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What are the best resources for Hindi? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Desertbandit Groupie Netherlands Joined 5085 days ago 80 posts - 104 votes  Speaks: Arabic (Iraqi)* | Message 1 of 27 17 February 2011 at 11:00am | IP Logged |
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I am a huge fan of Bollywood movies, and I find the Indians a lovable people.
I know Hindi isn't so popular but I find it a beautiful language...but the thing is with an unpopular language the resources are very low. Can anyone help me out here? Edited by Keith on 22 February 2011 at 10:41am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| horshod Pentaglot Groupie India Joined 5755 days ago 74 posts - 107 votes Speaks: Hindi, Marathi*, Bengali, Gujarati, English Studies: German, Spanish, Turkish | Message 2 of 27 17 February 2011 at 4:28pm | IP Logged |
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Have you tried this: page=Hindi">http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page =Hindi
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| anothername Triglot Groupie Brazil Joined 5046 days ago 96 posts - 195 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Spanish, English | Message 3 of 27 17 February 2011 at 11:58pm | IP Logged |
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I'm not an hindi expert, but, as a beginner, I believe that Teach yourself Hindi, Teach Yourself Hindi Script and Living Language (Spoken World) are very valuable resources to get you introduced to hindi. The Living Language has a lot of audio.
And there are always Assimil and the old Linguaphone course. Please don't bother about if it's considered "popular" or not. These things change fast. It's popular enough to be one of the 4 or 5 most spoken languages on earth, and the most spoken language on the second most populous country of earth. And what a country. Perhaps I'm too optimistic, but I believe it's not very popular YET. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6214 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 4 of 27 18 February 2011 at 1:15am | IP Logged |
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It is sad, but true. The materials for self-instruction in Hindi are desperately lacking. There weren't any FSI/DLI
courses created at a beginner level for Hindi. I have tried to learn Hindi on and off again, but have been discouraged by the lack of materials. The Living Language Spoken World Hindi actually isn't bad. Fairbanks and Misra's Spoken and Written Hindi is great - and you can usually find a used copy lurking around for 10 bucks or so. It's written in the FSI style and there are CD's available through Cornell's website. Alternatively, find a Hindi speaker who can go through the text with you. I personally have not been impressed by the Teach Yourself, Colloquial or Pimsleur Hindi Courses. Good Luck! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Chris Heptaglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7106 days ago 287 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian | Message 5 of 27 21 February 2011 at 5:20am | IP Logged |
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I believe the 'Teach Yourself Hindi' is good. There is also an Assimil Hindi, which I have and have not used yet, but it looks pretty good. The only snag is that you need to be able to understand French well to use it.
Tuttle do an 'Elementary Hindi.' I have their 'Elementary Korean' and I think it's a really good text, so on that basis, the Hindi version may be worth checking out. There is a page about it here: http://www.ispeakhindi.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hindi_Textbo ok:_Elementary_Hindi_by_Richard_Delacy_and_Sudha_Joshi What else? BBC has an introductory course called 'Hindi Urdu Bol Chaal' but you can't access the videos for it anywhere becuse of some copyright issues. There's a basic, but rather pricey new(ish) course from Libros Media called 'Rocket Hindi' out there too, but it really only serves as an introduction to the language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| stephen_g Groupie Canada Joined 6314 days ago 44 posts - 84 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Italian | Message 6 of 27 22 February 2011 at 2:48pm | IP Logged |
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Reproduced from my post in another topic...
1) Rupert Snell's Teach Yourself Hindi Not the most academic of books, but I do think it is one of the better volumes available in the Teach Yourself series. It offers a solid introduction to Hindi in manageable chunks. You can supplement this with other works by Snell, if necessary; Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Script may be useful for those struggling with this problem, and the more slowly-paced Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi may be more appropriate, for some. Snell's books provide a nicer, gentler introduction to the language for the independent student, yet the main book in the series doesn't compromise on quality. 2) Usha Jain's Series: Introduction to Hindi Grammar, Intermediate Hindi Reader and Advanced Hindi Grammar A wonderful set which is used in classrooms across North America. Wonderful drills for pounding away at Hindi grammar, but no answer key. I didn't find the lack of an answer key to really be an issue... The structures are straightforward. The drills just help you with memorising Hindi's structure. The intermediate reader is a nice introduction into reading the language, ending with a story by modern Hindi's most famous writer, Premchand. A CD exists for the reader but I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy. 3) Peter Hook's Hindi Structures The best step to take after completing Usha Jain's stuff. Hindi's only true textbook of subtle intermediate-level grammar. Drills and answer key provided. 4) Ruth Laila Schmidt's Urdu: An Essential Grammar Yes, I'm recommending an Urdu grammar for the study of Hindi. This is, in my opinion, the most useful reference work available for Hindi grammar. The differences between Hindi and Urdu are minor and this work can be used effectively by someone who already has a background in the works I've mentioned above. You can crosscheck it against other Hindi grammars if you're unsure about certain points, but you'll find that this is the most thorough and well-organised available. 5) R.S. McGregor's Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary Quite possibly the most satisfying dictionary I've ever had the pleasure of using. Blows its competition completely out of the water. I've not yet encountered another modern dictionary of an Indian language which can come close to comparing to this work. The version I've linked to above is the most recent edition, published in 2010. I haven't had the chance to compare this to the earlier edition, published in 1997. You can buy the older edition for less, if you wish. This dictionary deserves nothing less than five stars, and those who have awarded it less have not justified their doing so. Trust me, you'll never look at a dictionary for an Indic language the same way again after using this. 6) Rupert Snell and Christopher Shackle's Hindi and Urdu Since 1800: A Common Reader Excellent reader of both Hindi and Urdu, using materials dating back to the early 19th century. It doesn't teach the scripts, so the Urdu section will be useless for anyone who hasn't worked on its script previously. The first half of the book traces the development of both languages, including four useful sections on Hindi-Urdu's Sanskritic, Persian, Arabic and English components, respectively. It doesn't seem to be in print, but is available in the right places. --- The above materials will give you a solid grounding in Hindi, though you should try and engage with some multimedia-based websites online in order to develop your oral skills and listening comprehension, as only Snell's material comes with audio. You should be able to comfortably jump into native materials from this point forward; Hindi isn't a terribly complicated language. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |
| doviende Diglot Senior Member Canada languagefixatio Joined 5971 days ago 533 posts - 1245 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese | Message 7 of 27 22 February 2011 at 6:13pm | IP Logged |
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There's also a Hindi Assimil available in German and French.
And don't forget Hindi Harry Potter (although I haven't seen any audiobooks, unfortunately). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| aru-aru Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6442 days ago 244 posts - 331 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, Russian | Message 8 of 27 25 February 2011 at 12:17pm | IP Logged |
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"Elementary Hindi" by Delacy, I guess. Many universities have started using this for the main textbook, which must mean something. You can see the vocab the book introduces at this website, where each semester page gives links to the flashcards on, i think, quizlet.
You can take a look at audio for Usha Jain's book here The book itself is considered to be very good for further studies. Teach yourself is also a good book, but the best thing that you can get from these series is "Teach Yourself Hindi Conversation" CD set or "Teach Yourself Speak Hindi with Confidence" CD set (the last one is almost the same as the first one, with an extra bunch of conversations added). Check out the course transcript on Audible Living Language Hindi book comes with 6 CDs, two of which are supposed to be used for conversation/listening practice without the book. It's a very OK book in my opinion. Colloquial Hindi has one big problem - no Devanagri script, but otherwise I have a soft spot for that book, cause it's somehow cute (preview on Google books). Routlege has not only the Urdu grammar book, but also a Hindi grammar book, which is good. Before the big expenses, try out Door into Hindi and this book for reading practice. The last book is for Indians learning English, but, if you manage to ignore English "pronunciation" in Hindi letters, you can use it. If you like Bollywood, check out this. Harry potter does not have an audio version in Hindi, they seem to have extremely little in the Audiobook variety. I'm only aware of "Star Books" publishing what they call "Talking books", 3-4 CDs each. Premchand (a popular Indian author) has been published this way, same as others. Each set costs around 300 Roopies in India, but seems to be sold for roughly 25$ to everyone else, so maybe try getting someone from India buy and send it to you. Also, there is a little bit of free audio for Hindi available, see here, most of these stories are available in Hindi online for free, and English translations exist, the trick is getting it. For more links, see free legal audiobook thread. There are other books, of course, I own a lot, but most of them are not any good. Better get 2-3 good ones, rather than spend money on 10 bad ones. i think what people have suggested so far is a good start. [Edit] Almost forgot these free textbooks and Hindi and Urdu since 1800, check out other stuff on this page, especially supplementary stuff for Teach Yourself Hindi Edited by aru-aru on 25 February 2011 at 12:25pm 6 persons have voted this message useful |
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