Learn Hindi [Spiral-bound]

Pratibha Khare (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0966383109 | ISBN-13: 978-0966383102

This book has been written for audiences who want to learn the Hindi language with reading, writing, and comprehension as their goals. It is also very useful for teachers and students of Hindi in a school or college setting. The book includes the alphabet, and grammar: Nouns; pronouns, including their gender and number; adjectives; case; verbs; verb tenses; verb moods; interrogative sentences; and compound words. An appendix has been added for quick reference. Since this book was written for children as well as adults, the rules of grammar are explained in English in deatail -- grammatically as well as in a lay person's language. At the end of each chapter there are related exercises. I hope this book will provide the necessary tools to students who want to learn Hindi and also help teachers teach the language to English speaking students.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"--- I sincerely appreciate the efforts of Dr. (Mrs.) Pratibha Khare in bringing out a valuable book on learning Hindi. She has done a commendable job.---"

Swami Tejomayananda June 18, 1998 Piercy, California -- Publisher Comments

--She has done a commendable job.--

Swami Tejomayananda -- Foreward for Learn Hindi

Language Notes

Text: English, Hindi

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 175 pages
• Publisher: Mukund Pubns (March 11, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966383109
• ISBN-13: 978-0966383102
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,791,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable Resource, February 5, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Learn Hindi (Spiral-bound)

As an Indian born and raised in America, I have always had a faint familiarity with the spoken Hindi language as I gleaned bits and pieces from the conversations between my parents. I had also learned the basics of reading and writing the Hindi script as a young child. Presently a college student, I have desired to become proficient in Hindi and reconnect to the country of my family. I purchased Dr. Khare's book in order to learn the proper way to translate and write Hindi text. Learn Hindi and Hindi Primer part 1 are two of the best tools I could have purchased for this purpose. I am the kind of person that is not satisfied with simply knowing how a phrase is commonly written or translated. I want to know why. I want to know the methodology and rules behind the grammar. To me, that is the best way to learn. Dr. Khare's books taught me how to approach translating sentences into Hindi with a clear and effective set of rules while other books can only hope the reader makes connections after going through the chapters three or four times. These two books complement one another so well. While one provides the conventions of grammar to translate virtually any thought into and out of Hindi, the other provides chapters devoted to steadily building your vocabulary and using those new words in simple sentences. There is plenty of repetition to make sure the reader masters a concept before moving on. Overall, I must say that these books provided the structure a disciplined person needs to really learn how to read, write, and translate Hindi. I wholeheartedly recommend it to beginners and those who have a faint knowledge of the script and I look forward to continuing my studies with these very books and hopefully mastering their concepts eventually.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, July 5, 2001

By 

Davinderjit Bagga Ph.D., University of Montevallo (Montevallo,AL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learn Hindi (Spiral-bound)

This book is for students who are serious about learning Hindi language.It is not designed to help learn Hindi to simply survive during a short visit to Hindi speaking region.This book can serve as a text, teaching tool, or even a reference for non- as well as Hindi speaking students.It is a unique book for, it includes various aspects of grammar and explanations of the grammar rules written very clearly in English.It also includes the rules for gender application, which may even interest the Hindi speaking students.At the end of each chapter there are related exercises to facilitate the learning process.Good numbers of vocabulary words are included in each chapter. I find this book one of its kinds and recommend it very highly for learning,teaching as well as a reference book for family library.

96 of 120 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Thinly disguised political agenda teaches useless Hindi, May 1, 2001

By 

"mgshakes" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learn Hindi (Spiral-bound)

Learning Hindi from this book is akin to a non-English speaker learning Latin grammar before coming to the U.S. and expecting to understand/be understood by Americans! The book is needlessly pedantic and clearly (to me) pursuing a language "purification" agenda, which flies in the face of actual Hindi usage, be it in Bollywood, Kolkata or Dilli.

Whether the author and her ilk like it or not, today's Hindi is a rich, polyglot language, with perhaps half of its word count (esp. in spoken Hindi...more than 50% when sung in Mumbai film songs!) coming from "Videshi" sources e.g. Persian, Arabic, English. Not only does the author not acknowledge this, there is too self-conscious an effort to use retrograde Sanskrit words and forms, resulting in a language that would sound archaic/pedantic/quaint to most Indian ears, if not downright unintelligible.

For instance, most Indians would commonly use the Persian/Arabic/Urdu words duniya, kitab,jaanwar, zamin instead of the author's preferred prithvee, pustak, pashu,bhoomi (Sanskrit)for earth/world, book, animal and land respectively. An even more egregious case(which could cause real weird problems for the reader)is her attempted distinction between "ma'in" and "hum" for the first person pronoun "I". Pretty basic, no? Why she idio(syncra)tically reserves the first form for "I" and the second form for "we"is beyond me... when ALL Indians use them interchangeably for "I"!!!

The author does her readers a disservice in not pointing out more common forms, which generally happen to be Urdu...I wonder if this is the root of the real problem here? If so, she should have made it clear in the Introduction that this book was Hindi for Hindus, to be used by those who yearn for a return to a "sacred" Sadhubhasa, but virtually useless for communicating with the vast majority of Hindi-speaking Indians who cherish the dynamism and diversity of their mother tongue.

The grammar sections are fine, though, as could be expected, with some outmoded formalisms. An appendix on adjectives would be welcome for most learners, as the main section contains mainly a list of Hindi words without translation.

All in all, this is not a book for the general purpose Hindi learner. While the author says this book is for "reading, writing and comprehension", I believe its scope is even more limited: to "traditional" Hindi literature and literateurs. Which is fine, but then you wouldn't be able to communicate with your cab driver or rickshawalla, read today's authors and newspapers, definitely not be able to follow most Hindi movies or TV shows, and worst of all, never be able to enjoy the ineffable beauty of a Lata or Rafi song..."Chaudvin ka Chaand ho, ya aaftab ho" or "Jiya beqaraar hai, chhaai bahaar hai, aaja more baalmaa, tera intezaar hai."