Learn about the different living situations and how to apologize
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Neha: "Namaste," I'm Neha, and welcome to the Absolute Beginner Series, Lesson 20, Making Your Apologies in Hindi. |
| Maya: "Namaste," I'm Maya, In this lesson you'll learn how to apologize in Hindi. |
| Neha: The conversation takes place on a street. |
| Maya: It's between Kamala and Mahima. |
| Neha: They are neighbors but are not too familiar with each other and so will be speaking formal Hindi. |
| Maya: Let's listen to their conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| कमला (kamaLaa): आपके पास अभी समय है? (aapake paaS abhii Samay hai?) |
| महिमा (mahimaa): मुझे बहुत अफ़सोस है लेकिन मैं जल्दी में हूँ। (mujhe bahuT afaSoS hai LekiN main jaLDii men huun.) |
| कमला (kamaLaa): कोई बात नहीं। (koii baaT Nahiin.) |
| महिमा (mahimaa): माफ़ कीजिए! मुझे मेरी सास के लिए रात का खाना पकाना है। (maaf kiijiye! mujhe merii SaaS ke Liye raaT kaa khaaNaa pakaaNaa hai.) |
| Neha: Now let's listen to the same conversation at a slow speed. |
| कमला (kamaLaa): आपके पास अभी समय है? (aapake paaS abhii Samay hai?) |
| महिमा (mahimaa): मुझे बहुत अफ़सोस है लेकिन मैं जल्दी में हूँ। (mujhe bahuT afaSoS hai LekiN main jaLDii men huun.) |
| कमला (kamaLaa): कोई बात नहीं। (koii baaT Nahiin.) |
| महिमा (mahimaa): माफ़ कीजिए! मुझे मेरी सास के लिए रात का खाना पकाना है। (maaf kiijiye! mujhe merii SaaS ke Liye raaT kaa khaaNaa pakaaNaa hai.) |
| Maya: Let's now listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| कमला (kamaLaa): आपके पास अभी समय है? (aapake paaS abhii Samay hai?) |
| Neha: "Do you have time right now?" |
| महिमा (mahimaa): मुझे बहुत अफ़सोस है लेकिन मैं जल्दी में हूँ। (mujhe bahuT afaSoS hai LekiN main jaLDii men huun.) |
| Maya: "I am really sorry but I am in a hurry." |
| कमला (kamaLaa): कोई बात नहीं। (koii baaT Nahiin.) |
| Neha: "No problem." |
| महिमा (mahimaa): माफ़ कीजिए! मुझे मेरी सास के लिए रात का खाना पकाना है। (maaf kiijiye! mujhe merii SaaS ke Liye raaT kaa khaaNaa pakaaNaa hai.) |
| Maya: "I'm really sorry! I have to cook dinner for my mother-in-law." |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Neha: Some of you listeners might be thinking that this is too random a scenario, that Mahima has to go home and cook dinner for her mother-in-law and doesn't have time to spare. |
| Maya: Actually this is a typical living situation in India, where the wife lives with her husband's entire family. |
| Neha: And sometimes, if the family has brothers, you can even find them living under the same roof with all their wives, children and parents. |
| Maya: In such households, the husband's mother and father are the authoritative figure and the daughters-in-law have to do most of the household chores. |
| Neha: This joint family system is practiced in many places in India. Of course, more and more families in cities are becoming nuclear, that is, they just have one family. |
| Maya: In a way, I think the joint family system is really nice because it makes the family atmosphere much more social too, you know. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Neha: Okay then, time to look at some of the words that came up in the conversation. |
| Maya: We'll first say the words at natural speed, then a bit slower, and finally we'll give you the meaning. |
| Neha: Our first word is आपके (aapake), आप-के (aapa-ke), आपके (aapake). |
| Maya: Which means "your." |
| Neha: Next, we have पास (paaS), पा-स (paa-Sa), पास (paaS). |
| Maya: Which means "with." |
| Neha: Then is मुझे (mujhe)," मु-झे (mu-jhe), मुझे (mujhe). |
| Maya: Which means "to me." |
| Neha: Next is अफ़सोस (afaSoS), अफ़-सोस (afa-SoS), अफ़सोस (afaSoS). |
| Maya: Which means "sorry." |
| Neha: Then is जल्दी (jaLdii), जल्दी (jaLdii), जल्दी (jaLdii). |
| Maya: Which means "hurry." |
| Neha: Next is कोई बात नहीं (koii baaT Nahiin), कोई बात नहीं (koii baaT Nahiin), कोई बात नहीं (koii baaT Nahiin). |
| Maya: Which means "no problem" or "no worries." |
| Neha: Then we have माफ़ कीजिए (maaf kiijiye), माफ़ कीजिए (maaf kiijiye), माफ़ कीजिए (maaf kiijiye). |
| Maya: Which means "please forgive me" or "excuse me." |
| Neha: Next is सास (SaaS), सास (SaaS), सास (SaaS). |
| Maya: Which means "mother-in-law." |
| Neha: And finally, we have रात का खाना (raaT kaa khaaNaa), रात का खाना (raaT kaa khaaNaa), रात का खाना (raaT kaa khaaNaa). |
| Maya: Which means "dinner." |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Neha: Let's now look at some of these words in more detail. |
| Maya: सास (SaaS) means "mother-in-law," but a more intimate form of address for your mother-in-law would be... |
| Neha: सासु माँ (SaaSu maan). And your "father-in-law" would be ससुर (SaSur). |
| Maya: Okay, next we have the word मुझे (mujhe), which means "to me." But do you remember that in the last chapter on likes and dislikes we said that "to me" in Hindi is मुझको (mujhako)? |
| Neha: Well, actually, मुझे (mujhe) and मुझको (mujhako) are exactly the same thing. They can be used interchangeably but मुझे (mujhe) is more commonly used. |
| Maya: Likewise, "to you" in Hindi is... |
| Neha: तुमको (Tumako) or तुम्हें (Tumhen) if you're addressing the other informally. |
| Maya: If formally, then you say आपको (aapako), which doesn't have any shorter way of saying it. |
| Neha: "To him," "to her," "to it," or "to this" is इसको (iSako) or इसे (iSe). |
| Maya: This is only for people and things that are closer. |
| Neha: But for those that are further away, for example, for "to that," "to it," "to him," and "to her" is उसको (uSako) or उसे (uSe). |
| Maya: Now the final word we'll look at is the Hindi word for "dinner," which is... |
| Neha: रात का खाना (raaT kaa khaaNaa), which is singular, and रात के खाने (raaT ke khaaNe), which is in its plural form. |
| Maya: Here, रात (raaT) means "night," का (kaa) and के (ke) mean "of," and खाना (khaaNaa) or खाने (khaaNe) mean "food." So literally it means, "food of the night." |
| Neha: This phrase is more commonly used than the other word, रात्रिभोज (raaTribhoj), which also means "dinner." |
Lesson focus |
| Maya: Let's now learn how to say "apologize" in Hindi and also how to respond to people's apologies. |
| Neha: The most useful phrase in Hindi is माफ़ कीजिए (maaf kiijiye). |
| Maya: It can be used in many ways. You can use it to say "Excuse me," as in "Excuse me, where is the market?" |
| Neha: माफ़ कीजिए, बाज़ार कहाँ है? (maaf kiijiye, baazaar kahaan hai?) |
| Maya: You can also use it to mean "I am sorry," as in, "I am sorry, I need to go now." |
| Neha: माफ़ कीजिए, मुझे अब चलना चाहिए। (maaf kiijiye, mujhe ab caLaNaa caahiye.) |
| Maya: Let's practice this phrase. We'll say it first at natural speed and then a little slowly. |
| Neha: माफ़ कीजिए (maaf kiijiye), माफ़ कीजिए (maaf kiijiye). |
| Maya: There are many ways you can apologize in Hindi. Let's go over some of them. |
| Neha: One commonly used phrase is मुझे अफ़सोस है (mujhe afaSoS hai). |
| Maya: Which simply means "I am sorry." And you can also add the word बहुत (bahuT), which means "very" to say, "I am very sorry." |
| Neha: मुझे बहुत अफ़सोस है। (mujhe bahuT afaSoS hai.) |
| Maya: The word for "forgive" in Hindi is... |
| Neha: क्षमा (ksamaa) or माफ़ (maaf). |
| Maya: So you can also say "Please forgive me" by saying... |
| Neha: कृपया मुझे क्षमा करें (kripayaa mujhe ksamaa karen) or कृपया मुझे माफ़ करें (kripayaa mujhe maaf karen). |
| Maya: The word कृपया (kripayaa) is also very useful in Hindi. It means "please." |
| Neha: Yes, so instead of just saying माफ़ कीजिए (maaf kiijiye) as in the very first example, you can also say कृपया माफ़ कीजिए (kripayaa maaf kiijiye). |
| Maya: Although in this case, having कृपया (kripayaa) or not in the phrase does not change the meaning at all since माफ़ कीजिए (maaf kiijiye) already has the respectful form of address in its verb. |
| Neha: But knowing how to apologize isn't enough. You also need to know how to respond when someone else apologizes. |
| Maya: True. So, if you want to say something like "It's not a problem or it doesn't matter," you say... |
| Neha: कोई बात नहीं। (koii baaT Nahiin.) |
| Maya: Another simple one is "It's okay," which in Hindi is... |
| Neha: ठीक है। (thiik hai.) |
| Maya: So do you think you can now easily apologize in Hindi and also respond to people's apologies? |
| Neha: Well, of course you will need to practice these phrases and we hope you will. |
| Maya: Also, please don't forget to look at the lesson notes for more examples and explanations on this topic. |
| Neha: That's all for our lessen today. |
| Maya: Thank you for listening. Until next time! |
| Neha: शुक्रिया और फिर मिलेंगे! (sukriyaa aur phir miLenge!) |
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