Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Economical and fast, March 10, 2006
This review is from: Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Audiopackage (Paperback)
This is all you'll need to get up to speed with basic Hindi, so unless you really need to become an expert, this should do it. I got the book to learn enough Hindi to at least have some idea what is going in in Bollywood films. I didn't want to spend months on the project. This is the perfect resource for a one month basic blitz. The book is example oriented, but does present the grammar you will need too. The book uses devanagari script (with tranlisterations to begin with). I actually prefer this. Trying to learn hindi, urdu or arabic without learning the alphabet is generally an exercise in futility. Transliteration conventions are not standard enough, and it's generally frustrating trying to get pronunciations right if you are memorizing transliterations. If you're going to use text at all with these languages, you should learn the alphabet. It is after all just an alphabet, and it will only take a couple of days of effort to get down. The CD's are well recorded with native voices in small variety of accents. The CD tracks generally identify where they come from, so it's pretty easy to let the CD's drive your learning if you work that way. (I do - copying the CD's to my ipod.)
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun, easy to follow along!, May 10, 2007
This review is from: Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Audiopackage (Paperback)
I bought this book after almost completing Rupert Snell's book, 'Hindi (Teach Yourself Complete Course)'. I was finding the last few chapters a little challenging and hoped this book would 'fill in the gaps' so to speak. It was a wise investment! Even though much of the material is covered in Snell's 'Complete Course', it still contains many little valuable tips and nuances not found in the Complete Course that makes this purchase worthwhile. The audio CD is better as well; it's a bit slower/clearer and easier to follow along. Ideally I should have picked up this book first but I wasn't aware it existed at the time.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good course, but takes perseverence, November 28, 2007
This review is from: Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Audiopackage (Paperback)
This course is divided into twelve chapters. I figured, "Hey - I have twelve weeks before I go to India. A chapter a week -- that's doable." Well, it wasn't, at least not for me. I like the layout of the book, the grammar notes are clear, and the exercises are helpful, but I find myself going at a slow pace. Despite what another reviewer says, you NEVER have to learn the Devanagari script with this course. (I started to learn it, but then realized I didn't need it to make friends, eat, sleep, or shop.) Exercises are given in both script and romanization throughout the book. I wish there was more dialogue practice on the CDs, but I ended up buying the "Teach Yourself Hindi Conversation" CDs which provide extra listening and speaking practice. All in all, this course may be more than you need to survive in India for a month or so, but it's certainly worth starting with.
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