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Bollywood/Hindi Question | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio |  | |
| cmellor Newbie United States practicalzen.blogspo Joined 6041 days ago 27 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 13 02 March 2012 at 3:46pm | IP Logged |
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My wife and I were watching a Bollywood spectacular on NetFlix last night and we both noticed a very curious thing. Though the film was in Hindi, English was interspersed throughout. And not just little phrases, but whole sentences. And sometimes, in the middle of sentences!
This was odd to both of us who have a lot of experience watching foreign films and have never seen anything like this. Is this they way Bollywood films usually are? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| anjathilina Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6607 days ago 33 posts - 106 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Spanish, Mandarin Studies: Hindi | Message 2 of 13 02 March 2012 at 3:56pm | IP Logged |
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Yup. I was surprised just as you are the first time I watched a Bollywood (Jab We Met--
which is a great one if that wasn't the one you're referring to!) I have since watched many, and all that I have seen have a liberal sprinkling of English mixed in with the Hindi. One exception-- I started watching one recently that is set in the time of the Mughals, and so far that one doesn't have any English! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cmellor Newbie United States practicalzen.blogspo Joined 6041 days ago 27 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 13 02 March 2012 at 4:03pm | IP Logged |
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Anjathilina - Good to know! The movie we started watching (but didn't finish because it was a bit long) was Mere Brother ki Dulhan (My Brothers Wife). It is very funny and the music isn't that bad. I thought that the code switching in the film had something to do with the British involvement in India and the fact that one of the characters is supposed to have been born in London.
What surprised us the most was the use of English phrases in the midst of full and complicated sentences that are otherwise in Hindi. I think we are going to sit down and finish the film tonight. The only bad thing is that the movie now has me interested in learning Hindi - like I have time for that! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4912 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 4 of 13 02 March 2012 at 4:17pm | IP Logged |
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The use of the occasional English word is considered quite acceptable in spoken Hindi, to the extent that the Teach Yourself Hindi books all mention that you can throw in an English word if you don't know the Hindi word. In most urban areas where Hindi is spoken, you will find a certain amount of English used, even by people who don't really know English. People who are bilingual seem to switch constantly, probably depending on the topic of the sentence (e.g. whichever language they have better vocab for that topic).
The titles of both films mentioned in this thread are an example of the mixing as well. Both use English and Hindi words mixed together. The mixing of languages happens far less in older films. In Hindi films from the 70s English might occasionally be used by a character to show something about them, e.g. they aren't very Indian. cmellor: Hindi is a wonderful language, and there are pretty good resources out there for learning it. The writer of the Teach Yourself Hindi books has a lot of free resources, including audio reviews of the vocab from each chapter of the book, at the Hindi Urdu Flagship website. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| cmellor Newbie United States practicalzen.blogspo Joined 6041 days ago 27 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 13 02 March 2012 at 4:21pm | IP Logged |
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Jeffers - Thank you for your insight and the resources! I might put Hindi on the short list if my wife and I watch a few more of these films! I am currently trying to bring my Spanish up to speed and had plans to launch into German mid-year, but as the saying goes, "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans!"
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| anjathilina Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6607 days ago 33 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Spanish, Mandarin Studies: Hindi | Message 7 of 13 02 March 2012 at 7:31pm | IP Logged |
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I second the thanks for the link, Jeffers!
Bollywood is what got me interested in actually studying Hindi. I have only just dipped my toes in so far, but it is fascinating and I'm really enjoying it. I find the language quite beautiful. The mixed-in English actually make Bollywood subtitled films more useful for actual learning than many foreign language films. When I was a beginner in Japanese, there was no way I could tease out any new vocabulary from a subtitled Japanese film. But with Bollywood, the English word can be like an "anchor" in the sentence so that I can figure out Hindi words and recognize them when they are used again. Plus, there is a lot of repetition in the songs. This year for Valentine's Day my husband bought me Rupert Snell's Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Script. I was thrilled! I think I earned my "language nerd" card that day! :) cmellor, if you like Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, I definitely recommend Jab We Met! Have fun! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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