This past week and a half, Abhi and I have been working on skills related to time and transportation. We discussed how to bargain for a rickshaw trip, how to tell a driver where I want to go, and how to tell time.
Telling time in Hindi is a little different than in English. Whereas Americans may say "It's 6:45", an Indian may say "pona saat", which means "quarter til 7". They use a lot more "quarter-til," "quarter-past", and "half-past" than we do.
In Hindi they also have an assumed 1:00 when telling time. Thus, if you want to say 12:45 (quarter to 1) you simply say pona (quarter to). Similarly, there is a special word for 1:30. Instead of saying sare ek (half past one), you say a unique word der which is used only for 1:30 o'clock.
I have an idea for an activity to tie together a lot of the topics I have studied this year. I can write a one-day journal with many entries. Each entry would contain the following:
- the time
- my location
- what I am doing
Comments
I think this is a great idea to practice the language outside of lesson time! Once you start to practice daily, I'm sure it gets easier to also think, read, and speak in the language.