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:
Jan
25
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.
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. You’ll see that your best Hindi course is an online Hindi course.
Jan
13
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.
