Although our posts often involve the theme of language, we rarely take the time to focus on particular words that cause us an inordinate amount of frustration or amusement. Nor do we often share stories about how (especially VA's) extremely colloquial American English often bewilders those we interact with. So here are two examples:
- कल ("kal" - or k-uh-l)
This crazy little word means both "yesterday" and "tomorrow," and is used all the time. Think that's confusing? Yeah, I do too. I could also probably write some vaguely coherent technical-sounding nonsense about how it provides insight into the uniquely Indian conception of time, but I'll spare you that jabber.
कल is joined in its attempts to confuse those of us learning Hindi by the word परसों ("parso"), which means both "day after tomorrow" and "day before yesterday." Hurray...
- "ish"
Every so often, Jeff has to insert himself in whatever conversation I'm having with a non-native English speaker and explain what I'm trying to communicate. Often, I'm not even aware that I've made the eyes of the person I'm talking to glaze over, so it's quite convenient to have Jeff here looking out for me. This is usually because I've slipped into whatever weird dialect I use (a California/Arkansas hybrid - thanks for that, mom).
This happened a few days ago, when one of our project assistants* asked what time she should come into the office tomorrow (कल strikes again!), and I said "tenish." After a moment's pause, Jeff asked if she understood what I said, and she shook her head. So I launched into an explanation of how "ish" is very colloquial, and is used to make something sound "a bit more gray." When Jeff shook his head at me, I rephrased it, using clearer words like "approximate" and such. Then I tried to explain how it's a "suffix" (another head shake from Jeff), "by which I mean you add it onto words, it's not a word on its own," and then I wrote several examples. The best part was hearing the two of them very carefully repeating "ish… tenish…" with utmost seriousness.
So it's a pretty fair trade - Bihari Hindi for colloquial American English (or at least whatever I speak).
*Our project assistants speak near perfect English, so that definitely wasn't the issue.
** The title of this post comes from the name of an English-language school in a nearby rural district. Phenomenal irony.
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