jonathan/ferguson

so here’s what’s going on in class these days. we’ve been tackling intense grammar the past two weeks, which can be difficult to understand and even more difficult to use correctly. that probably explains why no one on the street does so. and i’ve found my friends to be of absolutely no help because they themselves don’t have a clue what i’m talking about. which is totally normal. i realize that even i can’t explain why i say things a certain way in english. even when there are multiple ways to say it that are grammatically correct, i’m quick to say, oh we would never say it that way. and so i’m equally reprimanded, often with no explanation.

because language is so contextual. so interwoven with culture, you have to wrap your head around the use of the language. the approach to the language. the implications of what’s really being said by what’s being said. and after having gotten rather used to direct action (i.e. she is making the food), i’ve now been challenged with the reality of a passive indian culture (i.e. the food is being made).

for the most part in hindi, direct statements are limited and the true passive or neutral passive form is used. no one likes to take direct responsibility for something that’s said. nor do they like to force someone else to take responsibility. its almost as if i take my sentence and lay it on the table in front of me for them to pick up. they pick it up from the table themselves rather than me handing it to them. in that way, the direct action is avoided. one example. i might tell my housekeeper, please wash my clothes. but an hour later, it would be a bit too forward to ask, did you wash my clothes?  instead, i would ask were the clothes washed?

from passive, we’ve now added causative forms of verbs. basically used when a doer causes a mover to do something. or when a doer has a mediator to cause a mover to do something. all a bit confusing, i know. in this case, say for example, i go to the dry cleaner. in english i would say, please clean this shirt, hem those pants, iron that shirt. i know that the man i am talking to is not going to do the work. there is clearly no dry cleaning equipment in the small shop. it is implied that it will be sent somewhere else and someone else will do it. and he knows i am not asking him to do it. but in hindi, i would change the structure of the sentence and say, please have this shirt cleaned, those pants hemmed, and that shirt ironed. in other words, please cause someone else to do it. similarly, if i were having a meeting in someone’s office, i would not say, may i please have a glass of water? fairly normal english. instead, i would mostly likely say, would you please have someone to bring me a glass of water?

switching between forms and knowing what to use when only comes with time. and it will probably take months, even years, of listening to people dance around the action to know when i too should dance. until then, like any good english speaker, i’ll probably be too direct, partly because i’m still directly translating and partly because its so engrained in who i am. and when the day comes that i’m naturally thinking and speaking passively, that will be the day i’m also dreaming in hindi.

which reminds me. there’s a new book out called dreaming in hindi about an american journalist from new york who moved to udaipur to study hindi. the book is her memoir, but she goes into great depth about the process of language learning, what your mind goes through in order to tackle a language. i hope to get my hands on a copy soon!