On my quest to learn more about the world, it led me to Nepali.

One of the biggest areas of fascination for me for over a decade, ever since I was a kid in middle school, were the Himalayas. It was a deep seeded interest that began when I learned about Mount Everest and the Sherpa community that surrounded the mountain, but then I kind of brushed it off throughout the years and didn’t learn anything about South Asia at all until my sophomore year of college. Somehow, I was one of ten American students selected in the country for the International Writing Program’s Summer Institute that brought together Indian, American, and Pakistani writers in Iowa.

That program completely changed my life. It taught me that I was an idiot when it came to be a true worldly person, and put my butt into gear to try and learn more to bridge the gaps in my education. So my junior year of college, and my final one in undergrad, I ended up landing a prestigious Critical Language Scholarship to study Bangla in Kolkata, India. COVID nixed that plan and it ended up being virtual, but I ended up intermediate in Bangla and with a new deeper love for the region.

Bangla led me to Hindi, which led me to realize that where I lived, Baltimore County, has one of the biggest Nepali populations in the country. That was so cool for me to find out, and then as I started grad school, I began to dig really deep into the Himalayan region and the people living in it. I became fascinated by Tibet and the culture there, which took me to the Rubin Museum in New York. And then I decided I thought Nepali was cool and I wanted to learn it!

Here’s how I ended up doing so.

University of Washington’s Nepali Summer Course.

I became aware of the University of Washington’s Nepali program when I was in the middle of figuring out what to do for my summer. It was initially my backup plan because I thought I was going to Kolkata for a Critical Language Scholarship (spoiler: I was only named an alternate and never got bumped up, but I’m not complaining to be honest because it worked out in my favor), so I was keeping an eye on the course page for about a month before they opened registration.

This program is completely free for those who are selected to attend. There’s a preference for UW students obviously, but I submitted my CV and explained that I wanted to use Nepali for professional and personal use at the end of the day. I received my acceptance to the program in June, and it was to be two hours across two weeks during business hours. Since I was on the East Coast at the time, it was from twelve to two pm.

This is how I ultimately ended up getting a kickstarter in the language. Because I knew how to read Bangla and Hindi, I already had an advantage going into the course because of my knowledge of Devanagari script (Bangla is not in it, but it’s like a modified version of Hindi at times). So when the first assignment was to practice the script, I already knew what I was doing. Essentially this course wasn’t going to teach the script because it was focused on verbal conversations, and I was fine with that because I could pretty much already read.

But again, because I knew Hindi and Bangla, I ended up having a pretty good time understanding what was going on. The grammar rules are very similar for Nepali and some of the words are the same, just pronounced differently in Nepali, so I ended up having a good grasp on what everything meant and entailed throughout the course. My only problem was that tragedy struck and I ended up with COVID, forcing me to miss a few classes. That put me behind in some ways that I never recovered from.

Overall I recommend this course if you are selected for it in the end. I thought it was helpful getting an understanding of the language and the basic grammar rules, and I definitely would feel comfortable continuing on my own before taking their intermediate course next summer.

Tapping into the Internet!

As someone who’s studied many different critical languages throughout the years, I have come to understand that it’s insanely hard to find resources for learning several languages. Nepali is one of those.

How I am pursuing my studies post-UW program is that I’m using a combination of YouTube, Quizlet, and the local community in my neighborhood to go out and practice. Like with other classes linguistically, the Nepali I learned it quite formal compared to the way that people actually speak throughout the streets. Because of that, finding as many opportunities as possible to practice with native speakers is essential for those who truly want to get better with the language.

I am definitely going to continue with Nepali in the future, as I find it a language and culture that I have come to admire throughout the years. It’s a shame it’s not commonly taught in the United States and that nowhere near me is going to offer it as an option, but I will be persistent through other means. There are resources online if you know where to look, and as someone who has gone through this multiple times, you have to dig sometimes.

It sucks I don’t go to a school with a South Asia program, but I know resilience. If there’s a will, there’s a way!

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