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 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery |  | |
| fredomirek Tetraglot Senior Member Poland Joined 6706 days ago 265 posts - 264 votes  Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 1 of 6 02 March 2008 at 1:29pm | IP Logged |
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Dear professor,
I'm thinking about learning Hindi one day and I decided to gain some useful information on the resources that I might use in the future. I know that you have gained some solid knowledge of the Hindi language in your career. I have also read that you recommended Teach Yourself series for studying this language. However, I have read several good reviews about "Colloquial Hindi" by Tej K. Bhatia as well. Have you ever used this course? Do you think it's good for self-study? Perhaps now you would suggest some different resources for learning Hindi, maybe something new has been published recently. I will be really grateful if you find a few minutes to reply, Thank you, Piotr G 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7056 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 2 of 6 02 March 2008 at 7:04pm | IP Logged |
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Yes, Colloquial Hindi is a good course for self-study, and in fact it has a uniquely special feature that other courses lack, for its author is also the author of Colloquial Urdu and the two books are structured in a parallel fashion so that those areas of the two forms of speech that do diverge are specifically highlighted. Other than that, since I wrote about Hindi here several years ago, the Teach Yourself saw fit to have Rupert Snell produce Teach Yourself Beginner’s Hindi, which is, as the title indicates, more elementary than either of his two earlier versions of Teach Yourself Hindi, but if you concur with me than when learning an exotic language, you really need to avail yourself of at least a handful of good manuals, and in practice of all decent learning material, it is would also be worth your while to acquire this.
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| fredomirek Tetraglot Senior Member Poland Joined 6706 days ago 265 posts - 264 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 3 of 6 12 March 2008 at 5:28pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you for your feedback, professor. Would you recommend using these materials in a particular order? I mean the Colloquial Hindi course and Teach Yourself series. Should I finish one of these first and then go to the other one or would it be better to do both of them alternately? If you know of any other book for beginners which you consider indispensable at the beginning, please let me know.
Thank you again. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7056 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 4 of 6 23 March 2008 at 7:59pm | IP Logged |
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Piotr, I think it is best to work through the Colloquial and Teach Yourself type materials in cycles. Get all four or five such volumes that you are going to use and go over each of them in turn. Do this very rapidly the first time to get an overview of what they contain and how the material is laid out. Probe a bit deeper the next time, and the next, and the next….
There is another book you should probably know about: Ernest Bender’s Hindi Grammar and Reader (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1968). I have not used it yet myself, but my father recently gave me his old copy, saying that it had helped him more with Hindi than any other book (he now reads Hindi novels every day with the same ease he does languages in any Romance language). Indeed, it does appear to be extraordinarily detailed and thorough, although unfortunately and inexplicably, the entire volume is Romanized. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Gregy1727 Triglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6335 days ago 98 posts - 117 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Afrikaans | Message 5 of 6 18 May 2008 at 6:05pm | IP Logged |
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Professor,
I am relaying my youtube question here as per your instructions. Basically, I'm interested in learning this language, but the lack of materials can be a bit disconcerting. I've come across Living Language Hindi and TY Hindi (newer edition). What other courses should I try to find? I have enjoyed your series review on YouTube, and perhaps you can recommend some good materials for this language. As this is the first "exotic" language I have ever studied, I'd also like a few tips on how to maximize study toward a language that is more distant from English than those that I'm used to. Also, I've seen your video on Scriptorium, but I'd like to know how best to BEGIN learning to read/write the Devanagari script. I feel a bit overwhelmed when I see the lack of materials on Hindi compared to other languages. This will undeniably be the most challenging language I've attempted as of yet simply due to the significantly smaller amount of resources available. I hope that I can counteract this by ordering the Hindi language programming offered by DirecTv. Thanks in advance for your aid. Stephen Kilgore Edited by Gregy1727 on 21 May 2008 at 4:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7056 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 6 of 6 26 May 2008 at 12:54pm | IP Logged |
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Mr. Kilgore,
I have added your letter to an earlier thread about Hindi resources in which I believe you will find some useful leads. There are certainly not as many options for learning Hindi as there should be given its size, status, and importance, but there are more than you might expect, although you may have to dig around for them. As for beginning to learn how to write Devanagari, I personally think that all you need to do is copy aloud as per the scriptorium. However, if you want more than that, then I do believe that the same author of all the other Teach Yourself Hindi volumes (Dr. Rupert Snell) has also prepared one entitled Beginner’s Hindi Script. Beyond that, a resource that foreign learners can avail themselves of when learning (most specifically to write) exotic languages like this consists of books for children in the expatriate community. If you happen to live in a city with any kind of Indian neighborhood, visit it and you are likely to find a selection of such volumes in any large import/export store. Best of luck to you! Alexander Arguelles 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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