Right now, I’m focusing on learning how to read Telugu. Previously, I was trying to learn from podcasts and TV, but I read this article by polyglot (Olly Richards), where he recommended reading, rather than TV/media as the primary language learning strategy.
I already know the basics of the Telugu alphabet and know most of the symbols, but I can’t read quickly. To practice my reading skills, I found this website that contains many Telugu stories. I got through the first 2 paragraphs in around 15 minutes, which isn’t bad. Here are some words that I learned:
- ఊరేగింపు [Ūrēgimpu] – procession
- సంవత్సరం [Sanvatsaraṁ] – year
- పండగ [Paṇḍaga] – festival
- వీధులు [Vīdhulu] – streets
- పువ్వులు [Puvvulu] – flowers
- ఎద్దు బండి [Eddu baṇḍi] – bullock cart
Some of the words I was able to recognize from spoken Telugu, and reading them was easy. But for the new words, I needed to sound them out character by character, which is quite exhausting. Even now, I don’t recognize the characters as sounds immediately. I need to think while pronouncing each one.
I would like to improve my reading further so that my recall is immediate. I think I can do this by creating Anki cards with audio, so my brain will associate each symbol with sound. Beyond that, I just need to practice more.