Howdy folks! I need advice and resource suggestions for learning Kannada. I should have learned it years ago but better late than never. My goal this year is to learn basic conversational Kannada -- How are you uncle? How is the food aunty? -- that type of conversation. I have an ear for the language if you know what I mean. Having been around native speakers all these years I can grasp certain words and get the general drift of everyday exchanges. However, I would like to learn it properly including reading and writing. How do I start? Any book, tutorial, blog, video recommendations? How long will it take to learn the fundamentals? All suggestions welcome. Thanks!
Here are some of the links which may be useful to learn Kannada. Learn Spoken Kannada Basics This seems to be very clear and simple Learn Kannada This is maintained by government
It depends on what is your mother tongue, if you speak Tamil or Telugu, it should not take much time at all. 6 months is what I can think of (to speak pretty good conversational Kannada), because Kannada is near to both. For starters - How are you? Neenu hege idiya? (Tum kaise ho?) Neevu hege ideera? (Aap kaise hain?) What is your name? Ninna hesaru enu? (Tumhara naam kya hai?) Nimma hesaru enu? (Aap ka naam kya hai?) Neenu/Neevu - You. (Tum/Aap) Taavu - You( Another word for you but with more respect ) Naanu - I Naavu - We
Being a Kannadiga i do not know to read and write and our dialect is different too. Someone I know taught herself an East Asian language. She started with watching TV shows listening to their music and speaking to the native speakers and communicating in written text. Its kind of total immersion program. She had few friends who spoke that language. it took her 3-4 years to get halfway through. Just sharing some thoughts. I am sure you can learn in 6-12 months time as you are already exposed to the language.
Once you learn the basic alphabets try to read magazines and watch kannada movies. Conversation will get better doing this. Haven't we seen in English Vinglish how Sridevi learns English . But it's not just in movies my MIL also Says that's how she learnt Malayalam. By watching movies and by reading magazines once she got the basic alphabets.
Watch a lot of Kannada movies (the old ones), watch Kannada serials (you should find some on youtube ), speak butler kannada, put in some English words if you can't get the right word. Within a few months, you should learn the language.
Somebody suggested Kannadagottilla.com on Quora. You can try that site out. Some really good suggestions on Quora.
Thanks @shravs3 ! Those links are very helpful. I will sign up for the distance learning course on the CIIL website. Thank you for the suggestions. I might have to start with children's books. : ) Any show, movie and book recommendations?
Hey there! Just when I am done giving myself a pep talk, "Be like ragz. Walk away!", you show up to break my resolve. Good to see you! Sadly I am not familiar with either Telugu or Tamil. I guess it will be a challenge but the good news is that I am not in a hurry. I am going to take my time with this.