For a kid living in the US, and one that mostly converses in english, S is pretty good at hindi too. Her hindi, though a little grammatically wrong and severely limited in vocabulary, is strong enough that she can hold a conversation in hindi interspersed with english words and wrong usage of grammar. I love that! These are the moments that remind me that my S is still a little girl. I cherish this broken hindi!
The other day I was taking S to the swim practice. She was in the back with Baby M and observing her quite intently. Baby M, it seems, was making funny faces (probably trying to push that "ball" of gas out :P) so S says "Aap ganda muh bana rahe ho - mamma se aapko BIG FAT daant milegi" (you are making "bad" face. You will get a big fat scolding from mommy). Then she says to me "Isko BIG FAT daant dena" (give her a BIG FAT scolding)!
My mom still remembers the time when S innocently asked her over the phone "आपके पास रात है? हम के पास दिन है" (She meant "Is it night at your end? Here it is day")
And she routinely gets confused between "Apan" (अपन) and "Hum" (हम). Today she was telling me "अपन कल बीच (beach) जायेंगे " when she actually meant " हम कल बीच जायेंगे ". I love this and am so sad that it is only here for a little while more. My little girl will grow up pretty soon.
Sweet! :)
ReplyDeleteHaha! I love such talks of kids! Just love them too much! I'm still trying to find means to record the voice of my son talking in this weet little voice!
ReplyDeleteBTW, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Ceekay!!!! Have a wonderful year filled with the laughter of your family!
ReplyDeleteCK,
ReplyDeleteFrom one Leo to another - best wishes on your birthday again :-)
Your post about S's Hindi made me smile. In Nagpur, where I did all my higher education, we often used apan and hum interchangeably. Even my Muslim friends who would normally speak perfect Hindi/urdu at home would revert to this in college :-)
Another such confusing word was "how" for haan (Yes)
gg
आपकी बेटी की बातें बहुत प्यारी है।
ReplyDeleteकुछ लोग आपको जन्मदिन की भी शुभकामनायें दे रहें है पर केक तो कहीं दिखायी नहीं दे रहा है :-)
Awww... hope you're camcording all this. The only Hindi Raina knows is thanks to film songs. Her current favorite is "Phoolon ke rang se..." and she knows the entire song! Which reminds me, I should be camcording it too...
ReplyDeleteOh, that's so sweet. And belated birthday wishes to you!
ReplyDeleteSo cute, makes me want to have a baby. Well almost, my husband will freak out, hee hee.
ReplyDeleteDo you talk to her in Hindi at home or mix it between Hindi and English? What does she prefer to talk to you at home? That conversation you describe of humke pas din hai aapke paas raat hai is cracking me up right now! Really so cute.
Belated birthday wishes!! For some reason, blogger wouldn't let me comment on your blog on the D-day.
ReplyDeleteBelated Happy B'day!! I remembered the day before but forgot yesterday :( A 1000 apologies!
ReplyDeleteHope you had a fun day. Wishing you much happiness all year around :)
the good thing is - at least she's making the effort to speak in Hindi - and not abandoning it completely... and what she does speak - sounds soooo sweet.
ReplyDelete~nm, 30in2005, moppet's mom, unmukt, rohini, SS: Thanks for the b'day wishes.
ReplyDeleteGGOP: You're a Leo too? Glad to meet you! When is your birthday?
I know what you mean about changing "speaking style" - every time I visit/meet my cousins from UP, I start saying "hum for "mai" and "aap" for tum"!
Unmukt: Cake nahin tha :( But we did go out for dinner!
A Muser: I haven't recorded it for itself but yes - her voice has been recorded in many home videos.
STS: Yes, most of the times, if we speak to her in hindi, she replies in hindi only. But she feels more comfortable speaking english (naturally). But fortunately, I haven't seen a reluctance to speak in hindi yet.
Sinusoidally: Well, go ahead then! Start plannign already :D
We spoke to her in hindi initially because we figured she will pick up english once she starts going to pre-school/school. Later, before she started pre-school, we also started speaking to her in english so she wouldn't have language problems. Now we mostly speak a mix of hindi and english at home. And when her dada-dadi visited us last year, we asked them to speak to her only in hindi and told her to reply in hindi too. She picked up more hindi then. Hope to do the same this time when my parents visit.
Best wishes on your birthday CeeKay
ReplyDeleteI love that kind of talk, little S is very good in Bengali and she makes all kinds of grammatical mistakes while speaking English. It is so much fun to hear her :) I still remember when last year she came and told me she had "froggies" for lunch at school (it was pierogies) :)
Sandeepa: Froggies? LOL!! Yes, the grammatical mistakes are so cute. It is sad that they pass this stage all too quickly.
ReplyDeleteThat is cute! I know a lot of adults who will interchange apan and hum. S is still a little kid and not surrounded by hindi speaking folks all the time.
ReplyDeleteBTW Happy Birthday!
That's so cute! Btw, belated happy birthday. Hope you has loads of fun :)
ReplyDeletebelated birthday wishes. i am so sorry i missed it :( her hindi sounds adorable. enjoy while it lasts!
ReplyDelete