DK Hindi English Visual Bilingual Dictionary

proxyindian

DK has finally published a visual dictionary for Hindi/English. I've always liked visual dictionaries because I'm so visual, I guess... It's just fun to look at pictures of things, I guess.

Yesterday John and I went to Borders Books expecting not to find anything.... Same old travel guides.... some old cookbooks.... but I made a detour into the languages section and was very happy to find their new book.

I really enjoy learning about new languages. I've been practicing Hindi by myself since I don't have any Indian friends. Sure, I speak Hindi like a three-year-old but I can pick out words in films and songs and on signs. Surprisingly, many signs have words in English transcribed into Devanigari script but no English translation. I find that very interesting.

Before last year's trip, I barely got Urdu script under my belt. Wow, was that ever hard!!! However, I can read very simple words.... and if you tell me what they say I can pick out all the letters. But figuring it out on my own is not possible.... The script is just too fancy.

Now I'm learning Bengali. I have no illusion that I will know anything more than pronouns and the alphabet. But I'm very happy in my progress here. Yesterday John and I were watching something on TV and they briefly showed a sign that said "hotel" in Bengali script. Wow, I could decipher that. Way to go me!

Now back to the DK visual dictionary. It's 300+ pages and is nonstop pictures. Great for browsing. I also like that it is not specific to India. Most dictionaries obviously concentrate on words that a traveler might want to know while visiting India. Honestly, does any traveler need to learn Hindi since everyone you'll probably meet has a grasp of English and cannot understand a thing you say when you try to speak Hindi... at least that's the reaction I get

This book is also interesting because you can see how many words are the same in Hindi as they are in English.

And the big discovery is this: A comic book is "chitrakatha". So that means the great Indian comic "Amar Chitra Katha" means "My Comic Book"... Amar meaning "My" in Bangla. (See, learning all these language things pays off.)

But the Western-ness of the book is also the main drawback. I mean, it doesn't show Indian food or clothing, but has plenty examples of cakes and balls. (I guess we're all set if we want to eat éclairs while watching a basketball game.) And the family terms are based off Western ideas of your grandparents just being grandparents and not if they are on the maternal or paternal side.

But this will be the dictionary we take with us this year. No doubt about that.

ploink

Hey, thanks for the tip!
Just what I've been looking for, but haven't found - had come to the conclusion that there isn't one on the market. As soon as I had read your message, I ordered a copy!

__________________
But rather, ten times rather, die in the surf, heralding the way to that new world, than stand idly on the shore! -Florence Nightingale

proxyindian

Well, it is a fastinating book. We sat in a pub yesterday (yes, Chicago has proper pubs) and drank three pints of IPA while browsing the book.

We had no idea any such book existed until yesterday. It must be brand spanking new!

Haylo

You can get India Pale Ale in Chicago? How bizarre.

My local library has four copies of it listed in the online catalogue, but none are yet available. Under the shelfmark all copies are marked "being processed", and as that is done very quickly, it looks like your copy is hot off the press!

MangoKulfi

Thanks for the info. I love DK books. They are visually so superior to other pictorial books.

About the 'amar' part....Amar in Amar chitra Katha means everlasting, immortal and not the Amaar that's used in Bengali.

proxyindian

We get all sorts of things here. I used to buy the big bottles of Kingfisher at the large liquor stores but haven't yet seen them in bars of any sort. Mmmmm.... I guess since it'll be Independence Day in a few hours, I should stop at Binny's and pick up a few Kingfishers for my day off.

proxyindian

Thanks for the info about Amar/Amaar. Now the question is, should I tell John that I was mistaken or keep up the facade?

edwardseco

So I take it that it includes the Devanagari and not just the phonetic junk.?

MangoKulfi

Would 'my immortal comic book' work?

proxyindian

Correct. It includes Devanagari and phonetic junk. I love Devanagari because you say what you see, much better than the madness of English spelling.

ploink

<Joins the "I love Devanagari" club!>
Can't wait to have my copy - in a few days...

edwardseco

Hey now I am envious! I could not locate this today on Amazon. I'll try harder..

Just cleared the typo and found it..

proxyindian

Glad you found it but for anyone else....

The URL for USA Amazon is
http://www.amazon.com/Hindi-English-... 6807&sr=11-1

A reviewer gives it 4 stars. It's shorted a star becuase it lacks many verbs and is not about India. I too wish it had more India-specific stuff in it, but I really like anyway.

The URl for Amazon.co.uk is http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hindi-Englis... 6895&sr=11-1

waving monkey

great proxy
sounds like thats what im looking for also.
is there an available cd with it.

wm

proxyindian

I have spent a rather solitary 4th of July since John has been at work.... I'm just finishing up with uploading pictures I took of the Indian Educational Charts we bought in Delhi. You can look at them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/proxyin...7605975836742/

I got the idea to take pictures of these things while looking through the DV visual dictionary. The posters and the books have a lot in common.