Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Audiopackage

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.)

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.

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.

I was really beginning to think I was really stupid, or at the very least, incapable of learning Hindi.

But it wasn't me. It was the prevalent methodology in texts to be either "travel phrases" (useless) or "obsessive grammar method" (which is difficult, and useless, as a new-wave learner who never learned English in grammatical terms. This book bridges that gap. it is well organized, and a lovely pace. I would recommend learning the devanagari script before plunging in, But I'm having a good time learning, and I've had countless "Eureka moments" when going through the lessons, because he explained it all very clearly, and in a way that didn't require my brain to translate from Hindi -> Grammatical Terms -> English. (3 hops is difficult when the grammatical terms are just as foreign as the language you are learning!)

I am enjoying this. It is entirely adequate for a beginner and novice in Hindi. The audio is especially useful and easy to follow along with.

I have the Snell Hindi Script and Teach yourself Beginner's Hindi and must say I can read and write Hindi/Devanagari well. Conversation still struggles... This book is concise and well laid out with lots of information good for the beginner. Snell has a tendency to add lots of grammar to the text- important, but difficult to learn as there are a lot of grammar rules. The audio portion is very well done but tends to go too fast, in the sense that the speakers speak in Hindi quickly which can be confusing and frustrating.
While not perfect this book is definitely worth purchasing! It takes lots of work and practice to speak Hindi and this book will help you get up and well, maybe not running, but walking!

This is as good an introductory language course as I have ever seen. Although Hindi grammar is treated very thoroughly , a learner who doesn't care for grammatical terminology can absorb a great deal inductively. The dialogues, even in the early lessons, are fun and interesting and introduce a lot of useful everyday vocabulary. I actually got this book because I was taking Urdu lessons- the core vocabulary of the two languages is very close- and I could make faster progress with this book (and some other Hindi material)than working with material in the Urdu script, which is gorgeous, but much less phonetic and much harder to read than the Devanagari script, which is one of the most precise systems of writing ever invented. The CDs are a great value as well. One thing I would suggest is for a beginning student to check out the Living Language Hindi course as well, which contains an introductory section showing how to actually handwrite Devanagari. This will help a lot in learning Hindi writing, an essential for anyone wanting to go on from here. The book does offer phonetic transcription in all the lessons as well, but really, who needs it?

If you want to go to India to have an everyday conversation, this is definitely not the right resource. I have been going to India for 3 years now for work and have been there more than 10 times, so I didn't want to be lost in Hindi conversations anymore. I have several Indian friends who are fluent in both Hindi and English, and when they heard the conversations in these cd's, they laughed. They said although it was indeed understandable Hindi, people in India would make fun of me if I spoke like this. So I immediately sent it back. I ordered a couple of other books and cd's, and the only thing they approved of was the book "Say It in Hindi (Dover Say It Series)" since it has small useful phrases. I have yet to find a good audio reference for Hindi.