For example, when you log onto blogger, the Blogger Buzz lists headlines... New today you can now blog in Hindi! (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/now-you-can-blog-in-hindi.html)
For those of you unfamiliar with my attempts to learn Hindi, you have no fear in the immediate future of me writing anything in Hindi. Hindi is an ancient language based on an even older and more sacred language Sanskript. Like all languages, Hindi has evolved with the times and geography so dialects and accents add interest and complexity to the language, all of which are above my level of comprehension; I get hung up on the alphabet!
Hindi is a phonetic language so conquering the alphabet is half the battle. For me besides the actual complexity of the characters (not left hand friendly and my legibility in English handwriting is questionable) the pronunciation was brutal. You see in Hindi there are two types of consonants: aspirated and unaspirated (vowels are a whole different story). Let me provide English examples* to elaborate on the difference: the p in pit (aspirated) and spit (unaspirated) and the t in tack (aspirated) and stack (unaspirated). To the untrained ear, hearing the difference between aspirated and unaspirated consonants is tricky, but essential, in speaking, writing, and understanding Hindi because each different sound in this phonetic language has its own character. At DU my senior year I would practice my Hindi during the late night/early morning hours (10pm-2am) at the front desk of Nelson as I worked my required hours. The best way to practice aspirated and unaspirated syllables, surprise surprise, is with little bits of torn up toilet paper. Cup your hand and place the palm on your chin. Place a few pieces of torn up tissue paper in your palm and say pit. If pronounced correctly, the paper bits will have snowed out of your hand all over the floor. Conversely, for the unaspirated consonants, the paper pieces should not move.
I spent hours practicing the pronunciation differences between ghor and gor (aspirated and unaspirated)...just two characters! not to mention having to be able to write and recognize/read these same characters. By the end of my "Hindi desk shifts" I had paper bites all over everywhere and some very puzzled looking residents scurrying through the otherwise witching hour quiet lobby. The combination of sleep deprivation and aspirated/unaspirated frustration truly do bring your breathing into an entirely new focus....you literally do spit when in frustration or pride you over emphasize the aspiration in "pit". It's also hard to ignore toilet paper when it's plastering the desk confetti style. While my colleagues progressed to actual words, i was still struggling with alphabet and since Hindi was an audited course competing with the writing of my thesis, it unfortunately became victim of senioritis.
I know as I continue to explore my cultural heritage my first attempt to learn Hindi will not be my last. I know that I will continue to follow my aspirations- continue to be a dreamer. When the going gets tough, I will remember simply to breath, and I will find comfort in the fact that it is now possible to blog in Hindi. I have big aspirations.
* Examples adapted from http://www.ling.udel.edu/colin/courses/ling101_f99/lecture8.html
Hindi alphabet chart from http://website.lineone.net/~krysstal/writing_hindi1.gif
On a normal day, it is easy to only pay attention to what is new and innovative or what is difficult or out of whack. This is what the news media feeds on and I am an addict. TV ads and news anchors generally annoy me so my medium of choice is the newspaper: print or electronic. On a given lazy day I can spend hours perusing the newspaper: the OCregister, NYtimes online, google news, the comics. As a self-proclaimed news junkie (I have a headline and email checking compulsion) even trivial headlines catch my attention. For example, when you log onto blogger, the Blogger Buzz lists headlines... New today you can now blog in Hindi! (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/now-you-can-blog-in-hindi.html)
For those of you unfamiliar with my attempts to learn Hindi, you have no fear in the immediate future of me writing anything in Hindi. Hindi is an ancient language based on an even older and more sacred language Sanskript. Like all languages, Hindi has evolved with the times and geography so dialects and accents add interest and complexity to the language, all of which are above my level of comprehension; I get hung up on the alphabet!
Hindi is a phonetic language so conquering the alphabet is half the battle. For me besides the actual complexity of the characters (not left hand friendly and my legibility in English handwriting is questionable) the pronunciation was brutal. You see in Hindi there are two types of consonants: aspirated and unaspirated (vowels are a whole different story). Let me provide English examples* to elaborate on the difference: the p in pit (aspirated) and spit (unaspirated) and the t in tack (aspirated) and stack (unaspirated). To the untrained ear, hearing the difference between aspirated and unaspirated consonants is tricky, but essential, in speaking, writing, and understanding Hindi because each different sound in this phonetic language has its own character. At DU my senior year I would practice my Hindi during the late night/early morning hours (10pm-2am) at the front desk of Nelson as I worked my required hours. The best way to practice aspirated and unaspirated syllables, surprise surprise, is with little bits of torn up toilet paper. Cup your hand and place the palm on your chin. Place a few pieces of torn up tissue paper in your palm and say pit. If pronounced correctly, the paper bits will have snowed out of your hand all over the floor. Conversely, for the unaspirated consonants, the paper pieces should not move.
I spent hours practicing the pronunciation differences between ghor and gor (aspirated and unaspirated)...just two characters! not to mention having to be able to write and recognize/read these same characters. By the end of my "Hindi desk shifts" I had paper bites all over everywhere and some very puzzled looking residents scurrying through the otherwise witching hour quiet lobby. The combination of sleep deprivation and aspirated/unaspirated frustration truly do bring your breathing into an entirely new focus....you literally do spit when in frustration or pride you over emphasize the aspiration in "pit". It's also hard to ignore toilet paper when it's plastering the desk confetti style. While my colleagues progressed to actual words, i was still struggling with alphabet and since Hindi was an audited course competing with the writing of my thesis, it unfortunately became victim of senioritis.
I know as I continue to explore my cultural heritage my first attempt to learn Hindi will not be my last. I know that I will continue to follow my aspirations- continue to be a dreamer. When the going gets tough, I will remember simply to breath, and I will find comfort in the fact that it is now possible to blog in Hindi. I have big aspirations.
* Examples adapted from http://www.ling.udel.edu/colin/courses/ling101_f99/lecture8.html
Hindi alphabet chart from http://website.lineone.net/~krysstal/writing_hindi1.gif
3 comments:
After reading your post, I checked out Blogger Buzz and found that in addition to Hindi, they also added ภาษาไทย (or the Thai language) to the list of supported languages. It seems you and I now share a similar aspiration...
Just wanted to share a few things I have learned to make it easier for anyone reading this to find out more about Hindi. Sanskrit is the ancient language used in most of the holy Hindu texts of India. Devanagari is the actual script used in modern Hindi and most ancient Sanskrit was written in Devanagari as well. I wanted to clarify this because I thought that Sanskrit was a script and not a language when I first started learning Sanskrit and Hindi. Good luck on your aspirations.
Hindi is the only language with a protective emphasis line on top like an umbrella.The rest of the languages except for german with dots,hang in the air.
Mamta Dhody ,1513,outram line
mukherjee nagar delhi-9
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