Caste, class, and social structure (lessons 21-22)
How Nepal's caste structure surfaces in everyday speech — kinship-as-address, when to use which 'you', and why a porter and a CEO get spoken to differently. Sensitive but unavoidable knowledge.
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FSI 1979, lessons 21 and 22 combined — sensitive but unavoidable content. Nepal's caste structure (legally abolished in 1963 but socially persistent) surfaces in everyday speech through pronoun choice and kinship-as-address. Minutes 1–8: the three 'you' levels — tan (intimate / lower social rank, never use as a foreigner), timi (familiar), tapaai (formal / honorific / safe default). Minutes 9–15: kinship-as-address — daai (older brother) for any man slightly older, didi (older sister), bahini (younger sister), bhaai (younger brother), kaaka / kaaki (uncle / aunt) for parents' generation, baajee / boju (grandparent generation). Minutes 16–22: how a Brahmin priest, a Newari merchant, and a Tamang porter would each be addressed — the lesson is deliberately uncomfortable to drive the point home. Closing minutes: foreigner exception — using tapaai with everyone is the safe default that no one will be offended by.
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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.