After focusing on learning the Hindi (Devanagari) alphabet for the past two weeks, it has been very illuminating to start to actually be able to recognize words, although it takes me a while to remember the consonant sounds with an attached vowel. It's a little tricky since so many of the letters look just like other letters in Punjabi, which I am much more accustomed to seeing -- so for instance, the Hindi consonant representing "gh" is the same as the Punjabi letter for "b." Thus, it's taking me a while, but it is very exciting just to be able to start to read and recognize letters. I also learned how to write my first name in Hindi, which would be: सिमरन (Simrun). It was pretty easy since my name in Hindi only has four consonants and one vowel at the beginning, but it was still interesting to put my study of the alphabet together to learn how to write my name.
In terms of the Level of Competence document, I think I am at a Novice Beginning 0 level for Hindi. I can understand words that are similar to words in Punjabi, but I do not know how to say the words in Hindi, with a different tone. Thus, my recognition skills are helpful in hearing and understanding spoken Hindi, but I need to work on my own ability to speak Hindi. I am meeting with my Language Partner tomorrow to review my learning plan and to see if he has any suggestions for me. Following that meeting, I will post my updated learning plan to this blog. Currently, my learning plan is focused on certain key goals: learning how to read, write, reviewing words that I think I can recognize (colors, numbers, names of animals), learning new vocabulary related to health, food/menus, transportation/travel, family, home information, hobbies, and writing a personal letter. I want to learn the pronouns as well as the spoken and written present/past tense.
Comments