Does this Devanagari Script Mac thing work in LJ?

[maeve66]

More on the World of Learning Hindi.

I am so liking doing this. I tried to learn Gaelic on my own, when I was, like, 22. Total failure. That Teach Yourself paperback, with the pretty interlace design... so much dreck, given away years ago. Ah, but nowadays, with the INTARWEBZ -- it's so much better. And I am more motivated. And I think I will somehow manage to use Hindi, much more than I ever would have, Gaelic.

Anyway, here, this is an AWESOME site that a non LJ friend told me about, which is attached somehow to SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies, in London). It teaches you Devanagari (which is pronounced something like DewanAHgree) script. I've been working at them in my greatly beloved Hindi language journal, writing each character several times, practicing pronunciation (um, between the retroflex and dental /ta/s, /tha/s, /d/s, and /dha/s, I cannot tell a lick of aural difference), and working on recognizing the shapes. So fun. And then there is a self-testing section that I am soooo enjoying.

So.

Here's my name in Hindi (no, it doesn't say maeve66):

ऎबरा

Well, boo. Apparently the Devanagari keyboard thingy that works in my Mac, and while I am IMing (because, you know, there's a lot of call for me writing "accha!" and "mere dil" while I am IMing various people) does not work in Livejournal. Boo. Very boo.

ETA: Further, here, a whole note to M., in Devanagari -- my first name is at the end.

Comments

[florence-craye.livejournal.com]

Awww, I don't see Devanagari there. Just ????.

I'm so envious of you! Are you using other software to learn Hindi? I think s_j mentioned something, but I didn't remember which it was.

[maeve66.livejournal.com]

I may, may, may be lucky enough to get Rosetta Stone for my birthday, maybe. I hope so. We'll see.

Otherwise, no. Just a notebook, whatever I can find on the internet, and movies and music. I don't know; that's all I really used for French, outside (of course) of my daily classes at school. Oh, how I wish I could afford daily classes at a school.

Still, flashcards next.

Hey -- I went to Tashan last night and it rocked. SO ridiculous and over the top! Excellent action and (so A. tells me) parkour scenes. Good enough musical numbers. So much fun. Race, next weekend. And I really should see Taare Zameen Par before it finally leaves from the longest engagement ever. And, in June -- Sarkar Raj is coming out, which features Amitabh, Abhishek, AND Ash!

[maeve66.livejournal.com]

Oops, I fixed the link. Now you can go look at Devanagari, in London, from SOAS. So fun. And, a few minutes later, I wrote and scanned and exported and linked to my name in Hindi, in Devanagari, so voilà, at last.

[florence-craye.livejournal.com]

And now that I'm on my work computer (PC), I can see the Devanagari! It must be the mac. Weird!

I will have to add Tashan to my queue when it's on DVD. I didn't know about Sarkar Raj. I will definitely have to see that one! Yummy.

I watched Geethanjali earlier this week. It was awesome- kind of goofy and silly, but serious as well. I am really loving Mani Ratnam's work so far.

[erik]

I see the Devanagari. I think you have to do magic to tell Windows to install the extra language packs. But I don't quite know what the magic is.

[angel80.livejournal.com]

I have a student whose names both begin with Bh. I cannot for the life of me pronounce it.

Mac chagrin

[maeve66.livejournal.com]

This is weird. I can see the Hindi script typewritten, at WORK on my Windows PC, but not at home, on my Mac. That seems unusual to me, for a PC to outdo my Mac...

Oh! And the typewritten Devanagari contains an error, corrected in the handwritten version! The typewritten version isn't my name at ALL!

Re: Mac chagrin

[maeve66.livejournal.com]

Hm. After another week or so of learning this stuff, I now realize that my handwritten thing is wrong AGAIN. And it's a dumb mistake, and I wonder why I didn't catch it before. Lord, I wish I could just type it in here.

[shanrina.livejournal.com]

*is reading through some old entries and commenting since you're a new LJ friend* FWIW, I looked at the site and tried some of the tests, and wow. I'm not fluent (yet) but usually (at least to me) the differences between the dental and retroflex sound a lot more distinct. That could also be the accent, though--my lecturers were both from Rajasthan and I could hear that they had accents (or at least I could tell that sometimes they pronounced things different from the Devanagari).

[buddhu.livejournal.com]

वा, ऐबरा, वा! कमाल है कि सिर्फ़ दो-तीन हफ़ते हुए हैं जब से तुम हिन्दी पढ़ना-लिखना सीख रही हो। लगे रहो और तुम कम से कम पंडित हो जाएगी! (Wow, Abra! It's amazing that it has been only two or three weeks since you've been learning to read and writing Hindi. Keep at it and eventually you'll become a pandit (expert/scholar).

[buddhu.livejournal.com]

Hmm, even my English is bekaar (useless). That should have said "learning to read and write", of course.