learning hindi & french

[speakingshrooms]

vocabulary focus

travel & transport

basic convo words

feelings

personal info

art/creativity

[global-musings]

Pineapple Seller. Colombo, Sri Lanka (1979) - Bruno Barbey

[reyolivier]

[speakingshrooms]

night 1 (india, a loose theme)

the train has reached amritsar, bhisham sahni 1990 (translated from hindi by alok bhalla). no frills style of writing, character focused, disturbing. safely nestled in the bosom of one's land and people, one may reserve a dangerous audacity. i learnt a new word 'dalkhor', derogatory term meaning 'lentil eater' (ok meee). 9 pages.

ajj aakhan waris shah nu, amrita pritam 1948 (translated from punjabi by the author). i think this one is better for those who know the waris shah lore and can read punjabi because i'm certain i missed a lot there.

defining india's identity, bhikhu parekh 2006. i learnt the national motto is satyameva jayate 'truth alone triumphs' and satya is an important concept.

i stopped reading because my eyes kept closing. if this program is meant to get your attention span back into business it also does the age old trick of boring you to sleep.

[speakingshrooms]

from tonight i am committing myself to the ray bradbury rebuild your attention span program: one short story, one poem, one essay every night before bed for 1000 nights. gonna do it nowww

[omgindiablog]

Wayanad, Kerala, India: Wayanad is a district in the north-east of the Indian state of Kerala, with administrative headquarters at the municipality of Kalpetta. Wikipedia

[upstairsdownstairsandinbetween]

Nisarga Art Hub, Ernakulam, India,

Wallmakers,

Photography: © Syam Sreesylam

[speakingshrooms]

23/06/25 (6/200)

what i did

recapped palatal consonants, i've got च (ch) down and kind of छ (chh) too. i need to do some vocab practice with the other three ज (j), झ (jh), ञ (nj)

made letter flashcards for guttural consonants (क, ख, ग, घ) with drawings that are soooo cute will post this week

made a quizlet with vocab so far

goals this week

learn the palatal consonants

learn 1-2 more vowels and their diacritic forms

make 2 more letter flashcards

practise quizlet every day

add 10 new vocab words

trip to SL/india/nepal updates: i have some regrets about not bringing enough back with me from nepal, like material things that would remind me of my time there. i have a few objects and they are very precious to me, like my necklace and henna cones. i also didn't realise that there are some things you can only get in nepal (duh). things i would like to get this time (for all 3 countries) are a small rug (for yoga, meditation and prayer), clothes/fabrics/textiles (shirts and wool in nepal!), thangka painting, trekking patch (i will also get the ebc patch i never got!), silver bracelets and anklets, jewellery in general, hand painted signs, prayer flags, ayurvedic products (neem face wash), chai cup holder, and an old lady's masala chai recipe. on that last point actually i would love to get some cooking lessons. i'm going to have to bring another bag! 😳 and i want to take so many more photos and bring a camcorder!!!!

[speakingshrooms]

22/06/25 (6/100)

palatal consonants

च (ch)

छ (chh)

ज (j)

झ (jh)

ञ (nj)

new vocab

चावल - chawal - rice

चाय - chai - tea

चांद - chaad - moon

चाँदी - chaadee - silver

दो - do - two

[speakingshrooms]

good language learning tools i have used while learning hindi as a beginner!

devanagari script tool

basic hindi free online textbook by rajiv ranjan

hindiuniversity

[speakingshrooms]

21/06/25 (5/200)

i spent the last few days practising the guttural consonants so things don't get confusing when i move onto the next set of consonants. recapped greetings/introductions in the last few days also. today i learnt and practised guttural vowels and their diacritic forms when combined with the guttural consonants

guttural vowels

अ (a)

आ (aa)

diacritic form (with क)

अ = क

आ = का

vocab

गंगा - ganga - Ganges

गरम - garam - hot

घर - ghar - house

कम - kam - little, less

एक - ek - one

india travel updates - i would like to go into the north east state of meghalaya and explore the garo hills (which i saw a lovely mini doc about). based on its geography i am thinking it would be better to boomerang back into india (darjeeling/west bengal, assam, meghalaya) after nepal otherwise i would be backtracking to get into nepal.

[speakingshrooms]

17/06/25 (1/200)

5 consonants -

क (ka)

ख (kha)

ग (ga)

घ (gha)

ङ (ng)

vocab words using these consonants and other words (hindi - pronunciation - english)

कपड़े - kapade - clothes

कम - kam - little, less

खिड़की - khidakee - window

खाना - khana - food

गरम - garam - hot

गाँव - gaanv - village

घर - ghar - house

शांति - shanti - peace

पालक - paalak - spinach

एक - ek - one

+ the topics phrases and vocab i want to learn and some lovely ladies in azul i found on pinterest

[speakingshrooms]

so i started learning nepali because i was going to nepal (duh) but when i was there it was 100% possible to get by in hindi (not spoken by myself) and considering the crazy disparity in resources for learning the two languages and the reach that hindi has across multiple countries in south asia im going to switch my focus to hindi and hopefully by the time i leave for sri lanka (also going to try learn some basic tamil phrases) in january i'll be able to communicate a bit with people and not feel so shitty for speaking english all the time!

[themoonsaid]

Hindi is not difficult. reading in Hindi is not difficult. writing in Hindi is not difficult. counting in Hindi is not difficult. Hindi numbers are not difficult (१२३४५६७८९०). alphabets क्ष,ष,फ are not difficult. you just consume, are surrounded by and have been taught english and the latin alphabets way more than your native language and script use some sense

(this goes for any language not just hindi btw)

[speakingshrooms]

8th December nepali words!

hand - hat (ha - t)

cup - kap

fire - ago

dog - kukur

[wonderful-language-sounds]

Websites & Courses

Alphabet Stroke Order PDF Worksheet

FSI Basic Nepali Course

Learn101 Nepali

Learn Nepali

Memrise Courses

Blog @nepalgo

Nepali: A Beginner’s Primer Conversation and Grammar

Omniglot - Writing System

Peace Corps - Basic Course in Spoken Nepali

Peace Corps - Basic Nepali Course

Peace Corps - Nepali Supplements

Phrases

Book PDF’s

A Descriptive Grammar of Nepali

Nepali: A Beginner’s Primer

Structure of Nepali Grammar

Teach Yourself Nepali

Dictionaries:

Digital Himalaya 

English Nepali Dictionary 

Forvo: Pronunciation Dictionary

Lexilogos

Nepali-English Dictionary

Media:

BBC Nepali Sewa

Kantipur TV 

Literature and poetry

Namaste Radio

Radio Kantipur

SBS Nepali (podcast)

[speakingshrooms]

7th December 2024 nepali words pronunciation

yak - yak

cold - dzalo

today - azoh

toilet paper - sauchalayoh kagodz