Hindi Lessons

Now I just have to figure out what it is that I am reading. Either way I am so excited to make sense of these foreign characters, and it’s all thanks to our ever-enthusiastic teacher Rosie!

We have met many Indians, most of whom are friendly and helpful, like those we work with, or fun and chatty like the ones we meet at bars. However our Hindi teacher is like none other. Rosie is the most animated and intense person we have encountered, and we have to meet her first thing in the morning, three times a week! Since my friend first wandered into her school (aka home), she hasn’t stopped calling us and asking to see us again.  She usually teaches English to Indian kids, but you can tell from her excitement and extreme facial expressions that we are the first foreigners that she has taught Hindi to!

The three of us are definitely her favorite students (I have a feeling she has framed the “mandatory” photos we gave her for her wall) and thinks that whatever we say is insanely hilarious! Sometimes we make jokes about the words to better remember them and she spits out her water laughing, snorting and stumbling over and says “oh my good, I am falling on the floor!” or ”ooh I am going to run away!” 

I am afraid we might give her a heart attack.

Her daughter, cat and some other students are usually in the room during our class who are obviously listening to our lesson, since whenever we say something incorrect they start to snicker.  Rosie sometimes joins them to make fun of us which gets everybody laughing. The best is when we actually get something right and she screams, gives us a big slap on the back and then apologizes for being so outrageous. She also got upset one day after I had actually done my homework and knew the content,  she accused me of going to a different teacher since there is no way I could have learned all that from her!

Rosie is a good teacher, at least to us; whenever we arrive she immediately ignores the other students or just tells them to come back another time. Her techniques might be a little forceful but she encourages us to come as much as possible – if we can’t make it in the morning, she lets us come separately whenever suits us best. When we are not having lessons, she is calling us to meet for dinner or a movie – she wants to go see iron man 3! And her next idea is to have a photo shoot where her daughter can dress us up like Indians so she can have a huge poster to remember us by and put on her wall until she dies (her own words).

Rosie looks much too calm in this photo!

Rosie is a very nice lady but she is all too excited to spend time with us, thank goodness she isn’t a puppy since I think she would pee on the floor! After all our time here I hope that I will be able to understand a little bit of the Hindi language and pronounce words properly, but I am glad to be learning Hindi with a fun teacher and definitely won’t be able to forget her!