[Su-47]

I've been living in Bangalore quite a while, and feel sad (and ashamed) that I can't converse in Kannada. It's not that I've not tried, but, the efforts to learn have not been very successful. Books like "Learn Kannada in 30 days" and "Rapidex for Kannada" are uninspiring and difficult to follow.

I'm looking for a more interactive way of learning: An interactive audio course, for example. Any pointers..

Thanks,
Su-47

P.S: Just landed at a site from our own Bharat Sarkar that is supposed to have Kannada lessons for govt officials, will give this a try in the coming days as well. See:
DIRECTORATE OF KANNADA AND CULTURE

[mnhegde]

@Su-47: Starting from the scratch (alphabets) is good. Do you have any friends here (local)? It would be very helpful for you to start. I will check out for some good learner cd's, books and get back soon.

I appreciate your interest and efforts to learn the local language.

[srishiva]

Its easy if you can have a friend with whom you can talk. Dont think learning from scratch will be easy or right.

[wildon]

I have learned Kannada through making friendship with the localites. Initially it was very difficult to understand and speak but later i picked up.

[black12rr]

I want to learn malayalam and tamil , very useful while travelling ,otherwise will get harassed by cops .

SU-47 ,keep talking ,its easy , mix english also , its ok .

[Gansan]

SU47, which state are you from? If you are from one of the southern states it will be fairly easy. Get your friends to teach you some basic everyday words first. Watch a Kannada channel for sometime daily, and an occassional movie as well. Slowly you will pick-up, that is what I did during my five year stint at Bangalore.

I commend you for your interest to learn the local language.

[Su-47]

@mmhegde: Cool, let me know if you find something good. You know its ironical that in BLR, its easier to find material on conversational french than Kannada. I'm surprised why the local radio stations dont teach a couple of words every day...

@gansan: I'm from MP (with ancestral roots in UP), and my Hindi is pretty good. But, as expected it doesn't help much. Anyway, do you recommend any specific program on TV? I have to start somewhere and have no clue where to start.

@wildon: How long did it take to take for you to start speaking some tooti-footi Kannada?

The problem with Kannadiga friends is that they start laughing when I try something: Need to tighten their screws a bit. On second thoughts, most of us do so: I make fun of them when they get confused between the awesome concept of gender of inanimate objects in Hindi.

@black12rr: It may be easy for you, very difficult for me. :(

Let's see how it goes.. Good luck to me.

Cheers,
Su-47

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Su-47

@gansan: I'm from MP (with ancestral roots in UP), and my Hindi is pretty good.

Knowing Hindi helps, the purer form of Kannada does have a lot of words common with Hindi. But then these days very few people can speak pure Kannada unless you go to smaller towns. In Bangalore people speak Kannada with 50% English words. Even Kannada magazines write 50% english words in Kannada script. Because of all these reasons passable Kannada should be easy enough.

Just find a person who will talk Kannada back to you and is willing to correct you.

[anekho]

I have a similar query. I know tamil (speaking) fairly well, how hard will it be to learn simple kannada? Just like speaking in shops etc.

cheers

[CaliAtenza]

Originally Posted by Su-47

@mmhegde: Cool, let me know if you find something good. You know its ironical that in BLR, its easier to find material on conversational french than Kannada. I'm surprised why the local radio stations dont teach a couple of words every day...

@gansan: I'm from MP (with ancestral roots in UP), and my Hindi is pretty good. But, as expected it doesn't help much. Anyway, do you recommend any specific program on TV? I have to start somewhere and have no clue where to start.

@wildon: How long did it take to take for you to start speaking some tooti-footi Kannada?

The problem with Kannadiga friends is that they start laughing when I try something: Need to tighten their screws a bit. On second thoughts, most of us do so: I make fun of them when they get confused between the awesome concept of gender of inanimate objects in Hindi.

@black12rr: It may be easy for you, very difficult for me. :(

Let's see how it goes.. Good luck to me.

Cheers,
Su-47

thats awsome that u wanna learn the local language . I commend you for that first off. I wanna learn hindi though!

[Aston.Martin]

@ Su-47, Are you married ? Get married to a Kannadiga (like me) and I bet you will be speaking Kannada before the next t-Bhp meet, its a matter of survival bro.

[v1p3r]

Date Lingo Leela!!!

[challa]

Hi Su, if you are ok to travel by local city bus, i suggest you to use the city bus atleast once a day, i am sure it makes a lot of difference in a month and you can notice the positive change very quickly, just my advice here.

[deepclutch]

Originally Posted by anekho

I have a similar query. I know tamil (speaking) fairly well, how hard will it be to learn simple kannada? Just like speaking in shops etc.

cheers

I think it is easiest for tamilians to learn kannada.(Infact ,it is same for other south state people too).

[muralisk]

Originally Posted by deepclutch

I think it is easiest for tamilians to learn kannada.(Infact ,it is same for other south state people too).

I am not sure about it, but it is quite easy for Telugu speaking people as there is a great deal of similarity in the script. In fact, Telugu speaking people can read the script.