This week Atul and I worked on learning how to describe different rooms and objects in the home. I learned that there are not many words in Hindi to describe the home and English, especially American English is very specific when describing parts of the home. We have living room, family room, dining room, etc. In addition, Indian houses are physically set up differently than American houses in that Indian houses have a very large foyer that has a seating area so that when a guest enters the house you can immediately sit down and talk. American houses are divided into different rooms that specify different occasions or satisfy different needs. I think it speaks to American capitalism and how much emphasis we put on material goods and how we compartmentalize our lives.
We focused a lot on speaking this week and using all of the vocabulary I have learned over the course of the semester. I realized how much I have been learning but not putting to use. When was forced to focus on speaking I realized I was getting kind of frustrated because it was taking me a lot of time to think of grammatically correct sentences. It was really hard to remember all that I have learned while trying to form sentences. I have complex ideas in my mind that I want to convey but I don't have the words to do that yet. I need to focus on making shorter more simpler sentences and then making them more complex later on.
Lastly, I learned a new shorthand form of answering a question. I do not know exactly what the grammatical form is called but it roughly means "Do one action then do something else." It's all about one action followed by another. For example if someone asked me "Is the homework hard?" I could respond with "Main kar ke bolungi" which means "I'll do it and then let you know." It's a bit hard to explain in English but these are phrases I have heard a lot in Hindi and Atul explained to me that this form is an easy way to answer questions.
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