A language can mean different things to different people.
While its basic use is to communicate and put your point across, it can also reflect your aspirations, talent, achievement and sometimes ‘class’, as an Australian researcher learnt during her visit to India.
Dr Cathy Day, Research Manager at the Epidemiology for Policy and Practice Group at the Australian National University in Canberra, spent a year in New Delhi in 2012 volunteering with local NGO – Asha.
It was during that time that she made an acute observation about how the ‘class’ or the ‘social stature’ played a role in how Hindi was used in society by local people.
“It was interesting to observe how the ‘class-difference’ affected one's use of Hindi to communicate,” she tells SBS Hindi.
“I spoke very basic Hindi in Delhi. Vendors, people selling stuff on street and kids I taught in slums used Hindi without any hesitation to communicate with me. They were amused I spoke Hindi. But they were happy to see me having a go at Hindi.
“Whereas every time I tried to strike a conversation in Hindi with people specifically from the middle class, I felt as if they felt insulted. Perhaps they felt that I was speaking in Hindi for their lack of English. They were keen to talk in English. Some others kept correcting my bad grammar,” she elaborates.
"The class-difference played a role in how I was received when I spoke in Hindi."
It was her time in India, her relationship with a Hindi-speaking man and her family history which revealed her Indian ancestry that inspired Dr Day to take up Hindi lessons when she returned to Australia.
Dr Cathy Day during her time in India Source: Supplied
“My family history showed 1/64th per cent of me has an Indian ancestry. That was really intriguing.
“I also fell in love with a man who spoke Hindi. And then my time working in India. Everything was driving me towards learning Hindi.
“I just finished a four-year part-time diploma in Hindi at the Australian National University. In fact, it is helping me learn Russian now as some of the concepts are really similar,” she tells us.
Dr Day’s interest and expertise in public health and population dynamics led her to volunteer in India.
“But I ended up teaching English to kids in some of the poor pockets of the city,” Dr Day shares.
It was during her teaching stint she realised she can’t do it if she did not understand the language the kids spoke.
“That’s what made me learn Hindi. I had to know Hindi to be able to teach them English,” she says.
Dr Day spent a year in India and has really fond memories of her stay.
Dr Cathy Day with her students in Delhi. Source: Supplied
“Hindi was a big part of it. Once I was serving langar (free food) at my local gurudwara (Sikh temple), which admitted people of all faiths for the food.
“Two little girls were there and one pointed at me and said to the other “Dekho, gori hai” (Look, there’s a white woman). I served them their food and said: “Namaste, main aastreliya se hoon” (Hello, I’m from Australia). The look of surprise on their faces was priceless,” she recalls.
Dr Day believes learning new languages can have huge benefits.
“I have interacted in Hindi/Urdu with people when I have visited Dubai. The two languages have a lot of similarities.
“And my recent trip to Russia during the Football World Cup motivated me to take up Russian. So that’s what I am learning right now.”
Dr Cathy Day in India Source: Supplied
SBS National Languages Competition 2018
As part of SBS National Languages Competition 2018, we are exploring your stories and experiences with the Hindi language. If you have an interesting story to share, write to us.
