Reflection 10

[Carly DeFaria]

This week I have really been taking advantage of my language partner Bishan and my friend Adil. Although I have gotten pretty good at using the Mango Language App I have been discovering that it is hard for me to improvise a conversation. I can say phrases if I am first prompted with the phrase in English but I get a little bit confused when faced with questions in Hindi. I have been asking (and possibly annoying) Adil to talk to me in Hindi as much as possible even if I can only say simple questions. I have found it helpful when he throws questions at me that I am not used to but that include words that I know. I feel like this is the best way to learn. I have found that when I am speaking in this manner I tend to mix up the order of words in the sentence. This is likely because Hindi word order is much different than English. When I was learning French this was much less of a problem because the only difference there is really in the adjective placement. However, in Hindi the question words change around and oftentimes you have to add additional words that do not directly translate into English. Overall practice is definitely helping but I think it was important for me to have some sort of basis of vocabulary before jumping right into conversations. I will be sure to try and speak more with Bishan instead of using my time with him to ask general questions and learn vocabulary.