Hindi: Start Speaking Today!: Two Audio Cassettes and Phrase Book (Language/30) [Audio Cassette]

Language 30 (Author)

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Educational Services Corp; Book and Cassette edition (June 3, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0910542791
• ISBN-13: 978-0910542791
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #926,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not Very Useful, August 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Hindi: Start Speaking Today!: Two Audio Cassettes and Phrase Book (Language/30) (Audio Cassette)

The "course" is essentially just a pair of people saying words and sentences. There is no explanation of sentence structure, words, or anything. The language used is also very rigid and formal, which is of dubious usefulness. The whole thing feels like it was made from a template: take a number of English sentences, have someone read them in another language, and sell the tapes.

One highlight: it's pretty comical to hear people reading the Hindi words for "beef," "pork," "bacon," "steak," and "raspberry."

American Narrator: "Beef."

Hindi Narrator: "Beef."

American Narrator: "Pork."

Hindi Narrator: "Pork."

And so on.

Considering that the only place you likely could order pork is in an Amercian hotel, it hardly seems worth the trouble to tell me how to say it in Hindi. However, I now know how to say, "Can I use the photocopier?" I really don't know what else I would need.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Introduction to the Basics, March 15, 2000

By 

Suzanne Kulshrestha (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hindi: Start Speaking Today!: Two Audio Cassettes and Phrase Book (Language/30) (Audio Cassette)

This course is a brief introduction to conversational Hindi. Thus, it would be good for someone trying to get by in Hindi, like a phrasebook. You will not learn enough to have a very good conversation or master the language. The course has two audio cassettes and a booklet that cover the most important words and phrases.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "How do you like your steak?", November 25, 2003

By 

Lee Goldberg (Bowie, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hindi: Start Speaking Today!: Two Audio Cassettes and Phrase Book (Language/30) (Audio Cassette)

To add to what a previous reviewer said about the courses in the Language 30 series being cut to a single mold, one of the phrases given in the course is "How do you like your steak?", which made me wonder whether the Hebrew and Arabic courses in the series include the question "How do you like your pork chops cooked?".

Of course, the Language 30 packages are basically tourist phrase books (roughly the same content as "Say It In Hindi" or the excellent Lonely Planet "Hindi-Urdu Phrasebook", but briefer) plus recordings--which is not to say that they're useless. If you're just curious about a language and like to compare vocabulary for numbers and phrases like "What's your name?" and hear how they're pronounced, or if you're studying with a more serious course but you'd like more exposure to the language while you're driving, the tapes or CDs and slim, shirt-pocket-sized booklets can be very convenient.

If you buy a used copy, though, make sure it's the recent version with printed devanagari (Hindi) text. (The older version had handwritten Hindi and more high-faluttin expressions.)