Get Started in Hindi - Absolute Beginner Course (Teach Yourself) (Teach Yourself Language)

This is a review of Get Started in Hindi (2014) by Dr. Rupert Snell as edited by Florence Kerns and Bruno Paul. The book was originally published as Teach Yourself Beginner’s Hindi (2003) and the revised edition, which incorporates the publisher’s “discovery method” for learning grammar, makes no changes to the substance of the course. Accompanying recorded material, which is clear and spoken at a reasonable rate, is available on a CD included with the book, online from Teach Yourself, and on the Teach Yourself Library App. Users of the text have created 700 or so vocabulary flashcards on the Quizlet app.This book served as my “gateway to Hindi” several years ago and I enthusiastically recommend it to other “absolute beginners” studying independently. At the end of this review, I will point out additional material I found useful in “taking in further.”The text does indeed get you started speaking Hindi, covering all the grammatical material normally covered in first-year Hindi college programs and then some, including causative verbs, relative-correlative constructions, the passive voice, and compound (or “coloring”) verbs (compounds with lenā/लेना, denā/देना, jānā/जाना). Based on my experience in India, I have no objection to the publisher’s claim that by the end of the course, you will be at the A2 level (on an ascending scale: A1/A2, B1/B2, C1/C2) of the Common European Framework (CEFR) for languages and be able to communicate in routine tasks requiring simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. All material is presented in both romanized and the Hindi Devanagari scripts. The course progressively builds up your language skills; there are no “great leaps forward” to stop you cold. Explanations of grammatical constructions likely to challenge English speakers — like the oblique case and the ne/ने construction - are clear and leavened with humor and a bit of encouragement. Exercises are ample, clear, and concise; a 47-page answer key to the exercises - essential for the independent student - is included. A “test yourself” section at the end of each chapter checks and reinforces your understanding of key points.All that on the positive side, I would like to make a couple of suggestions for future revised editions:(1) Hindi has voiced, voiceless, and nasal consonants with velar, palatal, retroflex, dental, and bilabial stops. If this sounds complex that’s because it is. I believe that independent students - those working without the benefit of a professional instructor to provide immediate feedback - would be well served by having pronunciation exercises woven throughout the entire text.(2) Number drills throughout the entire text are essential to learning the complex Hindi/Urdu number system.(3) The publisher/editor should correct more than a dozen typos (mostly in the romanized text) and other errors/omissions in the text. None of these is serious, but, in my experience, such blemishes are very unusual in the Teach Yourself series and should be corrected.Taking it Further:—As mentioned above, material is presented in Get Started in Hindi in both romanized and Devanagari script. IT IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to learn to read Devanagari, not the least because it provides a reliable guide to the pronunciation requirements (noted above) while romanized script is deceptive. Fortunately, there are a number of apps, YouTube videos, and websites (such as Hindibhasha) available that will help you do so. I know the script looks a little daunting to begin with, but one or two weeks later I guarantee it won’t.—The video A Door Into Hindi (Google this, we cannot put web addresses in Amazon reviews). The 23 episodes supplement any introductory course nicely, though you will need to learn to read the Devanagari script first.—The Hindi Urdu Flagship at the University of Texas at Austin (again, Google this) offers a large variety of resources for students of Hindi and Urdu, including a PDF version of an introductory Hindi course with workbook.—Teach Yourself Complete Hindi (originally published as Teach Yourself Hindi), also by Rupert Snell. The logical follow-on, I suppose, with the first 13 (of 18 units) roughly reprising the material in Get Started in Hindi, including more formal vocabulary. For example, in Get Started, you learn par/पर , magar/मगर, and lekin/लेकन for the English “but.” Complete Hindi fills out the register with parantu/परंतु and kintu/किंतु. Accompanying recorded material is available on CD, from the Teach Yourself website, and on the Teach Yourself Library App. It’s a fine book and a good choice for “taking it further,” but the publisher’s claim that it will take you to the CEFR B2 level is absurd.—Beginning Hindi: A Complete Course by Joshua H. Pien and Fauzia Farooqui, Georgetown University Press. This text is widely used in U.S. universities, though I don’t believe the accompanied recorded material (much of it the seemingly endless grinding out of vocabulary lists) is of much help to the independent student. Of possible interest as well: Beginning Urdu: A Complete Course, also by Joshua H. Pien and Fauzia Farooqui, parallels this text exactly (showing how close colloquial Hindi and Urdu are!) and thus offers you the chance to claim a second foreign language with little effort beyond learning the Nastaliq style script!—Introduction to Hindi Grammar and Advanced Hindi Grammar, both by Usha R. Jain. Both books with accompanying recorded material offer drill, drill, drill. Some people swear by this pedagogical method, others swear at it. I find that, taken in small bits before my eyelids slam shut, transformation and substitution drills are useful in building my confidence and fluency in using basic vocabulary and grammar.—The Routledge Intermediate Hindi Reader, by Naresh Shama and Tej K. Bhatia. The text offers 20 contemporary and progressively more complex readings from social network sites, radio broadcasts, book reviews, interviews, movie scripts, and the like. The readings are supported by pre-reading activities, vocabulary lists, notes on grammar, and questions and exercises. Accompanying recorded material is available from the Routledge website.—Intermediate Hindi Reader, by Usha R. Jain with Karine Schomer, with recorded material on an accompanying CD. The subject matter is comprised mostly but not exclusively of tales, short stories, and poems supported by vocabulary lists. I found the episodes from Gandhi’s The Story of My Experiments with Truth the most interesting. This is a more demanding (and decidedly less contemporary) reader than the Routledge Intermediate reader mentioned above.Finally, for some decent advice about learning Hindi, you might want to view Karl Rock’s YouTube videos How to Learn Hindi Faster than I Did!, My Hindi Learning Story & Why Foreigners Learn Hindi, and many others. I share Karl’s view of the importance of relentless attention to developing correct pronunciation.And good luck in your studies!

If you have little to no background in Hindi and are seeking a well-organized, step-by-step guide for learning the language on your own, then this is the course for you.I went through several Hindi books before finding this gem. I initially purchased "Elementary Hindi" by Delacy based on its stellar reviews, but quickly found the book's format completely unconducive to learning. Having learned multiple languages in the past, I expected the book to begin with rudimentary phrases and greetings so that I could start building some traction. Unfortunately, the beginning chapters were littered with obscure words, no linking of topics or logical structure, and no foundation upon which I could build. Granted, the purpose of the initial chapters was on teaching the Devanagari script, but even so I found it difficult to motivate myself to study when I was essentially being asked to memorize lists of unrelated words. What's worse, the book was accompanied by a CD, but the audio didn't even correspond to the book! It instead was the audio for a separate workbook, which I subsequently purchased only to be disappointed yet again. I was excited to begin forming basic sentences but had to root around the book just to find phrases such as "I am" and "he/she is." In my disappointment I turned to the reliable Practice Makes Perfect series and purchased the "Basic Hindi" book, which is a nice little introduction to Hindi but unfortunately is unaccompanied by audio.But then I stumbled across "Get Started in Hindi."Within days I was forming basic sentences, learning greetings, and building my Hindi vocabulary. Like the Delacy book, "Get Started in Hindi" commences with a primer on the Devanagari script (Snell also wrote a book called "Read and Write Hindi Script" if you're looking for a more advanced treatise on learning the script), but fortunately the author gives you the fundamentals and gets right to the business of learning some rudimentary phrases, listening to simple conversations that utilize words you've learned, and conjugating verbs to form sentences. This format was like a breath of fresh air, and I found myself excited to go through each lesson. The audio is fantastic, with both male and female speakers whose voices are clear and easy to understand.A major difference between this book and the Delacy book is that Snell presents the English transliteration of Hindi words alongside the Devanagari script. I personally have decided to learn the script to more fully immerse myself in the language, but it is very convenient to have the transliteration available to make sure I'm reading the script correctly. Without question this would be a huge advantage for someone who is looking to visit India for a week or two and just wants to pick up the basics without learning the script.Each chapter has a easy-to-follow flow to it that makes learning fun-- I always feel like what I'm learning builds upon the previous chapters. What point is there in a language resource if it doesn't prompt you to learn more? I'm eager to pick up this book as I know that with even just a few minutes of studying I can take away several useful nuggets I can use in conversation.If you are interested in learning Hindi and are eager to get started, "Get Started in Hindi" is your roadmap to success.

It is a decent book. I was looking for a workbook, and this is loaded with information, but the words and the actual size is just so small.

The content of the book so far has been great. I’m only on chapter 4 of 12. That being said, it’s hard to keep going. The book is printed on yellowish looking paper and the font size like others have commented is just too small. It’s inconvenient to read the book.

I love this book! It includes easy to follow language teaching and practice. I would definitely recommend

I had a used Rosetta CD course but I was missing the book to understand. Since this language is more like a programming language it is a LOT simpler to go with a good old fashioned schoolbook intelligently written. And YES it does have English phonetic transliteration so you don't have to know the alphabet designed by extraterrestrials.The book is not big and if you watched a few hindi movies a few chapters of this book will have you figuring some basic phrases in a few weeks.

The 10 year old who wanted to learn to speak Hindi was sprinkling words around and within a couple of weeks phrases. He loves this book.

I speak the language and this book is great as it is in English also so it is easier for the kids to read and pronouce.

Great book to get you started but there is some unclear bits that leave you guessing abit to start with. But generally it's has got me started. Overall its a great book.

En quelques semaines j'ai pu réellement abordé le Hindi et commencer à le parler. Livre très bien structuré. Les explications grammaticales sont simples et efficaces. Après chaque leçon il y a un lexique détaillé de tout le vocabulaire le concernant ainsi que des exercices et leur correction. De plus est associé au livre, gratuitement, la bande audio sur le site get started de tout le livre et ainsi apprivoiser la prononciation. Je suis convaincue de son efficacité.

La edición es de mala calidad y se ve fatal. Las explicaciones son claras y simpáticas. Pero en cada lección hay demasiada densidad de gramática y vocabulario y muy pocos ejercicios, así que se aprende todo de manera muy superficial, no se llega a interiorizar. El vocabulario hindi es un poco inventado, con muchos anglicismos. El audio se puede conseguir gratis en su web, pero los que hablan no son nativos y van rapidísimo, demasiado para un nivel inicial. Total, que no me gusta demasiado. Lo malo es que no hay más opciones.

Great resource to learn Hindi from scratch. I have done a fast and huge progress by using this book!

Excelent!Best book to learn Hindi that I have ever bought. Content very didactic and easy to understand.I bought this book because of the good reviews in the comments and I can say that I did not regret it at all.