HN Explorer

Ask HN: Has anyone learned to speak Hindi?

1 points by cozuya ↗ HN
It doesn't look like its a particularly difficult language to learn all things considered, and at work would provide a very different and hopefully positive experience for someone like me, a stereotypical caucasian American. Does anyone have any experiences or resources to share?

2 comments

[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 12.7 ms ] thread
roshan_arhsim
The best way would be the movies. I learned to speak English the same way. While starting out focus on getting the overall meaning right instead of getting lost with semantics. good luck
staticautomatic
Yeah I learned a bit some years ago. I used books and some online materials available from a professor at NC State University (not sure if those are still online).

It's a tough language to learn on your own, in part because the syntax is so flexible. You can essentially form a sentence with all the words in the wrong order and someone would still more or less understand what you're saying. Of course, formal Hindi does have "rules" but they aren't consistent across the materials I found.

Another issue is formal vs conversational Hindi. The materials all teach on formal Hindi, which is good, but on the other hand you'll sound awfully stuffy speaking formally to someone who's accustomed to, say, bastardized Mumbai Hindi (which itself is kind of an amalgamation of 3 or 4 languages).

The books don't teach you much that's very useful. I remember in one book I got, one of the first things it taught was how to ask someone how many siblings they had...

The NCSU materials were very "throw you in the water and try to swim."

Frankly I'd just go with Rosetta stone or find a tutor.