Learning Gujurati

Because my parents spoke Gujurati, their native language, at home, I can understand pretty much everything someone says in Gujurati, unless they’re using unusual vocabulary. But since I didn’t get much chance to speak it outside of home, I never got to practice it enough to be able to speak it easily and somewhat naturally. My ability to speak it always improved after a visit to India, but usually only temporarily since I was young and only stayed for a couple of months.

This time, I’m going to be here for 4 months, and at the rate I’m going, I should be fairly fluent by the end of my trip. I visit my Ba, grandmother, everyday, and since she speaks very little English, I’m forced to speak mostly in Gujurati. At first I surprised myself with how much I could speak when forced to, things I learned before but never actually had to use. I still need to work on the little things, like the masculine/feminine endings, tense endings, and a lot of vocabulary, but the learning curve is going to be pretty high here.

And my mom was so thrilled that now when I call home, I can only speak in Gujurati with her, which means the only time I usually speak English now is with Mama and Mami. I’ve even started thinking and dreaming in Gujurati, which I think is a good sign, as long as my dreams don’t start to look like Hindi films.