Do some preliminary research on what most interests you about the target culture, and describe how this topic relates to language.
One topic that interests me about Indian culture is how prevalent the Hindi language is within India and how different regions speak Hindi differently. Based on my own personal knowledge and research I have done, aside from English, Hindi is a predominant language in India. It is more common in Northern India and very rarely spoken in South India. In North India those who speak Punjabi, Marathi, and Gujarati as their primary languages also speak Hindi. I do not know the three languages listed above but I have heard them before and they all have more similar words and sounds to Hindi than South Indian languages. A large part of South India speaks Tamil and most people in South India do not know Hindi. My parents are from Hyderabad, which is technically considered South India and they speak Telugu but since they are from a city they also speak Hindi as well. In my research I found out that Hindi is a popular second or third language for those who speak Telugu.
https://qz.com/239073/these-four-charts-break-down-indias-complex-relationship-with-hindi/
Another part of Indian culture aside from the language that interests me is the film industry. I have grown up watching Bollywood movies since I was young. However, as I grew older I realized there are multiple sub-film industries within India. I only knew of a few other film industries other than Bollywood but as I was doing my research I found there are 21 regional film industries in India. Often one industry will remake another industry's movie in their own language. This relates to language because there is technically no "universal" language in India so the entertainment industry in general has to appeal to multiple audiences.
Do you need any special vocabulary or linguistic knowledge to engage this topic? If so, have you included objectives in your learning plan to engage this topic?
To truly understand the different languages spoken in India you would have to live in different regions of India and understand multiple Indian languages. I only intend to focus on Hindi but I can further engage in this topics by connecting my Hindi learning to my knowledge of Telugu.
Replies