Fast Facts on Telugu

Telugu is the state language of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, who "have a combined population of 84 million people" (Reality Check Team and BBC Telugu). In America, the language expanding the most is Telugu, and it "has grown by 86%" from 2010 -2017 because of the immense amount of Telugu-speaking people who are coming to America and working in the I.T. sector (Reality Check Team and BBC Telugu).

Learning Telugu

I tracked my progress in learning Telugu through videos. There are 8 videos in all, ranging from 3 to 6:30 minutes, and the first seven have a different theme or set of vocabulary and grammar that I learned. All of the videos show my progression in learning Telugu and how I tried to find different methods to teach myself. (The videos have better quality when put in full screen!) The last video is a conversation with my grandmother, which was the ultimate goal of this project. When I had the long 10ish minute conversation with Avva, I sometimes struggled to find the right words to say in Telugu, but I understood most of what she was speaking. It was one of the first times we did not have a surface-level conversation and did not need anyone to translate for most of the conversation. The conversation was natural, and the topics flowed from health to food to activities. It was special to be able to finally communicate with my grandmother, and I feel that the language barrier is finally coming down in my family.

Works Cited

Reality Check Team, and BBC Telugu. "Do You Speak Telugu? Welcome to America." BBC News, BBC, 21 Oct. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/world-45902204. Accessed 12 Dec. 2022.