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My Hindi learning log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Aliens Exist Newbie United States Joined 4249 days ago 5 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 9 03 October 2012 at 7:50pm | IP Logged |
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I have problems self-motivating, so this language log seems like a good idea.
BACKGROUND I am not Indian nor am I of Indian descent, but ever since at least high school I have had a fascination with Indian culture, especially religion and language. I have not formally studied Hindi before, but in high school a very good friend of mine was from India and he tried to teach me a bit of Hindi. Unfortunately, none of it really stuck. I am also interested in Hinduism and would like to study Sanskrit at some point in the future. MATERIALS I am going to be using Teach Yourself Hindi by Rupert Snell, along with Teach Yourself Hindi Dictionary, Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Script and Teach Yourself Hindi Conversation. I actually picked up that last one at a local bookstore to tide me over, the rest I ordered form Amazon.com and they should be arriving today. I have been putting in about 30 minutes a day on TY Hindi Conversation, but once the rest arrive I will attempt to put in at least an hour a day, if not more. I'm in college so I have to budget my time wisely! I am also fortunate enough to live in a city with a large Indian-American population, so I have several Hindi-language radio stations to listen to (I'm listening to one right now) and a Bollywood movie theater in town that plays the latest Hindi-language films. I also have a ton of Bollywood movies in my Netflix queue, and have been watching Hindi-language TV (and listening to radio) via the Internet. If I'm not mistaken, there's also at least one local Hindi-language broadcast TV station here in the city, although I have yet to track it down. I also think there are TV stations available on cable, albeit with a subscribtion (I know there's a Bollywood channel package available, but funds are limited!). And there are plenty of Indian-American students at my college, perhaps one day when my speaking skills are up to par I can strike up a conversation with someone. I also plan on treating myself to the Harry Potter series in Hindi once I reach an intermediate level. (I find it very strange that despite the amount of Hindi-language media here in my hometown, there were virtually no Hindi courses available at any of the Barnes and Noble or Half Price bookstores in town. I had to order everything, which sucks because I was very excited to get started. I guess Hindi just isn't as studied as other major languages.) STRATEGY I'd like to spend the bulk of my time on TY Hindi, while making sure I also work on learning the script. Perhaps I can spend 1 hour a day on TY Hindi, and 30 minutes on TY Beginner's Hindi Script, and supplement them with TY Hindi Conversation. I try to get my studying in the early morning, before work and school, but obviously on days off I'll be able to devote more time, perhaps even 2 hours a day. I'm going to try to immerse myself in the language as much as possible, my computer and all of my social media/e-mail accounts are set to Hindi, and I've been replacing English TV with Hindi TV (although not completely!) Hopefully with a year or so I will be at a good level. I'd like to become fluent, but I doubt that will happen without making friends to talk to. So anyways, that's the situation in a nutshell. Now we play the waiting game until my materials arrive, and then I'll post another entry! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 4827 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes  Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 2 of 9 03 October 2012 at 8:14pm | IP Logged |
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Welcome to the community.
Hindi is not my mother tongue either. However, I was exposed to it from a very early age and can speak it fairly well. Feel free to ask if you need advice, conversation practice, or if there is anything else that I can help you with. I shall be following your log with great interest. Best of luck and happy learning. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Aliens Exist Newbie United States Joined 4249 days ago 5 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 9 04 October 2012 at 12:12am | IP Logged |
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Thank you napoleon, I may take you up on that kind offer!
I worked on TY Hindi Conversation for about 30 minutes until my books arrived. I plowed right in and got about 2 hours, split between TY Hindi and TY Beginner's Hindi Script. I was pleasantly surprised...the overall quality of both books seems to be very high, apparently not all TY titles are as bad as they say! TY Hindi Unit 1 opens up with a simple dialogue, a handful of new vocabulary words, and a brief grammar section. The grammar topics covered the present tense of the verb 'to be' along with the personal pronouns. There are three second-person pronouns used based on the level of deference you want to use...from very intimate to very polite. I got through the vocab pretty easily since it was already covered in TY Hindi Conversation. I stared work on the second dialogue and the second vocabulary list, it's a bit longer but I think it's manageable. It looks like I'll be using hand-made flash cards, since I don't know how to type in Hindi yet! After that, I started working on TY Hindi Script, I got through some of the consonants, my handwriting is probably terrible but I'm sure it will improve with practice. So all in all, I got in a good 2 hours today and I think I made a good start! I'm going to try to get in 1 hour 30 minutes in the morning before work, and I'll probably watch some Hindi TV tonight before I go to bed. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Aliens Exist Newbie United States Joined 4249 days ago 5 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 9 06 October 2012 at 2:41am | IP Logged |
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So yesterday I didn't post but I was able to get in a solid 2 hours of study, split between studying TY Hindi and TY Beginner's Hindi Script. Today I got an hour of studying in and finished up Unit 1 in TY Hindi. I'm making good progress with the script, my handwriting sucks but I'm remembering the letters with little difficulty and starting to read some of the things I'm seeing online. I really need to work on TY Hindi Conversation, but I think that may have to wait until Sunday when I can devote more time to language learning. I'm really struggling with chemistry at school so I need to devote more time to it rather than Hindi. I've been watching some Indian soap operas and TV news, and listening to the local Hindi stations. Right now I'm listening to BBC Hindi as I type this, so I'm trying to squeeze in whatever passive stuff I can. I also rented a Hindi film, Dil Chahta Hai, from Netflix so maybe Sunday I can watch it. It's three hours long, but it should be worth it just for the practice. I really enjoy Bollywood and all, but sometimes Indian TV series get way too melodramatic for my liking, with the slow-motion and constant close-ups and "dramatic" music. Oh well, I'm still having fun, and that's the point. Edited by Aliens Exist on 06 October 2012 at 2:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| pbromide Bilingual Triglot Groupie United States Joined 4358 days ago 76 posts - 98 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Swedish | Message 5 of 9 06 October 2012 at 3:23am | IP Logged |
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Ah, Hindi! The script was always a problem for me. The many Indians where I live prefer
to speak to me in English, of course, so it's a bit awkward to suddenly start speaking to them in Hindi. I found a film that appears to be in Hindi called "My Name is Khan." I'll tell you if it's any good - I came across it while searching for film and TV depictions of people with Asperger's syndrome. Rupert Snell's TY books are, in my opinion, the best TY books there are. I only own TY Beginner's Hindi, but I've found it superior to pretty much any other TY book I have. I wish you good luck on your journey. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Tenebrarum Groupie United States Joined 5217 days ago 84 posts - 115 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi | Message 6 of 9 06 October 2012 at 6:23am | IP Logged |
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Just wanted to say that I'll enjoy following your log! You seem to be off to a great
start and I like the fact that you're using both course books and native materials. And yeah, a lot those TV serials bring melodrama to a whole new level. If you ever tire of them you could always check out the reality shows; don't worry - they're just as full of बकवास as the American varieties :). दिल चाहता है बहुत अच्छी फ़िल्म है! It has a lot of the good qualities of your standard Bollywood romantic comedy, but also less of the cheesiness and melodrama you'd find in, say, a typical Shahrukh movie. Anyway, best of luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Aliens Exist Newbie United States Joined 4249 days ago 5 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 9 12 October 2012 at 2:12am | IP Logged |
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Wow I haven't posted for a while...well, I've been chugging along. I've been getting in between one to two hours of study a day, also trying to listen/watch native materials. I haven't gotten to really watch any movies yet, but I'm going to watch one tommorow night. I am on Unit 3 of Teach Yourself Hindi, I'm on Unit 5 of Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Script. And I've been working on Teach Yourself Hindi Converstation, so I think things are coming along nicely. I'll update with more details this weekend.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Aliens Exist Newbie United States Joined 4249 days ago 5 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English* | Message 8 of 9 13 October 2012 at 1:21am | IP Logged |
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नमस्ते
So today I was tired from lack of sleep and I only got in an hour of formal study, split between TY Hindi and TY Hindi Conversation. But to "make up for it" I am watching a three hour long Bollywood movie called Kaala Patthar. It's a 1979 film starring Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan about intrigue afoot at a coal mine (hence the title of the film, काला पत्थर or "black rock". It's pretty cheesy but then again it's Bollywood so you gotta love it, right? I am only on Unit 3 after three weeks of study so I'm not exactly an advanced learner, but I'm picking up lots of phrases so I'm pretty happy with that. I'm still disappointed that the grammar from this morning hasn't sunk in, but I was tired so hopefully things will look up. I'm going to try to watch more movies tomorrow. I was going to study today, but मैं थक हूँ. So back to the movie! 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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