Reddit reviews Teach Yourself Complete Hindi: From Beginner to Intermediate, Level 4 (Hindi and English Edition)
We found 4 Reddit comments about Teach Yourself Complete Hindi: From Beginner to Intermediate, Level 4 (Hindi and English Edition). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
It's indo-european, so nothing at all like Chinese or Japanese. It has twice as many letters as English in its alphabet, because it also has 'aspirates' (think 'b', and then 'bh'), but as the alphabet is phonetic, it can be learnt quite quickly.
Grammar-wise, it can be a bit daunting. It's subject object verb, rather than the subject verb object we have in romance languages, and uses postpositions (table on, rather than on the table). It also doesn't have articles like the or a.
On the plus side, it's almost exactly the same as Urdu (hindi is written in devenagari, urdu is written in a persian script), which means that while Hindi will certainly help you in North India, Urdu can be understood (at least spoken Urdu) in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and another country which escapes memory right now. Basically, if you learn Hindi, you're not just restricted to northern India, because of the extended reach of Urdu.
As an extra bonus, middle class indians, even in conversation with other middle class indians, will jump in and out of english and hindi mid sentence, so if you don't know a word, you can just say it with an indian accent. Aap bharati log se bol sakhte hai aur not sound like a stupid gora hain!
Get this:
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Hindi-Teach-Yourself-Language/dp/007176609X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367898110&sr=8-1&keywords=teach+yourself+hindi
Get a dictionary (shabdkosh in hindi, great word), and maybe an additional grammar guide. And take a trip to India. It's amazing.
I understand your situation. As a fellow Indian who speaks Hindi (not a native, learnt it just through friends and films), I would say immersion by speaking would help you. Although there are books for grammar/vocabulary, if you really need to improve your verbal skills, it's time to start speaking it ASAP (Don't worry about making mistakes). I'm sure you would have relatives like your cousins/aunts/uncles and any time you meet them, make sure you avoid English.
That being said, also what would be important to you is to get a Hindi book that teaches you grammar, so that you can understand the syntax of the language and realises how to piece words together to form sentences. These 3 books would give you a good start:
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If you don't have people to talk to, we could Skype :) Good luck.
Perfect, thanks.
I have ordered this one to compliment all the other books I have: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Hindi-Teach-Yourself-Language/dp/007176609X
The main reason is that I am doing a series of courses over the year that use this as text. I have a lot of hindi books, that's not really the issue. More how I transition from Hindi knowledge into Urdu knowledge.
Appreciate it!
Did you use a mix of different resources? Currently I'm using Rupert Snell's Teach Yourself Hindi and the resources from Hindi Urdu Flagship.
I don't feel like I'm making quick progress, though. As an avid reader, I would love a good selection of children's books to pick up and read.