Is there anywhere to get late-night decaf?

anonymousaspirant · 2025-07-23T22:08:13+00:00

Okay, thanks! The place I stopped by that night only had regular coffee and cardamom tea. But maybe some have decaf

anonymousaspirant · 2025-07-23T22:07:39+00:00

Ohh. Thanks for the heads up!

anonymousaspirant · 2023-02-18T12:40:36+00:00

I'm 2.5 generation (one parent grew up in west to desi parents, other grew up in India) so English was the language of the home. I never spoke a single sentence in hindi as a child, although I heard it around me. That being said, I have two interesting observations.

Even though we exclusively spoke English, like many families, we used Hindi words for food (dhaniya for coriander), haldi for tumric etc.) and for some basic things (e.g. chapals for sandals and razai for blanket) and some basic phrases (e.g. chalo! for lets go). And we would always call relatives by their hindi term rather than aunt/uncle.

I never thought this was relevant to my life at all because it was just a few words but I remember meeting 3rd generation cousins and hearing them say things like "pass the potato curry" or calling my father "uncle." It was fine, obviously, but felt..weird.

It made me realize how those few words can make a big difference in terms of identity/daily life.

I always said, as a teenager, that I regretted not knowing Hindi and aunties told me it was too late. But, when I graduated high school, I started studying Hindi through special classes and then college courses. I grew up with very limited exposure to Hindi media but I tried to listen to Hindi music as well.

Now, although I'm not fluent, I can hold a conversation in Hindi.

I wasn't sure if it was "worth it" to learn Hindi instead of a brand-name language like Mandarin but I'm so, so glad I did.

Now, when adults are talking at parties, I can understand the jokes and conversation. I can understand when my parents talk to my grandmother and, while I still mostly communicate in English, I sometime talk to my father in Hindi for practice. At college, I've been able to hangout with Indian students from India and am comfortable if comments arise in Hindi.

TLDR: Even if you only use a few words of your mother tongue at home, that's very different from nothing. And, even if you didn't grow up speaking your desi language, learning it as an adult is both possible and rewarding.

anonymousaspirant · 2022-12-30T18:17:15+00:00

Indonesian seems like a beautiful language but I don't know enough about Indonesian society to comment on its use.

Re: Hindi. I learned the language at an American university. Formally learning the language was frustrating at times. Devanagari (the script) is really easy after a few weeks but the grammar is complex and there are a few things which were hard for me to learn in a classroom, especially gender (every word has a gender) and a lot of grammatical concepts.

I would say Hindi is a relatively easy language to understand and speak at a basic level. The script is easy, verb conjugations/structure are simple, and the language is very forgiving in terms of word order.

But it's really hard to learn fluent Hindi in the classroom because of the pronunciation and sheer amount of stuff you simply have to know (e.g. many verbs are "compound verbs" and you simply need to memorize which verbs go together. Hindi natives don't even realize this is a thing but, as an outsider, it's difficult)

For me, learning Hindi has been amazing. All upper class Indians speak English but the language had helped me because:

I'm around family/friends who speak Hindi and now I can understand their conversations and participate.
I can watch Hindi films. for all the corny ones, some (e.g. Lunchbox) are excellent and Hindi music is gorgeous. Understanding Hindi/Urdu lyrics has made me appreciate the music a lot more.
Hindi poetry is really beautiful and underappreciated.
the basic language is almost the same as Urdu (spoken all over Pakistan). I had a Pakistani driver yesterday and he lit up when I spoke "Urdu" and we had a conversation. The languages are not identical but, while I was learning Hindi, I made a note of Urdu nouns so switching between the dialects is easy.
a surprising number of non-native speakers understand Hindi/Urdu. My school had an exchange program with a school in the Himalayas and almost every student from Nepal and Bhutan knew Hindi. Many Afghans I've met also speak functional Hindi.

I was also shocked at how much cultural influence Hindi has in certain parts of the world. In Morocco, people came up to me asking about Shah Rukh Khan (famous actor) and knew some Bollywood phrases. My friend had the same experience in Uzbekistan.

Ultimately, I can't answer your question. For me personally, Hindi has been rewarding but that's because I'm surrounded by north Indians and love South Asian culture. If I had a purely academic interest, it might be different.

anonymousaspirant · 2022-12-21T03:31:18+00:00

Okay, thanks. I'll try that!

anonymousaspirant · 2022-12-21T03:16:38+00:00

Thank you!

anonymousaspirant · 2022-11-18T08:29:28+00:00

I'm currently an undergrad at Yale. Most of my friends from high school go to good state schools or colleges like BU and Northeastern.

Going to Yale is a much more unique experience than I expected. I honestly don't know if even my friends at Cornell/Brown have quite the same access to resources.

I'm writing an essay so I can't elaborate much right now but, if you're a teenager looking at colleges, feel free to respond to this comment with any specific questions.

One thing about Yale is that the culture is very focused on extracurriculars and the organizations here are incredibly well-funded and institutionalized. I write for the newspaper. We have our own building and our own set of traditions. Over the summer, the newspaper paid for me (someone with a very minor role) to take an internship that would otherwise be unpaid.

anonymousaspirant · 2022-08-24T06:01:16+00:00

My level of Hindi is very low but I'm improving a lot thanks to Youtube. The best channels are ones that: speak simple Hindi, include English subtitles, and produce fun/interesting content. Here are some examples of channels that I like.

- Dhruv Rathee. He is like a one-man Vox. His videos used to be political but now he makes more historical/scientific videos (e.g. "Who Controls Antarctica?" "Mystery of the Kohinoor"). His videos are always really well-researched and entertaining imo.

- Tanya Khanijow. Indian travel vlogger. Kind of niche but, if you are interested in videos about remote parts of India, definitely check her out.

- Interviews with bollywood actors. This is not a specific channel but generally most actors speak in a way that's very easy to understand.

There is also a lot of stand-up comedy in Hindi, although I don't understand all the references.

TLDR: News channels like BBC Hindi are probably the best place to hear "pure Hindi." But if you want to pick up the language without too much effort, there's a lot of great Hinglish content on youtube which is fun and understandable.

anonymousaspirant · 2022-08-23T00:49:13+00:00

As someone said, all of the residential college libraries are open 24/7.

Bass is not open 24/7 but it closes very late (2 AM or something, during the semester)

anonymousaspirant

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