Learning Hindi in Durban

Friday, April 16, 2010
Learning Hindi in Durban
It was my second lesson in Hindi. At the first lesson last week, I was very nervous as the class was bigger than I had anticipated, with about 20 fellow learners, and some had not even attended.

Our teacher "aadhyapak,"in Hindi, or rather "maada," because she is female, is very patient and kind soul who is very tolerant of slow learners, so I think this is a good class to stick with.

I have a basic knowledge of words, which I remember from my childhood when I would hear my Mom speak to relatives, and when she would try to teach us the little she knew. What I find difficulty with is actually saying what i want to out loud. I am further finding it difficult to remember the words I had learnt from last week.

This week our maada, was away, and asked us to meet and revise our words and phrases. We decided that since we joined the class late we would do as she asked. A few minutes after we had begun our lesson, we had a visit from a Indian National who was visiting for an hour. He was a merchant at the Indian fair and had been invited to the class, by an acquaintance.

He was able to get us speaking simple sentences in the hour that he was there, and our pronunciation was improving as well. The hour flew without us realising it, and my confidence grew as well. I realise that learning a new language is the same as learning anything, with practise and confidence, learning can be so easy.

I am now motivated to speak Hindi, and am going to persevere with the wonderful group of people of all ages who are in the class. Each one of them motivated to learn a language that was denied to them because of our history in the education system. One gentleman stated that throughout our history as Indians in south Africa, it was always more beneficial to learn English and Latin, then it was English and Afrikaans and even now, they would like us to learn English and Isizulu.

It seems that whoever rules, dictates the languages that we learn formally in school.
With so much pressure to succeed in school subjects, it is not possible to insist on children taking other subjects after a tiring day at school. In fact most parents allow their children to catch up on the lessons with tuition in Maths and science to ensure matric entrance.

More often than not we ask them to take a European language instead of our mother tongue, so that they would be able to traverse the world and find better opportunities in faraway lands where the exchange rate yields more money per hour of work.

With Hindi, which is not far from my parents mother tongue of Urdu, I am hoping to personally redress my own distance that I feel from my culture. This does not mean that I wish to abandon the broader culture of being a South African. It just means that I wish to find a path to my roots that was denied to me by circumstances that were beyond the control of a whole generation who found themselves aliens in the country of their birth, “children born to immigrants from India, on South African soil." I am a second generation mix of Indian and Middle Eastern, but I have only a working understanding of simple Hindi/Urdu. My children know nothing of these languages that are widely prevalent in the world, because the population of India and Pakistan where they are spoken is so vast. I do hope that with my interest it will stimulate an interest in my children to pursue some lessons in the language.

I also have watched many Indians movies from Bollywood which releases songs with romantic lyrics. i was often told by my dad and other relatives that the true meaning of the poetry is often lost in translation, and only when you have a grasp of the language, can you begin understand the full impact of the passion and meaning locked within. My Hindi classes hopefully hold the key to these mysteries, and will reveal to me more in terms of the meaning of life too...........A burning question that haunts my soul..........