Melting pot of accents

Before I arrived, I learned how to count to twelve in Marathi, the regional language in the state of Maharashtra, where Mumbai is. I was planning on learning more Marati when I got here, but everyone I’ve interacted with here speaks Hindi, in addition to English. I want to learn to speak some Hindi, but I haven’t started in earnest yet, so I have no idea how hard it will be. My manager suggested that we just tell everyone to only speak to me in Hindi, and then I’ll pick it up quickly, or else! Even if that would work, for the sake of the project and my career, that’s probably a bad idea. Many of my coworkers speak in a combination of Hindi and English when talking to each other, even if it’s just switching back and forth for a word or a phrase, so I will definitely have plenty of opportunities to listen to the language in context, and practice it as appropriate.

Also, my team members have New Zealand, British, and a variety of Indian accents, and I’m starting to pick up on certain pronunciations and terminology as a result of all our time together. By the time I come back to the US, who knows what I’m going to sound like! I’m not really worried about it, but it is interesting how quickly you can start to adjust your pronunciation and intonations of certain words to match the people around you.