Word for the Travel Wise (04/18/06)

Since I'm sitting here in the hotel lobby taking in all the free Wi-Fi my laptop can handle I figured I'd go straight to some of the friendly quad-lingual staff to help me with tonight's word. At first I asked my kind participant to give me a good word for a person traveling abroad in his home country and a word that could really come in handy over my two previous lessons, but like always this didn't generate the type of vocab I was looking for, so I had come up with words I personally think you should know. In addition to drilling the staff for items from the native tongue I asked a couple questions concerning all the advertising done.

Today's word is a Hindi word from India:

lajawab - incredible

And what exactly makes India so incredible? I'm not debating or saying that it isn't incredible, but everywhere I go it seems I always see those Incredible India advertisements. You can't miss them, so I know I'm not alone here, but in his own words I wanted him to tell me the word for incredible and what makes India just that. I'd love to recount all the vivid details from his tales, but let's just say it was a mouthful.

There are several awesome resources online to learn Hindi for free and a fee. Wikitravel Phrasebook provides many useful phrases to remember for your journey. Let's Learn Hindi is a colorful place to pick up the basics and some additional tools. Those interested in reading Sanskrit can click here and Pimsleur has great audio books. To purchase a Lonely Planet phrasebook for the road, click here to head to Amazon.

Past Hindi words: pankhaa, Ravivar

Filed under: Learning, Asia, India