Monday, March 29, 2010

How To Learn Hindi: Here Are Your Options

If you are trying to decide how to learn Hindi, your options are a university course, a private tutor, a commercial language school or an online Hindi course. Although university courses may be comprehensive and thorough, they are normally only available to students enrolled in the university. Another excellent option, and more available to most people than a university course, is an online Hindi course. To read more about your options, have a look at

Friday, March 19, 2010

How To Learn Hindi With Online Media

One of the best ways how to learn Hindi is by sitting in front of your computer. You have a tremendous amount of resources literally at your fingertips. You can access Hindi newspapers, movies, TV and radio shows and podcasts with simple Google searches. Most of those resources are free. To find out more about how to learn Hindi by using mass media, read

Friday, March 12, 2010

Hindi Course: Reap Professional Benefits

Taking a Hindi course will help you if you want to do business in India.

Some people want to do business in India because of the work that is generated there. You may want to set up a call center. You may be interested in new energy or IT developments. Or maybe you want to buy a Nano, one of those little cars recently introduced by Tata Motors.

On the other hand, maybe you are interested in India, not as a producing country, but as a consuming country. You want to expand to India because of the growing middle class and its growing consumer market.

In any case, you are smart to think of India if you have aspirations for a multi-national business career. Taking a Hindi course can give you a leg up on your competitors.

Read more at

Hindi Course: What Are The Benefits?

Monday, March 8, 2010

An Online Hindi Course: Let The Buyer Beware

Are you shopping for an online Hindi course? In the past several years, quite a few Hindi courses have come on the market. It goes without saying that some are better than others.

Before you spend your money on an online Hindi course, or your time and effort on trying to learn Hindi using one, you owe it to yourself to be sure that you have selected the best self-study program available. Here are some tips for how to select the best online Hindi course for you:

How To Learn Hindi: Tips For Great Study Habits

Studying a language takes a lot of time and effort. Although there is no way to work around that, there are ways to make sure that your time and effort is well invested. For some great tips on the kinds of study habits that will make your language study successful, take a look at:

How To Learn Hindi: Get Help With An Online Hindi Course

If you are interested in how to learn Hindi, an online Hindi course could be your best friend. For many, using an online self-study program is the best, or only, option they have for learning Hindi. But even if you have other options, like a private tutor or a live class, an online Hindi course can give you exactly the kind of back-up help that many language learners need.

Read more about it here:

Monday, March 1, 2010

Reasons To Learn Hindi

Are you trying to figure out how to learn Hindi? Why? Actually, there are a lot of reasons to learn Hindi. The continued growth of India as an economic powerhouse, the increased influence of Indian culture on Western pop culture, the mere beauty and rich legacy of the Hindi language.

And you may have your own reasons, too. Maybe you have an Indian sweetheart and you want to impress your future in-laws. Maybe you are serious about yoga or sitar and want to travel to India to study.

Read more about the reasons for discovering how to learn Hindi:

How To Learn Hindi: Why Bother?




Sunday, February 28, 2010

How To Learn Hindi: What Are My Options?

Once you have decided to learn Hindi, the question becomes how to learn Hindi? Perhaps you are in a position to take a university Hindi course. You might find a class in a commercial language school. Maybe you have found a private tutor.

For many, the best choice for how to learn Hindi is an online Hindi course. Online courses offer flexibility in scheduling and pace. The best online courses offer different kinds of learning experiences, both written and aural, so that all types of learners will find helpful and appropriate materials. Exceptional online courses provide a members-only forum, so that students can get questions answered and learn in a community setting.

Read more about taking an online Hindi course here:

How to Learn Hindi: What Are Your Options?

Thursday, February 25, 2010

How To Learn Hindi: Some Helpful Grammar Facts

Since India is a more and more important force globally, many more people are determining how to learn Hindi. Speaking and reading Hindi is a valuable asset for anyone traveling in India for business or pleasure. Anyone wishing to advance in an international business career would be well-advised to have this skill.

Grammatically speaking, Hindi is not that complicated a language. To learn some helpful grammar facts about Hindi, visit

Monday, February 22, 2010

A Little Bit On Hindi Literature

The Hindi language has a rich literary tradition dating back six centuries. The literary forms are generally devoted to religious devotion and heroic honor.

If you are trying to discover how to learn Hindi, you should learn a little bit about Hindi literature, too. You can read more about Hindi literature here:

How To Learn Hindi: You, Too, Can Learn Hindi

Have you ever studied French? Native English speakers can cheat in French. Say they want to use the word "definition" but they don't know how to say it in French. So they say the English word with a French accent, hoping they can cheat and get away with it.

And you know what? They can! The French word for definition is "definition." Just pronounce it with a French accent.

Unfortunately, an English speaker can't cheat when you are working on how to learn Hindi. There is not much common vocabulary between the two languages. However, the Hindi language is pretty regular when it comes to grammar and spelling. So, even though you will have to work for it, you, too, can learn Hindi.

Read more about Hindi here:

Thursday, February 18, 2010

How To Learn Hindi When You Don't Have Time To Learn A Language

A lot of the people who would be interested in how to learn Hindi are the busiest people you know. World-travelers, or international entrepreneurs, or people who never heard a language they didn't want to learn. Even for the most motivated Hindi students, finding time for Hindi lessons is challenging. But it can be done. Just be creative in your approach to finding the time, and you will succeed in your Hindi course.

Read some tips on finding time for how to learn Hindi here:

How To Learn Hindi: Stay Motivated

Staying motivated while you are trying how to learn Hindi is its own job. The key to maintaining motivation is to take your Hindi course step by step and recognize your accomplishments all along the way. Set short-term, intermediate and long-term goals and reward yourself each time you reach one. Read more here:

How To Learn Hindi Using Phonology

For me at least, it is challenging to figure out how to learn Hindi sounds. As with any language, there are sounds in Hindi that don't exist in any other language that I have ever studied. Learn a little bit more about Hindi phonology:

How To Learn Hindi Online

There is a lot on the internet that can help you discover how to learn Hindi. The resources range from online newspapers that can help you develop your reading skills, to instructional podcasts that teach you grammar and vocabulary, to Bollywood movies that allow you to learn Hindi to an Indian pop music soundtrack. Find out more about it at

Thursday, February 11, 2010

How to Learn Hindi? See A Bollywood Movie!

Watching television and movies and listening to the radio are always good for people who are studying foreign languages. It gives you a feel for the rhythm and inflection of a language, it forces you to listen to the language at conversational speed and it gives you a sense of the culture and routine of the speakers of the language.

If you are interested in how to learn Hindi, you should take advantage of those resources. More specifically, you should use Bollywood movies as study aids.

Bollywood movies are long, but fun. Spectacles of music and dance, they are full of plot twists like twins separated at birth, star-crossed lovers, heroes and villains and dramatic reversals of fortune. And they are in Hindi. They offer a student a look at Indian culture, a chance to hear Hindi spoken and sung, and a three-hour-long entertainment.

So if you are looking for ways how to learn Hindi, don't overlook Bollywood movies. They are a great resource.

You can read more about them here:

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

You Can Do It!

Have you ever known anyone who says, "I just can't learn foreign languages"? Or are you one of those people yourself?

Well, if you think that way, you will be right. You won't learn Hindi. You'll never be able to read the Devanagari alphabet. You will never be able to have a conversation with anyone in Hindi.

So think again. Decide that you can figure out how to learn Hindi. Take on some good study habits and set yourself up for success. And you will be able to do it.

Read more tips about how to learn Hindi here:

Monday, February 8, 2010

Rasas and Bollywood Movies

There are many reasons for taking a Hindi course. Maybe you want to make yourself more marketable if you are doing business in India. Maybe you are interested in traveling to India for spiritual or personal reasons. Or maybe you just love Bollywood movies.

Bollywood movies, like other performing arts in India, borrows from a long tradition that includes performances of epic poetry, Sanskrit drama, music and dance conventions and more. One of the elements of these traditions is the concept of "rasas." Rasas are the chief emotion that a performer tries to convey, or that the audience feels, in a performance.

There are nine rasas, running the gamut from love and attraction to terror and horror. Each is associated with a color and a deity.

To read more about rasas, and Bollywood, check out

Friday, February 5, 2010

Before You Start Your Hindi Course

Hindi is the predominant language spoken in the northern India states of Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Himchai Pradesh, and Jharkhand. It is a secondary language of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is so closely related to Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, that the spoken colloquial languages are practically identical. Urdu, though, is written in Perso-Arabic script, while Hindi is written in Devanagari script.

To learn more about the context in which Hindi is spoken, as well as some basic facts of Hindi grammar, take a look at

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Why You Should Take A Hindi Course

There are a lot of reasons to take a Hindi course. For one thing, if you are in international business, more and more of your competitors are doing it. To keep the edge, you should advance your skills when it comes to doing business in Asia by learning one of the official languages of India.

Hindi has another advantage. The spoken language is mutually intelligible with Urdu, the national language of Pakistan. So if you learn to speak Hindi, you will be able to speak with millions of people in India as well as millions of people in Pakistan.

Don't have time for a weekly class? Try an online course! Read more about it at

How To Learn Hindi In Its Written Form

If you have decided to learn how to learn Hindi, you will also need to learn the Devanagari alphabet as part of your Hindi course. Learning this beautiful, exotic-looking alphabet might be challenging, but with consistent work and a methodical approach, you can do it. After all, you learned the Roman alphabet when you were learning to read and write English.

For advice about how to learn the Devanagari alphabet, or any foreign alphabet, take a look at

Why To Take A Hindi Course

There are many reasons why to take a Hindi course. Hindi is the fourth most commonly spoken language in the world. Only Mandarin, Spanish and English have a greater number of speakers. It is not only spoken in India, but also in Guyana, Fiji and Mauritius and by many people in the US, UK and Canada.

Hindi's sister language, Urdu, is the official language of Pakistan. Although Hindi and Urdu are written in different alphabets, their grammar is the same and the colloquial spoken language is mutually intelligible.

So a Hindi course would open the door to communication with millions of people who inhabit several countries.

You can read more about it at

Before You Start Your Hindi Course

This may help you before you start your Hindi course.

When I start to learn a language, I always find it helpful to get an outline of the grammatical structure of the language before I jump in. If you are like me, you should go to

6 Things To Know About Learning Hindi

You will learn about the following items of Hindi grammar:

  1. Word order
  2. Case
  3. Gender
  4. Pronouns
  5. Verb forms
  6. Interrogatives.

How To Learn Hindi

A lot of people are interested in how to learn Hindi these days and you, too, may be looking for a Hindi course. India is experiencing such economic and technological growth, and there is now so much commerce between the US and India, that business people and business students find it beneficial to be able to speak and read the language.

As exotic as it seems, Hindi is not that hard to learn. It is not a very complex language grammatically. It is written as it is spoken. Even little kids can learn Hindi. So you can, too.

The problem arises in finding resources to learn the language. There aren't many college courses available. Some language schools teach Hindi, but not all of them do. And they are expensive.

An online Hindi course may be the best approach for learning Hindi. For more about how to learn Hindi, and for a recommendation for an online Hindi course, visit

Will You Be Visiting Ahmedabad?

Will you be visiting Ahmedabad? Four good places to visit are

  1. The Calico Museum of Textiles
  2. Kankaria Lake
  3. The Mosque of Sidi Saiyyed
  4. The Siddi Bashir Mosque
To read more about these places, visit

Laughter Yoga Clubs in Mumbai

Laughter is good for you. It not only elevates your mood, it has mental, physical and spiritual benefits as well. A Mumbai physician, Dr. Madan Kataria, has devised a type of yoga that incorporates laughter into a more traditional practice of asanas and pranayama. Laughter clubs have sprung up all over the world to practice it.

Read more about the origins of laughter yoga at

Indian Crafts

India is rich in craftsmanship. Some of the crafts that it is most famous for are:

  • Textiles, which are often decorated with block prints or embellished with embroidery
  • Jewelry, fashioned in silver, gold, turquoise and coral
  • Other types of metalwork, used for decorative and practical purposes, including boxes, vases, plates, trays and cups
Read more about the crafts of India at

Friday, January 15, 2010

How to Learn Hindi: Learning a Foreign Alphabet

If you are trying to find out how to learn Hindi or are taking a Hindi course, you will also need to discover how to learn the Hindi alphabet. Hindi is written in the Devanagari script, a beautiful style of writing that is easily identifiable by a bar that runs across the top of each letter. It is the alphabet that Sanskrit has been written in since the 1800's. Its use as the alphabet of sacred Sanskrit texts helped to give the script its name. Originally referred to as the "nagari", or urban, alphabet because of its use by the urban elite, it came to be called the "devanagari" alphabet, or the urban alphabet of the deity, because of its use in writing about the deity. The alphabet is now used in Marathi and Nepali as well as several other languages in addition to Hindi. And it goes without saying that if you are taking a Hindi course, you will need to know how to learn Hindi in its written form as well as orally.

But if you are reading this article, you are an expert at learning to read and write another alphabet. The best advice I can give you for learning a foreign alphabet is the same advice that you got as a small child learning to read for the first time. Do you remember back then? Well, let me remind you. Here are some easy steps for how to learn Hindi in its written form -- or learn any other foreign alphabet, for that matter.

First, write the each letter individually over and over again. Write lines and lines of them. Practice saying the sound of the letter as you write it. When you feel comfortable with a letter, move on to the next one until you have gotten through the alphabet. Then start at the beginning again. That's the first step you should take if you are trying to find out how to learn Hindi in its written form and you should practice this step a lot.

Examine the alphabet to find letters that look alike. If letters look alike you may find it easy to confuse them. Remember how hard you had to work to tell "b" apart from "d"? Find letters that you might confuse in Hindi, or whatever foreign alphabet you are learning, and practice them together. Write one and then the other, concentrating not on the similarities but on the differences. Practice the sound of the letter to yourself as you write it. Get to know the easily-confused letters individually. Then it won't be so hard to tell them apart and you will have an easier time throughout your Hindi course.

Copy an English book into Hindi. Don't translate it. You aren't there yet. Transliterate it. Write the English words in the Devanagari alphabet. It's pretty that way. And it's great practice both for writing the letters and for learning the sounds. You can do this even before you have started a Hindi course, because you don't need to know Hindi. You just need to know how to learn Hindi in its written form.

Read aloud in Hindi. If you are taking a Hindi course, you probably have a textbook. Turn to the last few chapters and find sentences or paragraphs. Just read them aloud. Maybe you will be slow at sounding the words out. That's okay. Just keep at it. And you probably won't understand what you are reading. You will get there later. Right now you just want to practice making the right sound when you see a letter. Keep it up and you will read faster and with greater ease.

So, in other words, take the steps that you took when you were first learning how to read. And you seem to have done that pretty well. You can read this post, can't you? Just keep working on it, using the tips I gave you in this post. Then even before you start your Hindi course, you will know how to learn Hindi in its written form.