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.

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