Goal: Learn numbers and parts of the body
This week I met with Prachi and Pooja twice. We worked intensely on pronunciation of letters and body parts. I came to the meeting already knowing body parts, as the night before, during my workout in the gym, I took a colloquial Gujarati book that I ordered online, and pointed to all of the parts of my body and said aloud the specific words. It helped me to memorize the words without converting them from English to Gujarati. It was similar to me learning body parts as a toddler, when my mother would point to parts of my face and body, and ask me to repeat after her. This method was extremely effective.
During our language meeting, I stood up and pointed to about 20 different body parts, announcing the Gujarati vocabulary along with my gestures. Some examples:
eye: ak
nose: nak
eyelash: pa-pan
cheek: gal
throat: galuu
heart: hraday
rib: pasli
hair: val
These are just a few of the body parts that I announced to my language partners. They corrected me on very few words, as I took the time to meticulously master the pronunciation from the word breakdowns in the book. After working on body parts, I repeated numbers 1-10. I found it difficult until I we were able to come up with funny ways to remember the words. By the end of the week, I knew the numbers. The hard part was working on the pronunciation, as Gujaratis speak with parts of their mouth that westerners do not. For example, they ah-na is apart of the alphabet. The "n" is silent and it is a roll of the tongue, in which the tongue does not touch the roof of the mouth. I found it increasingly difficult to master this. I am still working on it.
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