ahh learning new languages...
in an attempt to jump start my nepali language learning i tried to take advantage of having a captive teacher during our treck in nepal a few weeks back. trying to sieze as many teachable moments as possible i would sidle up to our guide, gonga, asking a few random vocab questions, you know things like, "how do you say...we're climbing a mountain or i'm dying climbing up all these stairs or i would kill for a big juicy steak right now..." whatever.
here's the problem with language learning. misunderstandings and assumptions...
on one of our many water breaks i overheard gonga talking with some fellow nepalis and noted a few words i'd hoped would be useful in exploring. first mistake.
and this is a glimpse of how the rest of the teaching sessions went...
me: "gonga, what does huncha mean?"
gonga: "eaass"
me: "what does it mean?"
gonga: "eeaaasss"
me: "what?" (and as i turn to point at my ghetto) "do you mean aasss?" (and yes i did point)
gonga: "no!, eeyyeeess."
me: (sheepishly) "oh, yeess. oh gosh. that wasn't good."
so there you have it folks. not always a good idea to mime out what you think you're learning in nepali. because there's a fairly hig percentage rate that you'll be wrong and end up being highly culturely inappropriate.
4 comments:
Since I say huncha a ton of times a day I will think of you a lot more often. I just have to not laugh when I say yes to Rekha. Although I am sure I will giggle and then will get to share this with her:-)
yeah and make sure you point at your booty when you say it from now on ok...
Very nice Beth. Next time you might try and hear the latter rather than the former. If so you would have only pointed to you eye ball and the Nepali man might not think you're coming on to him...
hahahahaha, i like that he said "eeeaasss" and you heard "ass" LOVE the midwestern accent, even in nepal! :)
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