ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ (namaskara, hello!)
Almost everyone in Bangalore speaks some English, but understanding and accents inevitably vary - on several occasions I've been flummoxed even by a cheerful offer of a carrier bag. When asking for auto drivers to stop my first reaction is to say 'anywhere here is fine to stop' which does neither of us any good. One simple suggestion from Sunil is to order coffee 'sugarless' which is much more effective than 'without sugar' or 'no sugar'. I'm learning fairly fast to drop the more English expressions of politeness and every day speech, (would you mind?) but constantly surprised by how many of them I use without thinking.
Apparently Hindi is widely understood, but views vary as to how useful it is here. In the UK I was told that it is sometimes seen even more as an imposed language than English itself - rather like Russian in Eastern Europe. The two South Indian languages that seem to be most widely spoken here are Kannada and Tamil (although there are plenty of others). Kannada's the state language, which means its on road signs and shop fronts, so that's what I've started learning. My homework for the end of the week is learning to recite a new alphabet... which looks like this. And perhaps some of the more practical phrases.
Almost everyone in Bangalore speaks some English, but understanding and accents inevitably vary - on several occasions I've been flummoxed even by a cheerful offer of a carrier bag. When asking for auto drivers to stop my first reaction is to say 'anywhere here is fine to stop' which does neither of us any good. One simple suggestion from Sunil is to order coffee 'sugarless' which is much more effective than 'without sugar' or 'no sugar'. I'm learning fairly fast to drop the more English expressions of politeness and every day speech, (would you mind?) but constantly surprised by how many of them I use without thinking.
Apparently Hindi is widely understood, but views vary as to how useful it is here. In the UK I was told that it is sometimes seen even more as an imposed language than English itself - rather like Russian in Eastern Europe. The two South Indian languages that seem to be most widely spoken here are Kannada and Tamil (although there are plenty of others). Kannada's the state language, which means its on road signs and shop fronts, so that's what I've started learning. My homework for the end of the week is learning to recite a new alphabet... which looks like this. And perhaps some of the more practical phrases.
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