Dreaming in Hindi By Katherine Russell Rich Memoir of a year journey to study Hindi in Udaipur, India. Katherine is a writer/editor in New York City. She is divorced, 45 years old and has battled cancer for the last 10 years. Something is missing. Her life feels narrow. She needs "something" and has an indescribable passion for wanting to learn Hindi. Katherine loses her job at a magazine and even though most people around her criticize, she welcomes an opportunity to live in India and study Hindi for a year. People are perplexed by her decision or as she truthfully admits "just jealous!"
This experience has extreme highs and depressing lows. It is a journey to acquire a new language and a new perspective on life, on people. Katherine's journey is detailed in an honest open manner, she is direct and witty. Interspersed is an enormous amount of scientific study she has acquired through research and interviews and attached to her own experience. The actual neuroscience of second language versus native tongue, along with how our brains learn, store and use this information.
Certainly worth the read, simultaneously informative and heartfelt. If you are multilingual or wish to be, whatever language your dreams are in, open your eyes and ears, its a big world out there.
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