Hospitality and homestay (lessons 19-20)
Being a guest in a Nepali home. The 'khaana khaanu bhayo?' culture of food-as-greeting, ritual hand-washing before meals, and how to politely decline more dal bhat without offense.
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FSI 1979, lessons 19 and 20 combined. The cultural script of being a guest in a Nepali home — every Western trekker who survives a homestay learns these patterns the hard way unless they get them in advance. Minute 1: greeting question 'khaana khaanu bhayo?' (have you eaten?) — functions exactly like 'how are you' in English and the correct reply is 'khaae' (I ate) regardless of literal truth. Minutes 4–9: meal etiquette — right-hand only, no stepping over food, 'jutho' (left-overs touched by lips become ritually polluted). Minutes 10–15: how to refuse 'aru chaahincha?' (do you want more) without offense — 'pugyo' (enough) said three times is the script. Closing minutes: leaving a homestay — 'tapaai ko ghar maa ramro laagyo' (I enjoyed your home), plus the small gift culture and how a 200-rupee tea-money envelope is the right amount.
More lessons
- beginner 26 min
Greetings, names, and numbers (lessons 1-2)
Opening Namaste, exchanging names, basic ho/hoina identity statements, and the cardinal numbers 1-10. This is the canonical FSI opener.
- beginner 19 min
This and that — yo, tyo, demonstratives (lesson 3)
Pointing at things and naming them. Yo (this), tyo (that), and the cha/chaina pattern for stating that something is present.
- beginner 13 min
Question words — ke, ko, kaha, kati (lesson 4)
All Nepali question words start with क. Drill the five most useful: what, who, where, how much, and which.
- beginner 15 min
I, you, we — pronouns and honorifics (lesson 5)
ma, hami, tapai, timi, ta — when to use which, and why mixing them up offends. Drills with the verb hunu (to be).
- beginner 25 min
Family members and kinship (lesson 6)
buwa, aamaa, didi, daai, bhaai, bahini — the relations every tourist hears at a homestay. Plus the kinship-as-address custom.
- beginner 21 min
Directions and places (lesson 7)
kahaa, yahaa, tyahaa — here, there, where. Asking where things are with the cha verb and locative postpositions.
Attribution
Audio courtesy of the US Foreign Service Institute (Public Domain) and hosted by Live Lingua. This page links directly to their CDN; we do not re-host or modify the audio.