6.10 Cultural Notes and Extra/Optional Online Materials

Cultural Notes

Topics Explanation
1. तू, तुम, आप It is very important for all Hindi language learners to learn the proper uses of तू, तुम, आप. Typically, people learn about students’ cultural competence based on their uses of these three variants of the pronoun “You.” As it is explained in the chapter, you should use them appropriately.
2. Giving order As you learned in this chapter that तू and तुम forms are used for giving instruction and command. Hindi native speakers hardly use this with strangers. So, if you meet any strangers please use आप form and try not to give instruction and command form.
3. Making request Please use this आप form to make a request. However, it is important to keep in mind that native speakers may use subjunctive to express request and not the imperative forms of आप.
4. Cooking Unlike America, in India, traditionally, people learn to cook by either participating in cooking or observing. Reading a cook book and/or follow any written recipe is not in culture.
5. Giving direction In India, people use landmarks for giving direction because towns/cities are not well planned and hence no one really knows the name of the street other than the main streets/roads.
6. Giving suggestions Indians and South Asians always give advice and suggestions even though you won’t ask for it. It may sound for non-Indians as violation of privacy and receiving unsolicited suggestions. However, this is the way they show that they care and express their love for you. Please observe this culture and participate in this.

Additionally, older people may use imperative construction to give suggestions/advice rather than (verb+चाहिए) construction which might sound rude but this is how they want to emphasize that you should do what s/he is suggesting you.

Extra/Optional Online Materials

Verbs:

https://www.hindipod101.com/hindi-vocabulary-lists/50-most-common-verbs

Recipe:

Giving Direction in Hindi

Free Advice in India/South Asia.

धन्यवाद !

 

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Basic Hindi Copyright © 2021 by Rajiv Ranjan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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