|
 |
What course is good for Hindi? | ||
Tags: Hindi | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| COLONIST Newbie United States Joined 4955 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes | Message 1 of 12 22 March 2011 at 10:17pm | IP Logged |
|
Hey guys, if you've studied Hindi, can you give me a recommendation of what course to
buy? I know there's a teach yourself series for Hindi, but since Hindi is a big language I'm thinking there's probably something better out there. Let me know if you've enjoyed a specific Hindi text/audio in the past. Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| delta910 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5834 days ago 267 posts - 313 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, German | Message 2 of 12 22 March 2011 at 11:17pm | IP Logged |
|
Well, I have not studied Hindi, yet. However, I do have a list of resources all ready to go for when I want to start it.
As you have stated, Teach Yourself wouldn't be such a bad place to start. Another good course would have to be the Living Language Spoken World Hindi course. I've flipped through this course and find that it's good. There is also a Colloquial Hindi course out there if you are willing to get it. I know of an FSI course, but I have not really looked through this one. Those initial three courses I would recommend to start out with. Hope this helps! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| LatinoBoy84 Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5534 days ago 443 posts - 603 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Latvian | Message 3 of 12 24 March 2011 at 2:38am | IP Logged |
|
The Pod101 sites have a Hindi course, as does Mango, Rocket Languages (as much as I
despise their marketing) has fairly decent beginners courses. Mango courses actually seem quite good just started playing around with the Turkish course. There are tons of movies you might want to check out too. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| aru-aru Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6416 days ago 244 posts - 331 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, Russian | Message 4 of 12 24 March 2011 at 6:49am | IP Logged |
|
Well, I have actually used many of the courses, so, here you go:
"Elementary Hindi" (Delacy) , comes with a Workbook. This one, have not used myself (but planning to buy). This book now seems to be replacing "Teach Yourself Hindi" as a main university textbook in US and UK. Also been recommended by a friend who used it, and claims it to be much better than "TY Hindi". If you can, get this one. Seen good reviews on this forum as well, search! Second choice for a textbook would be TY Hindi, it's a good book, I find it's choice of vocabulary really nice. Also, has a built-in story line, lots of free flashcards online, supplementary materials, and you can get a used copy really cheap. Don't get the latest book by TY (Complete Hindi, I think), it's the same as the old one, just much more expensive. Old ones, any edition is fine. If you end up getting the very old one from 89(?), some say it's even better than the other one. There's also TY Beginners Hindi and TY Beginners Hindi script, I have them, but I think they're in no way essential. Script isn't so hard to learn anyway, and the other one - I have no idea why it was even published. It does not do anything other than what the TY Hindi is doing, just less of it. Same author. Living Language Hindi book I also have, and I would recommend it, for it has more audio support than TY Hindi. Last two CDs (out of 6) are to be used without a book to review, and they do some speaking practice there as well. It's a bit more intensive than TY Hindi, might be not a perfect choice for the main textbook. Dialogue Nr 1 is almost 1 page long, so beware :) Colloquial Hindi - it does not teach the script, though I like the way it explains things. Very easy going book, but use it just as a supplement, it won't take you too far. Good book, if you can get it in library or used. Not on the "must get" list. For self study, definitely get the "TY Speak Hindi with Confidence" or "TY Hindi Conversation", which ever. There are some differences between the two, but not very important ones. It's and AUDIO course, and a very good one. Has a booklet with the conversations written down, but only for reference. Works wonders on listening comprehension. I enjoyed it a lot. Go through it slowly, and only through listening. Listen to explanations, vocab and everything until you really get each word. FSI course has no audio, and looks boring, but it's free. Can be used as a supplement, why not. Linguaphone Hindi is expensive, but seems to be good. Only recently had a chance to take a good look at it, looks nice, but cassette tape audio might be not good enough for a beginner. The way they have put the romanised spelling for Hindi words, is very wrong. They do not indicate the vowels that are NOT pronounced, they just put them all in. Can be confusing for a beginner. A "good to have", but not a "must have". There's lots of books published in India, but none can be used as the main textbook. Don't bother with those. Some are quite good, none - essential for a beginner. Two grammar books seem to be popular, one by Routlege, and one by Oxford (McGregor). Edited by aru-aru on 24 March 2011 at 6:55am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| ilcommunication Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6651 days ago 115 posts - 162 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 5 of 12 24 March 2011 at 1:56pm | IP Logged |
|
You might want to try A Door Into Hindi, it's an interesting online course that might prove a helpful extra resource. Like aru-aru said, I think Teach Yourself is a good basic textbook to work off of.
For learning Devanagri, I recommend you check out Ukindia.com, it really helped me out when I was starting to learn it (and I'll probably return to it to brush up when I get back into the language). Best of luck! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5767 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 6 of 12 24 March 2011 at 9:53pm | IP Logged |
|
Hindi may have less learning options than other major languages but it has a prolific film industry behind it. On Netflix here in the states, there are more titles available in Hindi than any other non-English language: 49 pages on their website! At 24 titles per page that comes out to 1176 titles (+/- 23 depending on how many are on the last page). Spanish comes in second with 37 pages followed by French at 33 pages. Enjoy learning Hindi. You'll have plenty of movies to back up your studies. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Slacker Diglot Pro Member United States Joined 5412 days ago 62 posts - 99 votes Speaks: Spanish, English Studies: German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic (classical) Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 12 25 March 2011 at 3:04am | IP Logged |
|
While we're at it, I'd recommend:
#1. Introductory Hindi Course, Landour Language School. This also comes with audio now, and is a legitimate (if somewhat dated) textbook, 1990 edition. It's way overpriced on Amazon ($120) but is available in India for about 2000 Rupees ($45). I liked it, it hits all the main points, flows smoothly, but is best used with the McGregor's "Outline of Hindi Grammar" grammar book. #2. The newer TY Hindi (Kamala and Pratap), followed by the more difficult/complete 1989 version (I am Ram). #3. The Linguaphone Hindi book I have (2002) would be very difficult to use as a stand-alone course, especially as a stand-alone teach-yourself course. It does, however, cover a great deal of vocabulary, scenarios, and materials which are good at the more advanced stages. #4. Reverse Bollywood movies. What does that mean? Well, after you watch a dozen or so regular Bollywood movies (with and/or without subtitles), you may start finding the stories lacking/predictable/boring. So I've invented the concept of the "Reverse Bollywood Movie" in which you buy a Blu-Ray disc of such Hollywood hits as "The Other Guys" starring Mark Whalberg and Will Farrell, or "District 9" - then you watch them with the Hindi subtitles on with the English audio playing. Try it! The dancing is minimal. -Slacker 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5059 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 8 of 12 25 March 2011 at 3:40am | IP Logged |
|
I'd talk to my Indian coworker. If you live in a big city, there are probably some good opportunities waiting for you to find them.
1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
