(Thane) One of the hardest things about learning a new language is the fact that there are many sounds that occur in some languages but not in others. (I’m not formally learning Hindi, but I’m trying to pick up enough conversational skills to get by.) This makes it very difficult to communicate effectively, even if you “know” what words you are trying to say. If you ever get the chance to see the wonderful play Translations, there are some great scenes addressing this issue.
For me, this comes up on a daily basis because my name–Thane–is basically unpronounceable for native Hindi speakers, because the “th” sound doesn’t exist in Hindi. Instead, they have an aspirated t, which means that they pronounce my name like “T-hane”. I often use my full name–Nathan–which I almost never use in America. At least most Hindi speakers have heard this name before, although they still often mispronounce it as “Nate-Hane”.
Of course, the mispronunciations go both ways. I have an extremely difficult time trying to order takeout from restaurants over the phone. I often find myself repeating the same word many times, until they finally get what I am trying to say. Of course, when they do get it and repeat it, it sounds to my ears exactly like what I was saying all along.
This finally led to some disastrous results, as I attempted to order a masala vada the other day. Now, as it turns out the Hindi word for “twelve” is “bara.” Moreover, in Hindi, the “v” sound is really more like a cross between our “v” and “w”. So the way I pronounce “v” sounds more like “b” to them. And their “r” sound is a harder “r”, kind of like the rolled “r” in Spanish but without the rolling.
The combination of these things meant that when I said “masala vada”, the guy on the other line heard “masala bara.” This miscommunication persisted even after both of us had repeated the order several times. Twenty minutes later, a delivery man showed up with twelve masala dosas, and a bill that was many times higher than what I anticipated. Oops! It appears that my accent needs a lot of work.
Tags: aspiration, communication problems, delivery order, Hindi, malasa dosa, masala vada, pronunciation
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