英文原版对话1000个:593 The Languages of India

Todd: Nitya, in the U.S. we have many different parts of the country and people are very different. What about India? Are the people very different in different regions¹?

Nitya: Yeah, I like, I think that in India the different parts, they have totally² different languages, that's sometimes it's a problem because somebody who comes for a travel, for traveling or something in the northern part of India, from South, it's really difficult for them to manage the language, because though are national language is Hindi, and also like, the constitutional national language is English, but still, I mean, India is really huge, people coming from South, there are some people like who do, who do understand Hindi to some extent³, but there are many people who don't understand at all.

Todd: Really, they don't speak Hindi?

Nitya: Yeah, because we have 33 national languages. (Wow) so,

Todd: You have 33?

Nitya: 33, and like if you take on the whole, it's 345 or something

Todd: Man, that's incredible⁴.

Nitya: Yeah, and I think that, I think that every child from India should be able to speak around two to three languages, basically⁵.

Todd: What are the most common languages that people speak in India?

Nitya: I think Hindi, Guthratti, Punjabi, I think I cannot say common. Every state, every like, we have 27 states in India. Every state has it own language. Our general language.

Todd: 27 different general languages. (Yeah) That's what divides the country is the languages?

Nitya: No, it's divided by the states, I mean different states we call different parts of it, and also by the language. Yep.

Todd: Wow, that's pretty amazing. So you said Punjabi.

Nitya: Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Malayalam. (Wow) Huge, yeah.

Todd: That's pretty amazing. How many languages do you speak?

Nitya: Six.

Todd: Six.

Nitya: Yep.

Todd: What do you speak?

Nitya: Ok, I can speak Hindi. I can speak Punjabi a little bit, and I can understand the whole of it all, and I can speak Tamil. I can speak Malayalam, because Malayalam is my mother's language. She's from southern part of India. My dad is from the north part of India and I speak Hindi. I understand Telugu, and I guess Marathi also a little bit.

Todd: Wow, and that's not even including English or Japanese.

Nitya: Yeah, OK, and then you include English and Japanese and that.

Todd: That's amazing. OK, well, thanks Nitya.

 

1 regions   

n.地区( region的名词复数 )；[数学]区域；（艺术、科学等的）领域；行政区

参考例句：

• A flying doctor service operates in remote regions. 在偏远地区有飞行医生服务。
• More powers are gradually being devolved to the regions. 正逐步向地方下放更多的权力。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 totally   

adv.完全地；整个地

参考例句：

• I totally agree with you.我完全同意你的看法。
• You are totally wrong this time.你这次完全错了。

3 extent   

n.程度，范围，限度；广度，宽度，大小

参考例句：

• The new race track is nearly six miles in extent. 这条新跑道将近六英里长。
• What's the extent of the damage? 损坏的程度如何?

4 incredible   

adj.难以置信的，不可信的，极好的，大量的

参考例句：

• Some planets run at incredible speed.某些星球以难以置信的速度运行着。
• Her answer showed the most incredible stupidity.她的回答显示出不可思议的愚蠢。

5 basically   

adv.基本上，从根本上说

参考例句：

• His heart is basically sound.他的心脏基本上健康。
• Basically I agree with your plan.我基本上同意你的计划。