I can’t remember when I actually made the decision I wanted to learn Hindi, but I sure recall how surprised and frustrated I was when I realized how to learn Hindi was a difficult task. Not the learning process itself, but finding a good Hindi language course I could actually learn from with reasonable speed and tangible results.
Click here to see the Hindi language program I finally picked.
I had truly enjoyed my travels through India. I was fortunate to be able to ride on an elephant, visit the Taj Mahal, and even experience a Hindu religious ceremony in a holy temple. The picture of me with the red paint on my forehead was taken at that temple. As moving as the experience was, the Indian friend who took me through the ceremony was not able to translate very much of what the priest was saying. If only I had been able to understand spoken Hindi at that time!
I suppose it was after I had come home from India and started thinking about paying a return visit that I realized how much more rewarding the experience would be if I were fluent in being able to understand spoken Hindi as well as to speak the language with relatively accurate pronunciation.
But my search for a good program to learn Hindi proved much harder than I expected. There is no shortage of language school programs available online, but they teach French, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese and even American Sign Language, but I could not find a decent Hindi tutorial course to save my life.
I poked around free web pages that had some useful words and phrases for travelers, but they were not actually developed as a tool for learning Hindi.
And then — talk about coincidence — the Rocket Language people came out with a new Hindi language program in mid October, 2009. They had announced a few weeks earlier it was coming, but you could not actually start downloading and listening to the lessons until that time. As a matter of fact, they even offered the program at a discounted introductory price for the first few days. But even if you get the full meal deal that is retailing in the $300 range, you are still looking at a bargain.
Click here to see the Rocket Hindi site
What I really like about their Hindi tutorials is that they include not only the basics of words, phrases and grammar, but they also give you a background of the culture of India. Plus there are more than traditional schooling type lessons. They have quizzes and games that give you variety so you want to keep learning.
If I had to criticize any part of the Rocket Hindi program it would be the way they teach the Hindi script or Devanagari writing. Maybe it’s harder to teach new tricks to an old dog like me, but I wish they would come up with a more simplified way to learn the Hindi alphabet letters. The sounds of the words are one thing, but the non-Arabic written characters have been quite tough for me to wrap my brain around.
This blog maybe got a bit more long winded than I hoped it would be, but I just wanted to save other people from having to go through the same painful process of shopping around for a good language course that I wasted so much time on.
Anyway, in my humble opinion, if somebody has the desire and wants to speak and understand the Hindi language — assuming you don’t have the time or money to hire yourself a private tutor or go to a full time language school — you are not going to find a more useful or cost-effective way to learn Hindi.
This is a picture I took at a local Indian sweet shop during their annual Diwali celebration, and it would be a real bonus to know more about these holidays. Especially for a person who does business with people who speak Hindi, it will give you an enormous advantage over your English-speaking competition if you can demonstrate you appreciate the Indian language and culture. Imagine going to the movies to watch a Bollywood blockbuster and not having to read the subtitles!
