How To Learn Hindi

Technorati Tags: hindi alphabets, hindi lessons, hindi tutorial, how to learn hindi, learning hindi

1. Shringar refers to love or attractiveness.  The associated color is light green and its deity is Vishnu.
   
2. Raudra refers to anger.  The color of anger is red and its deity is Rudra.
   
3. Hasya indicates laughter and its associated color is white while its presiding deity is Pramata.
   
4. Vibhatsaya is disgust and is represented by the color blue and the deity Shiva.
   
5. Veera refers to heroism and is associated with the color yellow and the deity Indra.
   
6. Karuna is compassion, which has a gray color.  Its associated deity is Yama.
   
7. Bhayanak is fear.  Fear wears the color black and is associated with the deity Kala.
   
8. Adubhuta is wonder and is represented by yellow and is associated with Brahma.
   
9. Shanta is peace or tranquility and its color is blue.  Like Shringar, shanta is associated with Vishnu.

Technorati Tags: Hindi course, hindi lessons, how to learn hindi

When you start your Hindi course, you will undoubtedly learn a lot about the language.  This article will give you a little background on the Hindi language.  It may help you to know these facts before you start your Hindi course.

Hindi evolved from the Prakrit language.  Because it is spoken in a place where there have been many travelers, explorers and colonizers, Hindi has been influenced by several other languages.

Hindi is spoken most in northern India, in the states of Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Himchai Pradesh, and Jharkhand.  It is the secondary language of the  Andaman and Nicobar Islands.  Other languages spoken there include Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, and Marathi.

Hindi is written in the Devanagari alphabet, the alphabet in which sacred Sanskrit texts were written in.  In fact the prefix “deva-” in the word “Devanagari” means sacred or divine.  Marathi and Nepali are also written in the same alphabet.

Hindi is a poetic and expressive language.  Although it may seem very unfamiliar to American eyes and ears, a diligent student can learn it.  Grammar is not complicated.  The language is written phonetically, so once you learn the alphabet, you won’t have trouble sounding out unfamiliar words or spelling words that you hear.

Hindi nouns have gender, but pronouns do not.  So, in Hindi, male humans and animals are described by a noun using the masculine gender.  Female humans and animals are described by a noun using the feminine gender.  And inanimate objects are described by nouns that have either the feminine or the masculine gender, according to the usage that the language has assigned it.

On the other hand, pronouns do not have gender.  Now, in English, the third person singular is “he,” “she” or “it.”  So a pronoun will indicate the gender of a human or animal.  But in Hindi, there is no version of the third person pronoun that would indicate gender.  Yet the verb does indicate gender. 

In Hindi, the verb is usually at the end, and a common sentence structure is subject – object -verb.  Hindi is a weakly inflected language, and the role of a noun in the sentence can be indicated by a postposition — that is, a word that may play the role of a preposition except that it follows, rather than precedes, a noun.

There are no articles, whether definite or indefinite.  Adjectives usually precede the noun.

Verbs have aspect as well as tense.  Tense indicates whether an action is past, present or future.  Aspect indicates whether an action is habitual, progressive or perfective.

So that’s a little bit about Hindi.  It’s just a short introduction.  You will undoubtedly encounter more as you progress in your Hindi course.

Technorati Tags: Hindi course, hindi lessons, how to learn hindi

Perhaps you are trying to discover how to learn Hindi.  You should.  Hindi is spoken by one of the largest groups on earth, either as a first languages or as a second language.  It is also spoken in many counties, including Yemen, Singapore, South Africa, Fiji, Nepal, New Zealand, Canada, the UK and the United states.  Add to that the speakers of Urdu and you have very popular language indeed.  Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, is written in a different alphabet from Hindi, but in its spoken colloquial form is virtually indistinguishable.

Hindi is a child of Sanskrit.  Because of India’s position as a crossway for traders from many countries, and because of its colonial history, India has been enriched by a large number of languages, including Persian, Arabic, Dravidian, Turkish, Portugese and English.

Hindi has a rich poetic history and is very expressive emotionally.  It also has vocabulary for expressing rigorous rational thought.

To an American trying to discover how to learn Hindi, the language may seem very difficult to learn.  The sounds that the language makes are foreign, the alphabet is exotically beautiful and tenses and aspects of verbs are unlike English.  But don’t worry.  You can learn Hindi.  Start with the first lessons and continue one at a time until you make progress.  After a time, how to learn Hindi will not seem so intimidating after all.

It is, in fact, relatively easy to learn Hindi.  The alphabet is different, but the language is written as it sounds.   So learning to write Hindi is very manageable.

Whether you are studying Hindi or any other language, the best thing to do is to speak it, listen to it, read it and write it as much as you can.  So rent a Bollywood DVD, invite a classmate over to watch it, and critique it when you are done.  You will have a great time watching a wonderful movie with a new friend — and you will be working on how to learn Hindi!

Technorati Tags: Hindi course, how to learn hindi

I’m passing along a link to a post written by an American teacher who is traveling in Asia.  Her blog is a travelogue of her experiences.  I enjoy this blog very much and hope you do, too. 

Here’s the link to her post about Hindi:

Learning Hindi in Varanasi

Technorati Tags: Hindi course, how to learn hindi

You need to take a Hindi course.  More Americans are studying Hindi than ever before.  The emergent influence of India on the global economy and the increased trade between the US and India have inspired business people and business students to prepare themselves to do business on their turf.  Taking a Hindi course would prepare you to speak to millions of people in India, as well as folks in Guyana, Mauritius and Fiji.  And although Hindi and Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, are written in different alphabets, the spoken, colloquial versions of standard Hindi and Urdu are the same.  So learning spoken Hindi would permit you to converse with millions of Pakistanis, too.  Anyone interested in foreign affairs or international business should seriously consider taking a Hindi course.

But learning Hindi isn’t easy.  I don’t mean that the language is hard.  It looks and sounds exotic to an American, but the language is easy to learn and is written as it is spoken.  Actually learning Hindi isn’t what is hard. 

What I mean is that finding a Hindi course isn’t easy.  Not many US colleges or universities offer a major program in Hindi.  Not many commercial language schools have a Hindi teacher on staff. 

For a lot of people, the best Hindi course is an online Hindi course.

And have I got an online Hindi course for you.  Rocket Hindi.

With Rocket Hindi, you will start learning Hindi in your first lesson.  You will be speaking Hindi right away.  You will even be writing Hindi — and you’ll do it confidently.

Why not just get one of those other language courses that come on CDs?  Well, for one thing, Rocket Hindi has interactive learning games.  You will learn vocabulary and listening skills with them.  Rocket Hindi has interactive quizzes to give you objective data about how well you are learning.

Try Rocket Hindi Now

But mostly, no CD can offer you a Learner’s Forum or a Learning Lounge, the way Rocket Hindi can.  With the Learner’s Forum and the Learning Lounge, you will be introduced into a learning community, where you can get your questions answered and build connections in the Hindi-speaking community.

Your best Hindi course is an online Hindi course.  And your best online Hindi course is Rocket Hindi.

You’ll be speaking Hindi confidently and naturally in less than two months.

You can try it out for free.  Sign up today for the Free 6-Day Hindi Course.  You will get six classes that will start you on your way to learning Hindi.  You’ll get to try it out before you buy it.  No cost.  No obligation.

Try Rocket Hindi Now

Try Rocket Hindi.  You’ll see that your best Hindi course is an online Hindi course.

Technorati Tags: Hindi course

If you are interested in a Hindi course, you will need to think about how to learn Hindi in its written form.  The Hindi language is written in the Devanagari alphabet.  The alphabet is distinguished by a bar that runs horizontally across the top of each letter.  It is also called the “nagari,”  or urban or urbane, script.  That is, it was the alphabet of the cultured elite.  “Devanagari,” or devine urbane script, has been used to write sacred Sanskrit texts since about the 19th century.  It is now used to write Hindi, Marathi, Nepali and a host of other languages.  You will need to know how to learn Hindi and its alphabet if you are beginning a Hindi course.

I admit that the first time I ever saw written Hindi, I was baffled.  I had no idea how to learn a foreign alphabet.  The Devanagari alphabet is so beautiful that I loved to look at it, yet I couldn’t imagine myself recognizing the letters and understanding words. 

Relax.  You can learn the Hindi alphabet, just like you learned the Roman alphabet.  Start the way you did as a kid learning to read, and take it step by step.  Here are some tips for how to learn Hindi in its written form.  You can apply the same tips to learning any foreign alphabet.

• Write the letters over and over.  Practice writing the letters one by one.  Write lines and lines of them.  Say the sound that each letter makes to yourself — or aloud if you dare — as you write it.  Practice each letter until you feel quite familiar with it before you move on.
• Beware of similar shapes.  When you were little, did you confuse “b” with “d”?  Or “n” with “h”?  Lots of alphabets have letters that look like other letters in that alphabet.  Keep an eye out for them.  When you find a pair of similarly shaped letters, look for differences.  Then practice them side by side to reinforce the differences.
  
• Turn English into Hindi.  Take an English-language text and transliterate it into Hindi.  That simply means to use the letters of the Hindi alphabet to rewrite the English sentences.
• Read aloud.  Take a Hindi-language text and read it aloud.  You probably have a textbook from your Hindi course.  Use some sentences from some of the more advanced lessons.  Sound everything out, letter by letter and word by word.  Hindi is written as it sounds, so you should be able to do that without too much trouble.  Do not worry about understanding the meaning.  That will come, too.  But first get used to the sounds each letter makes.  After some struggle, you should be able to read faster.  Keep practicing.
  

It’s never easy to learn a foreign alphabet.  But it can be done, so take the steps to do it.  Practice hard and soon you, too, will be able to read Devanagari script, or any foreign alphabet.  You remember how you learned to read English, don’t you?  Then you should start your Hindi course with confidence, because you already know how to learn Hindi in its written form.

Technorati Tags: hindi alphabets, Hindi course, how to learn hindi

Are you wondering how to learn Hindi?  That’s not surprising.  More people in the United States are studying Hindi than ever before.  Language schools and software developers are having a hard time keeping up with the demand.  And considering the dynamic emergence of India on the global economic and political stage, it makes sense that there are so many people in the United States and elsewhere trying to find out how to learn Hindi.

Hindi is spoken worldwide by millions of people.  It ranks fourth on the list of languages most commonly spoken; only Mandarin, Spanish and English are ahead of it.  Hindi and English are the two official languages of India, a country in which 347 languages are spoken.  Hindi is also spoken in Fiji, Mauritius and Guyana.  Urdu is the national language of Pakistan and is another language commonly spoken in India.  The two languages have so much in common that a Hindi speaker could also speak and understand colloquial Urdu.  The languages are, however, written in different alphabets.  So someone who has learned how to learn Hindi can get around in India, Pakistan and elsewhere.

It could be that you are wondering how to learn Hindi because you want to travel to India or do business with Indian companies.  More and more people are traveling to India now for business, given the tremendous growth that the Indian economy is experiencing.  Or maybe you want to travel, not for business, but for other reasons, like spiritual growth or cultural adventure.  Or perhaps your interest is interpersonal; a significant other or friend with ties to India has you intrigued with Indian culture and the Hindi language.  Or could it be that you are a film buff and you want to be able to enjoy Bollywood films?  (Bollywood films are in Urdu, but remember that spoken, colloquial Urdu and Hindi are essentially identical.)

Well, those are all possible answers to the question of why to learn Hindi.  But once you have decided that you want to learn this language, you need to think about how to learn Hindi.  And frankly, opportunities to learn Hindi are limited in the United States.  Although US universities saw an increase in enrollment in Hindi courses of 36% from 2002 to 2006, there are few universities with complete Hindi programs or majors. 

If you aren’t a university student, your choices for learning a language generally include commercial language schools, a private tutor or self-teaching programs.  But those alternatives aren’t often available to someone trying to find out how to learn Hindi.    Commercial language schools offer Hindi typically only in large metropolitan areas, if they offer it at all.  There are people who speak Hindi as a native or second language who live in the United States and who tutor others in the language, but those people are not as numerous as tutors of other languages.  The easiest way for most people living in the United States to learn Hindi is to embark on some course of self-study, available either on CD or online. 

There are obvious drawbacks to self-study language programs.  For one thing, you don’t get feedback from a teacher when you make a mistake.  For another, the best way to learn a language is to practice speaking it.  You don’t have that opportunity when studying a language in a self-study program. 

Still, whatever your reasons for studying the language, a self-study program, whether on CD or online, is most likely your best choice if you are trying to discover how to learn Hindi.

Technorati Tags: how to learn hindi, learning hindi