Hey Local Guides!
Like you, I love making friends around the world and a big part of what makes that possible is learning other languages. I have always excelled at picking up new languages, but didn’t really get a lot of encouragement around it growing up. In fact, I remember being excited about receiving “All As” in Spanish on my report card and someone said that it didn’t really matter and that I should focus more on improving my Cs in math. Flash forward to today and my math is fine (Thanks for all the help, Google Sheets!), and I can speak quite a bit of Spanish, some French, a hint of Hebrew and can say “thank you” in about 15 other languages. And that’s just scratching the surface of our 7,000 total estimated languages spoken around the world!
Knowing Spanish has helped me tremendously in my life. It’s helped me get an awesome job at the local children’s hospital, communicate with homeless men and women in my neighborhood who don’t speak English, supported my missions work at Camp Possible for empowering young women amputees in the Dominican Republic, and of course, it’s always fun to practice when on vacation in Mexico. I get pretty pumped about the bridges, not walls, built during these conversations. To put it simply, trying to understand another language is a bit like solving a math problem for me. But the outcome of “solving for x” isn’t a numerical formula, it’s the beautiful opportunity to connect with another person.
Anyways, up until last week, I knew Zero words in Hindi, the second most spoken language in the world. It originated in India and is spoken by 490 million people around the world. And Hindi isn’t even the only language spoken in India - there are an estimated 457 languages spoken in this ancient nation steeped with history and cultural significance. Given my background teaching yoga and obsession with my friend’s BollyPop class in my neighborhood of Santa Monica, it felt important to learn more about Indian culture and the Hindi language. This desire to keep learning led me to register for a Beginner Hindi class with my dear friend and fellow Local Guide from India, Archit Ojha. @ArchitOjha and I met at Connect Live 2019 and I’m truly grateful for our friendship thanks to this incredible community.
Perhaps you know Archit too?!
Just one week before the coronavirus pressed pause on the planet, Archit had the chance to visit my husband and I at our home in Santa Monica. We hosted him for a special dinner together, not knowing that this would be one of our last social interactions for a very, very long time. Archit is one of the most enthusiastic people I’ve ever met so I was not surprised when he recently DM’ed me on Instagram and told me he had founded his own language start-up company to share his love of languages with others. Naturally, Archit is a polyglot himself and speaks an astounding 9 languages!
We met for class virtually on Zoom, which seamlessly connected us from 8,500 miles away across many, many time zones! To give you an idea of how committed Archit is to teaching others, he hosted the class at 2:00am his time. He stayed up all night so that I could learn! Archit is patient, encouraging and kind with me as I stumbled through the first few words of this unfamiliar, new language! He also taught me a lot about India’s rich cultural history, the fight for independence from British rule, their obsession with the most famous cricket player Sachin Tendulkar and other important-to-know societal norms. For example, they don’t have words in the Hindi language for boyfriend/girlfriend and the concept of “privacy” is non-existent. There isn’t even a word for “privacy” in the Hindi language!
Even though I sounded like a lil baby learning how to say “dada,” I’ve found that having a beginner’s attitude is the best way to learn something new. It’s important to throw fear out the window and not be afraid to make a mistake! And of course, practice, practice practice.
After our first session together, Archit provided me with a 50+ page deck with detailed instructions on how to practice at home. I’m wading through that little by little and consulting my notes. I still have a long way to go, but I’m grateful I can now confidently introduce myself in Hindi (Mein Ashley Hoon) and of course, say dhanyawaad to Archit after each lesson.
Am I going to use Hindi every day in my life? Hmmm, probably nahi. However, when Josh and I watched The White Tiger on Netflix the other night, I noticed that my ears were actually picking up quite a few of the words I’d learned the weekend before.
But listen. I think challenging ourselves to learn something new, support our friends’ initiatives and better connect with others is generally a good practice to grow our hearts and expand our minds.
If you’re a Local Guide interested in learning a challenging new language, I highly recommend it. You will discover a “whole new world!” I am grateful to be part of this incredible global community. You can connect with our fellow Local Guide @ArchitOjha here on the Local Guides Connect platform or via Instagram: https://instagram.com/linguacastle?igshid=1l38gs1pu6f7u.
P.S. Please let me know in the comments how you say THANK YOU in your language, so I can keep learning 
Can’t wait to meet you, fellow Local Guides!
