I thoroughly enjoyed Pooja's presentation on greetings in Hindi. I felt as though they were an effective means of comparing Gujarati culture within greater Indian culture. About two weeks ago I wrote about touching of the feet in Gujarat and I was interested to find universal this concept is within greater Indian culture. I am now eager to find out whether or not this concept also extends to other cultures nearby, such as Pakistani, Nepalese, Sri Lankan culture, etc.
In terms of my language learning, I have learned about 150 words so far. My language partners have been very adamant about correct pronunciation of words and for that I am grateful. I am finally starting to feel like I am mastering certain vowels in the alphabet which helps in learning and retaining new words. By the end of the semester I am hoping to have learned about 500 words and will be able to put them into context. Putting words into context is most essential for me as I want to be able to use this increased vocabulary in every day conversation. This means applying what I already know about family ties to ask "How are you related to this person?" or "How is your brother's wife?". I feel like this is a realistic goal and one that would satisfy my desire to be immersed into the language rather than learn only vocabulary.
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