Photo Credit: Elvire.R.
I’ve written briefly in the past about ways to learn a new language, but with my new Hindi Project pushing language learning to the forefront of my free time, I realize that I need to spell out exactly what my language learning goals are, and the timetable I’m setting to achieve them. A large part of the Hindi Project is accountability – and that requires specific details!
My Hindi Goals
Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.
- Bo Jackson
I think it’s important that you learn your partner’s native language, if it’s one that you don’t know. In my case, that means learning both Hindi & Bengali, as those are the two languages (along with English) that Aditya grew up speaking – at the moment I’m focusing on Hindi. Ideally, I think one should strive for a near-native level of fluency, but I strongly suspect that most people (including me!) cannot get to that level without spending a significant amount of time in the country where the language is spoken. Since Aditya and I have no current plans to move to India, my long-term language goal is a little less lofty.
Long-Term Language Learning Goals
In five years or less, I would like to:
- Read at a Stage 3 level. This includes being able to understand a typical news article on the BBC Hindi site without a dictionary on hand (although I may not understand every word) and being able to comfortably read a pop fiction novel in Hindi.
- Write at a Stage 2 level. I suspect I will have little need to communicate in writing with anyone in Hindi, so being able to write extensively is not a high priority for me. I’m not looking to write any books here – I’d just like to be able to communicate at a practical level in writing.
- Listen at a Stage 3 level. This includes being able to easily understand all Hindi conversation I’m likely to hear on the street in India or with my in-laws, being able to easily watch Bollywood films without subtitles, and being able to follow a news report on television if I concentrate.
- Speak at a low Stage 3/high Stage 2 level. Extemporaneous speech has always been a difficulty of mine (even in English some days!), so I’m keeping expectations a little low here, even though getting to a low Stage 3 level will be my largest challenge in learning Hindi. Functionally, I’d like to be able to have basic conversations with people I meet, communicate effectively in things like bartering or ordering meals, and speak to my in-laws and Aditya about my day.
Written out in detail, these long-term goal seems more than a little intimidating to me! However, I have achieved these levels of fluency in German in only a few years, so I think I’ll be able to do so with Hindi (or so I kept reminding myself when I was tempted to downgrade these goals while writing out the list).
When making long-term goals, it’s important to visualize what sort of life and experiences you’d like to be having in the future compared to what you’re experiencing in the present.
Currently, I understand next to nothing of Hindi, and am not able to communicate with Aditya in one of his native languages (which he dislikes). Five years from now, I’d like to be able to hold a regular basic conversation with him (and any future kids) as easily in Hindi as in English. Right now, my inability to speak Hindi makes communication with some in-laws difficult, and makes trips to India a challenge. Five years from now, I’d like to be able to communicate confidently and comfortably with my in-laws, and be able to move to India for good if Aditya’s and my careers and interests lean that way. There’s obviously a lot to be done if I want to move from where I am today to where I’d like to be in five years!
Short-Term Language Learning Goals
Aditya and I leave for India in mid-February 2010, so I’m setting that trip as my short-term goals date. That gives me roughly 13 weeks of serious studying time. (While we aren’t traveling for the holidays, I’m sure they’ll suck up some free time.)
When we leave for India, I would like to be at a Stage 1 level in reading, speaking, and listening. Furthermore, I’d like to be able to:
- Read menus, maps, and basic informational signs without trouble.
- Communicate and understand Hindi well enough to give basic directions to staff (at a hotel, in a restaurant, driver, etc) and barter at shops
- Answer that my in-laws will undoubtedly pepper me with once they learn I’ve been studying Hindi, and ask a few of my own.
If the first list of long-term goals intimidated me, this one has me near petrified. I’m treading on completely new ground here, having never attempted to learn a language this quickly – I sort of eased into German with a typical slow-moving American high school language class. So I’m not completely certain I’ll be able to achieve this – but I can certainly try! (If anyone wants to chime in with their own experiences on learning languages quickly, I’d love to get some feedback.)
My Hindi Learning Plan
To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.
- Leonard Bernstein
Right now, I’m going to focus on detailing a specific learning plan for the three months I have to study until our India trip. After the short-term Hindi Project is finished, I’ll reassess where I am in learning Hindi, where I’d like to go, and how I’ll get there. After all, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy – you gotta stay flexible!
While thinking about this over the weekend, I reread my copy of Barry Farber’s How To Learn Any Language: Quickly, Easily, Inexpensively, Enjoyably and on Your Own (recommended!). The book is a bit dated – no mentions of the internet or computer software here – but it remains an excellent guide to learning languages. The most important chapter in the book outlines Farber’s “Multiple Track Attack” method of using all of the tools available to you to learn.In my own experience, I learn languages the best when I’m following some version of the “multiple track attack”. I picked up German the quickest when I was living in the country itself, taking a German language class at the local Volkshochschule AND working on vocabulary lists with another person AND reading German children’s book to the six-year-old I was a nanny for AND attempting to communicate to people in German in daily life AND pouring over my old German textbooks every night.
Obviously, I can’t live and breathe Hindi everyday like I did with German when I was in Germany. But I plan to follow a similar multi-pronged approach, and would strongly recommend it to everyone else as well.
Hindi Language Tools
In order to figure out a plan of action, it’s important to figure out what tools you have (or can get) to help you in learning your target language, right? Here’s a list of mine – they aren’t, perhaps, the best possible tools I could get, but they’re good enough for getting started now.
- Teach Yourself Beginner’s Hindi Script by Rupert Snell
- There are 8 units in Beginner’s Hindi Script, starting with a background on the Hindi script, then covering the constants, the vowels, conjunct constants, and other writing conventions. So far, I’ve worked my way through all of the constants, and am starting on the vowels (Unit 4). This is one of the must-have tools for anyone learning Hindi, in my opinion.
- Teach Yourself Hindi Complete Course Package (Book + 2CDs) by Rupert Snell
- This book, by Snell, is another one of the must-haves, covering a full college course or two of material in a straightforward manner over 18 chapters (of which I’ve completed one). I plan on using this book as my primary grammar tool and main textbook.
- Teach Yourself Hindi: And Subjectwise Dictionary by Mohini Rao
- This is another grammar + vocabulary book – one which I don’t recommend, as the typesetting is not good, and the lessons are a little more “old school”. However, since I have it, I might as well use it as a secondary reference.
- LiveMocha
- I recently rediscovered this website, and am quite impressed with the improvements made since I last visited it. There are four Hindi courses – 101, 102, 201, 202 – spanning 160 hours of work. I’ll be using LiveMocha as my primary “computer program” tool.
- Rosetta Stone: Hindi Level 1
- Rosetta Stone, I feel, is at about the same level of quality as LiveMocha. However, LiveMocha is accessible from anywhere, so Rosetta Stone is going to become my secondary software tool.
- Phrasebook
- Currently, I don’t have a hard-copy phrasebook. I’ll be using the WikiTravel Hindi Phrase page for now. If anyone has any suggestions for good Hindi phrasebooks (perhaps Say It in Hindi (Dover Say It Series) ?), I’d appreciate suggestions.
- Flash Cards
- Flash cards are KEY for learning vocabulary and phrases. I’m in the “make them yourself” school of thought, so that’s what I’ll be doing.
- Aditya
- A fluent speaker is also key for learning a language, in my opinion. Aditya’s main roles in helping me learn Hindi will be to correct my pronunciation, check over (and correct) my exercises, and be a conversational partner.
Now, you may be looking at that list of tools, and think I’m insane. While I don’t necessarily deny the charge, I won’t be using all of these tools at the same time.
Hindi Learning Schedule
As I discussed in the Hindi Project post, my first goal is to learn Hindi script. With that in mind, my main focus for the next ten days or so will be completing the Beginner’s Hindi Script book. While I work on that, I will use flashcards to memorize the vocabulary the script book uses, and I’ll also start in on the first Hindi course on LiveMocha.
Once I finish the Hindi Script book, I’ll shift to Snell’s other book, Teach Yourself Hindi, while continuing to use LiveMocha and flashcards. By then it’ll be mid-Novemeber, and I should be ready to start juggling a fourth ball, namely travel-friendly phrases (which will be learnt via flashcards and stilted “conversations” with Aditya). When I start in on the second LiveMocha course in early Decemeber, I’ll throw in a fifth ball – Rosetta Stone. If and when I finish the first Rosetta Stone, I’ll start using the Rao Teach Yourself Hindi book to supplement Snell’s.
Perhaps this would be clearer with a chart, hmmm?
Let it never be said that I’m not ambitious enough, right? 
So far, I’ve really enjoyed my evenings studying Hindi, so I’m upping the amount per week to about seven or eight hours. I don’t expect to use every “scheduled” tool every evening, but like a juggler, I’ll won’t ignore any one “ball” for any length of time. So one night may be LiveMocha and creating flashcards to study when I have spare moments, and the next night might be focused on picking up a particularly hard piece of grammar, and then practicing it with Aditya. Hopefully, the Hindi Project will be a success. I’ll keep you all updated!
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As always, if anyone else is interested in doing their own “_____ Language Project”, I’d love to see your exact plans as well – either on your blog (leave a link here), in the language and communication forums section here on Gori Girl (feel free to start your own personal thread), or in the comments on this post. Don’t feel that you need to make it as detailed as I did, altho the more details the better for keeping on track! If you’re wondering where to get started, I recommend reading this short guideline on Managing Your Language Learning Program.
2. November 2009 at 10:51 pm
I think I’ll put in my two cents (or two rupees!).
I of course am a frustrated language learner, but I suggest (and reading your blog lately on cultural referrals) I say put Aditya first.
Books are great- learning to read is great- but somehow in India speaking and understanding are more important than reading (my experience). It’s no doubt helpful, and great to know how to read- especially when you’re the only one who can (I can read Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam- in some cases my inlaws can’t) but I can’t understand what I read- so it’s quite a comical situation!
Maybe you can teach me Hindi!!!
3. November 2009 at 10:50 am
Actually, I think it’s important to learn the Hindi script first (along with continuous vocabulary exercises, of course).
This is important because Hindi script is phonetic, so it’s easy to be able to pronounce correctly if you can read the Hindi script… English transliterations are very “approximate” and results in very American sounding pronunciations of words…
for example, without learning the Hindi script, it’d be very difficult to distinguish between words that use the different “t”s or “d”s…
5. November 2009 at 10:59 am
While I’m learning to read, I’m also saying every word out loud (in Aditya’s presence) to gain practice speaking (correctly). While I certainly want to speak clearly, I’m also a visual learner, so I think it’s best in the long-term for me to know how to read the language in order to pick up more vocabulary.
If someone has never learned a language before, I do think it’s important to try out different things to see what works best for you. I stumbled upon this method for myself after a lot of trial & error learning German.
3. November 2009 at 8:51 am
I second Jennifer’s suggestion. The hardest goals are going to be the speaking and listening — not just because they’re hard but also because they require a partner. Schedule practice time if you can. Enforce it, too. F. and I set aside Saturday as “Hindi day” (not every week, though we should be doing this every week). When we get tired of talking we watch a movie. But no English is allowed. It’s too easy to fall back into Hinglish and then I don’t learn anything.
That kind of practicing is more suitable for when you have nearly reached your goals, though. I can read BBC Hindi with a dictionary and understand about 1/2 of most movies and songs. Maybe you could start with just an hour of Hindi-only time a week? I just think Aditya needs to be on the schedule or you’ll avoid it, because it’s really inconvenient to try to communicate in a language you don’t know. Especially when you have access to one that you both do know. I avoid it all the time.
5. November 2009 at 11:02 am
Wow! That’s really impressive that you spend a day a week practicing Hindi – how long have you been working at it, KC? I think we’ll incorporate that too, but not until I have enough working vocabulary to express some basic necessities. Maybe by mid-December?
Right now I practice my Hindi with Aditya right next to me, so that he can see what I’m doing and make corrections as necessary. That’s working pretty well.
3. November 2009 at 8:58 am
I’m trying to teach myself French and German. I will have to lay out a lesson plan of sorts for myself as well. I’m used to speaking some German and French from living there (Germany) and French (high school) but I’m nowhere near fluent. So, I will have to flesh out my plan instead of just going for it and doing whatever.
I agree, I think you need to put your husband higher up. I think if I had someone that was a native speaker of the languages I was trying to learn, I would be trying to talk to them all day. I might have to find out a way to get a language buddy!
3. November 2009 at 8:59 am
KC I have a question- When you both talk in Hinglish- I suppose Hindi is sprinkled in English?
Reason I ask is because some people suggest me to learn Hinglish, Tamil-English, Malayalam-English because it’s easier. If we listen to natives especially in cities talk -their language is sprinkled with ENglish words that people either like more or lost the ‘native word’ for. This kind of language which is quite wide-spread is not taught in books. This is one reason I have books but don’t use them. Often many ‘pure’ words are not even spoken by the majority (city and educated) people anymore. When I read these words out of the books and ask my inlaws they tell me ‘just say this word in English in the Hindi sentence’. Even when watching Indian films, listening closely enough so much English is sprinkled in.
I commend you for using a WHOLE day for language learning in a week. That is tiring. When I went to India first time after marriage- and had to meet inlaws I did not know any Malayalam and these were purists actually rarely sprinkling any English words at all. I tried hard to participate – I listened with intent but within a half an hour I couldn’t hardly understand anything (tone and speed is a problem) and I am embarrassed to say I fell asleep! In this way for me reading and writing impeded me. I like to learn to write, for me it’s like a puzzle!
3. November 2009 at 10:55 am
I don’t think it’s actually possible to “learn” Hinglish.
It is generally one of two things:
1. An organic mixture of Hindi & English – where the rules are very inconsistent and unpredictable, thus requiring fluency in both languages.
2. Using primarily one or the other, supplementing vocabulary from the secondary language – so if your skills are very basic in one of the languages, speaking ‘Hinglish’ won’t improve your command, since there’s no incentive to learning more words.
3. November 2009 at 9:09 am
Oh! I must add in something else
The other day I found what I thought was a ‘super-cool’ book… it was a picture book with colorful pictures and Hindi words under the pictures to teach people the words. Personally I love such books, though some adults may not like it, thinking it’s too kiddish. But the problem was the book wasn’t culturally appropriate. They had a whole series of these books- French, Spanish, German, etc. The pictures in all the books were the same the language only differed. The problem with this is stuff you find in a German or American kitchen is not always found in Kitchens In India and visa versa I am sure. Things typically found in Indian homes and kitchens (like charpai, kadai, etc.etc) were not in this book…. so the words people probably use daily may not even have been detailed or showcased in this book.
When I was learning Tamil before I went to live there- the books I used to learn Tamil I had to thrown them all out. My Tamil friends who lived here said ‘people don’t talk in that pure Tamil’. Why do they make books like that? Tamil is a bit different from Hindi- I think Hindi is easier and Hindi written is closer to the spoken Hindi than Tamil or Malayalam. In Tamil you write the whole word in Tamil, but so many letters/sounds are dropped or pronounced differently by different people – so it becomes so tough. In fact, listening to newscasts in Tamil or even Malayalam some now a days can’t understand…..
5. November 2009 at 11:05 am
I love looking at those sort of kids books – but I agree they need to be culturally appropriate. However, I’m not planning on getting any picture books to actually use to study Hindi, since I’d be done with it too quickly to justify the cost. I’ve found that if I really put my mind to learning a language, I can pick-up around 30 vocabulary words a day using flash cards – or, at least, that was my pace with German. I’ll see how it goes with Hindi once I have the script well in hand.
3. November 2009 at 11:59 am
Aditya I agree- there are too many ts and ds
I also understand your point about Hinglish.. hadn’t thought of it like that….
I find it fascinating how we as adults approach language learning- especially literate adults who can read and write. This is also how schools teach – reading, writing then speaking or alongside.
But as babies, how do we learn?? We learn by listening then learning to talk and only years later learn to write- and for these babies- the differences in writing t’s and d’s bh’s and b’s p’s and ph’s come through instinct in listening, not through the puzzle of scripts.
Babies in that way are amazing!
3. November 2009 at 12:58 pm
The cognitive science behind language acquisition in babies & young children is absolutely fascinating – but it doesn’t much help adults, since our brains are wired completely differently.
It always bugs me to read or hear pitches about how adults should try to learn languages just like how babies do. (Not saying you’re doing that!) It’s impossible for adults languages like babies: 4-month-olds can easily differentiate among all of the phonemes in all human languages but this task can be extremely difficult or even impossible for adults (depending on the native language and target language). Likewise, infants and children can innately grasp grammar rules, but it’s almost always easier for adults to be taught them as rules (granted, there are a lot of ways to go about doing this, some good, some bad).
5. November 2009 at 6:11 pm
I would LOVE IT if my students would innately grasp grammar rules. However, reality in the classroom has shown it’s just not the case.
3. November 2009 at 1:12 pm
Again, thanks for the great information about this (I’m still trying to figure out the speaking/writing practice, since I’m learning completely apart from any actual native speakers, which may turn out to be more difficult than I expect). I am excited to read about what you’ve discovered (it’s nice not to have to try to figure out some of this all by myself).
One note on the Snell books – I bought the complete Teach Yourself Hindi kit, and then became frustrated with it; it moved along a bit too fast for me at first. I’ve found since then that the Teach Yourself Beginner’s Hindi is a good text to use in conjunction with the kit, since it fills in the gaps (but leaves others that the kit fills in). The beginner’s version also comes with two audio CDs, and I’m using the whole suite of resources at once. I figure maybe I can save you a headache.
4. November 2009 at 7:29 am
Writing practice? Go to Lang-8. Speaking? Where do you live? Are there any meetup groups near you? Palaban (or something like that) also makes speaking exchanges through Skype and I think LiveMocha has some method to evaluate speaking, though it wouldn’t be an actual exchange like using Skype.
4. November 2009 at 9:35 am
I admit that I haven’t searched too terribly hard. But that gives me some more places to look. Thanks!
5. November 2009 at 11:08 am
Without easy access to a native speaker, I agree that learning a language becomes a LOT harder. Aditya is a great help in giving a quick answer when I get frustrated by a grammar issue, or can’t get my tongue around a word. The Barry Farber book I mentioned in the post has some good suggestions on how to solve these problems without getting stuck – perhaps you should see if there’s a copy in your local library?
3. November 2009 at 2:40 pm
I’m really impressed with your goals to learn Hindi & your detailed outline of how you will accomplish your goals. I think discipline is the most important part of learning a language on your own – and just getting it written down will help you stick to it! Plus the short term goals for your trip will help too.
I do much better with immersion or with a structured class. I did take a Hindi class when I lived in India. While I learned to read and write the script (which is a huge step forward!). My conversation skills and grammar are still lacking. And I’d love to get them up to par – especially since one day we hope to return to live in India. I also hope that our baby on the way learns Hindi along with English – because it is just so much easier that way!!
I’m looking forward to hearing your progress and I am definitely going to check out some of the resources you’ve listed!
4. November 2009 at 7:26 am
I detailed my goals on my blog on 10/31. I’m in that nebulous intermediate stage of Korean language learning (I think–I’ve been putting off claiming that, but I think it’s time to admit it’s true). That means that I have the common grammar patterns down. One day I can read a Korean news article and understand most of it and the next day it’s like I know nothing. It’s that annoying level where you don’t know what’s next. (When you’re a beginner you can think: OK, I need to learn the alphabet. Numbers to 100. Foods. Family relationships. Present, future, and past tense.)
We’re visiting Korea in December and we’ll be staying with the in-laws. I have no idea what Mother or Sister will want to talk about each day, so at this point it’s really just learning a ton of vocabulary, reading a lot, and just getting more comfortable USING the language. I’m not too worried about speaking. The more I read (real reading, not flashcarding), the better I speak. Plus, after a day in Korea, a lot of the speaking stuff will come rushing back. I know this because if I just start to practice more with Good Man at home, it comes rushing back.
To that end, I’m studying at least five hours a week. Most days this includes some flash card work over at WordChamp (which I LOVE!). I used to make flashcards on my own, but then I realized that I had too many words to carry around and I couldn’t organize them by the Leitner timed intervals. WordChamp takes care of that. Most days this includes about 10 minutes of typing practice. And most days it includes reading or writing. One day a week it includes a language exchange. Oh, and I’m blogging about or in Korean daily as part of NaBloWriMo on my Korean language blog.
About the above exchange–people always say to use another human being, but in my experience being immersed in Korea, another person is MORE useful when you’ve at least got SOME basics down. If Hindi is anything like Korean (uses an alphabet, phonetic), you’ve GOT to get that down. It’s not useful to ask a native speaker how to say something if you can’t write it down in their script, first. (I look at what I did my first month, writing things as they sounded in English and cringe. They sound NOTHING like English!) I would probably think differently if you were studying a language with no alphabet (or an alphabet not in wide use by the native speakers, for Japanese).
One more thing–in your post you said that the more detailed the better. For ME, if I make it too detailed, I won’t get anything done. If I promise to read one chapter of The Little Prince every day and miss a day, I’ve gone and failed at my entire goal. Different strokes, different folks.
5. November 2009 at 11:35 am
Yes, the Hindi script (Devanagari ढेवनागरी)is phonetic and VERY logical (altho it’s not as perfect in its rules as Sanskrit (संस्कृत) is. But getting it down is key – for instance, in looking up and writing the actual spelling for Sanskrit, I learned that the “n” in the word is actually a nasal sound (signified by the little dot above the first character), and not a “regular” n. Thus the need to learn the letters & practice writing words – they’ll keep me more honest in my pronunciation than transliteration will.
I remember being in that irritating middle stage that you describe when learning German as well. In German, the grammar starts hard & gets easier as time goes by, but there’s a lot of little quirks that you need to learn. I remember reading the last third of my grammar book and being really frustrated because it felt like I was just slopping on a rule here & there to my mental structure of the language. The earlier rules had been more key in learning the structure (and more difficult), but I felt like I was getting somewhere at the time, and it was easier to keep the rules in mind. You know you’re almost there, though, when you start thinking in the target language.
I remember you mentioning that your husband’s mother doesn’t speak English at all; does his sister speak any English? Or is it going to be all Korean, all day?
Also, I remember you mentioning Lang-8 before. When do you think it would be useful to incorporate it into the set of language learning tools? (I’ll see about using WordChamp once I’m comfortable writing out the script – at the moment, it’s good for me to practice my handwriting, since handwritten characters don’t look identical to printed ones.)
5. November 2009 at 6:38 pm
Korean is phonetic and Koreans crow all the time about how wonderfully “scientific” the language is. Of course, there are some shifting sounds. ㄱ is a k or g sound, but put a ㅁ (m) sound in the next beat and ㄱ becomes a ng sound, which they already have a letter for (ㅇ)! Still, it’s MUCH more consistent than English!!
I get what you mean about the rules. Now I’m learning things like, “The form you use when it’s possible something will become something else.” OK…I don’t have to use that all that much. I can just slap a “maybe” word in front of the verb I use the “change” form with to make myself understood. So it’s hard to see the use. Reading a lot helps, because it comes up and I sit there thinking, “I know this form. What the hell…” until it comes to me or I break down and look it up in a book.
Mother speaks English limited to “good morning” and the like. She’s memorized a few phrases and it always throws me when she uses them. Sister understands more than she can speak and Good Man says her English and my Korean are “same same.” But we almost always communicate in Korean–or at least I try to communicate in Korean first, and then repeat what I said in English if I feel like I’m really being unclear. She’s shy (says Good Man).
Even if she weren’t, I feel like it’s MY responsibility to learn Korean to communicate with his family, so that’s where we turn to first. Father speaks English fluently, but not being able to speak to Mother and Sister as fluently as I’d like, relying on Good Man or Father to interpret adds a layer of distance between us. I don’t like it. Sister’s started blogging, which is fun. I WANT to read her entries, so it’s good Korean practice for me.
Finally, Lang-8. I’d say whenever you’re writing stuff that isn’t just purely memorized is the time to start using it. But I LOVE Lang-8, so I’m biased. I write something in Korean and within a half an hour it’s corrected. It’s wonderful.
4. November 2009 at 4:07 pm
Comment on your current goals: Even if you are on ur own in india..
Read menus, maps, and basic informational signs without trouble.
–all in english
Communicate and understand Hindi well enough to give basic directions
to staff (at a hotel, in a restaurant, driver, etc) and barter at shops
–all in english
Answer that my in-laws will undoubtedly pepper me with once they learn I’ve been studying Hindi, and ask a few of my own.
Lol..this may be intresting
everyone is going to ask u this one question in hindi back home in india.. Tumhara naam kya hai?? thats what happned on our 1st time home. And when she replied Mera naam XX hai…everyone in the room went crazy.
For your most current goals, I would suggest to focus mainly on communicating with family rather than socially
5. November 2009 at 11:46 am
Yeah, it’s just like in Germany – you CAN communicate entirely in English if you want to. However, I’d prefer to see if I can avoid doing that…
5. November 2009 at 12:18 pm
Wow- I leave for a conference and come back to lots of postings!
You are definitely putting my Nepali language learning to shame, but its a great inspiration to know you are out there working on this as well… I’ll try to pick up the pace, and perhaps make my own detailed learning plan as well. Its good to have some competition
For now I’m posting updates on the “Nepali” section of my blog, but I haven’t even really updated that. I’ll get on top of it soon, I promise 
One thing that is really helping me is the fact that I have weekly “meetings” set up with my friend AS. I might not necessarily study much before the meeting, but she puts me on the spot and makes me “perform” and speak even if I hum and haa about it. I’m actually surprised at home much I am saying these days, and I’m happy that she is strict. I actually translated (spoke out loud) a pumpkin bread recipe into Nepali on Monday. How cool is that?
For me, right now the focus is speaking. I studied devanagri when I studied Hindi in India, so I feel relatively comfortable with most of the script, but for some reason, when I write out the words in devanagri I find it really hard to memorize them and their conjugations. When I took a language class in Nepal over the summer I requested that we write everything in English transliteration so that I could move faster with grammar and vocabulary. I’m still using this tactic for now, so I can learn to speak more quickly and once I have a solid knowledge of words and sentence structure I can back tract for script.
I understand that devanagri makes a lot of sense because it is so phonetic, but at the same time I remember how I learned French. I started out with a horrible French accent (I wince when I think back at how I used to sound), but once I had it down, it was easier to transition over. So right now I don’t mind if I’m not sounding perfect.
Likewise, when studying Swahili and Hindi I took a strict “vow of ___” this is easier done when living in the country where it is spoken, and not having an obligation to speak at work, but it helped me immensely. Basically I took two weeks, and said I wasn’t allowed to speak anything but Swahili or Hindi (depending on the country I was in) except for one English usage per day. If I needed to use it in a class, or if I wanted to save it to tell a long, involved story over dinner, so be it, but the rest of the day was strictly that other language or silence. It was a huge struggle, especially in India, since my Hindi was so poor, but I’m kind of stubborn. I’d string together whole paragraphs of half broken Hindi and unconjugated verbs to get my point across, and I learned so much… dictionary at my side. I’ve been too chicken to make a “vow of Nepali” but maybe sometime… I’ll get there.
Another thing I used to do to practice familiarizing myself with devanagri is I used to write long letters in English using devanagri script. It was like a secret code, and helped me practice using it for sounds and writing it out. I think P found it a bit weird, but I enjoyed it.
Anyway… keep up the good work!! I’m rooting for you!
5. November 2009 at 1:01 pm
When you update something on the Nepali page, can you make a quick post so that we know? Otherwise, I know I won’t remember to check back.
There’s no way I can take a strict vow of Hindi – while I have plenty of Indian coworkers, I don’t think they know much Hindi vocabulary for energy & power-related things – and I KNOW I don’t!
5. November 2009 at 10:36 pm
Most signs will be in both Hindi and English (although they may not say the same thing). Don’t expect to see menus in Hindi unless you’re stopping at some dhaba somewhere
I used to practice my reading in the cab on the way home from work – reading all the Hindi on the signs of the Mahihalpur main road.
I wish that Livemocha had actual Bengali courses !!! I am doing the intermediate Hindi courses and trying to correspond via mail with a girl who knows Bengali. I think I am going to ask for some of those Baby Hindustani books for Christmas… am learning my Bengali from Sahaj Path and Borno Paricay, which are obviously not very modern :\
24. November 2009 at 7:14 am
It’s most wise to drawl out a detailed plan for how you will go about learning a language. I too like to blog about all the different ways that I can learn a language but I have to make sure my actions follow my words. Keep up the good work and I will be following.
25. November 2009 at 3:32 pm
Hello GoriGirl…
Just a few quick thoughts after reading about your Hindi project…
I was where you are before I got married, and I wanted to learn Urdu
(my dh is from Pakistan and we’ve been married 8 years) ASAP for the
shaadi (I had the big shindig in Pakistan).
I had a lot of the same books you do…there were fewer teach yourself Urdu books back then, so I had to use lots of the Hindi ones. The spoken languages are pretty darn close and when I’m speaking Urdu with my Indian neighbors, they say I’m speaking Hindi
I just leave out certain religion specific words that are Urdu-only and it works for all.
I wanted to recommend some language learning articles that can be found here: http://languageimpact.com/articles/learners_start.htm
To keep myself motivated I found that it sometimes helped me to read “meta articles” about actually learning other languages to give myself a motivational boost and to hear about others who had achieved it. The Thomson articles are chock full of neat ideas for ways that you can utilize native speakers that you have access to for boosting your language learning.
Urdu was the first time I was learning a language without a class/specific book/support system to keep me on track/etc. I had previously learned Spanish and German (studied in Hamburg for a semester in college, miss my Franzbroetchen and Bakerei!), but never
gone out on my own and really I found that staying motivated is more than half the battle!
Finally, I would recommend that you find some older aunties to practice Hindi with if at all possible. The relatives that I had to mostly impress/talk with during my wedding were the slightly older aunties who had no English, so while still in the US I found older ladies at the mosque (where I went hunting for native Urdu speakers
and practiced my Urdu with them. They were often monolingual Urdu speakers, or multilingual in other languages but often not English, so it was often not possible for me to get shy or be lazy and lapse into English. I also got to practice the aap forms that I would need to talk to older relatives, and got to hear women’s speech, which is often quite different from men’s, grammar-wise and in other ways.
The shaadi went well and I became quite fluent in Urdu and spoke with my first-born son in it exclusively for his early years of life. (Now I’ve got three boys and it gets tricky to keep up the minority language once the English from the environment starts overtaking the Urdu)… So I’ve been there and done it and you can too!!!!!!! Best of luck!
28. November 2009 at 1:56 am
Thanks for your advice, UmmIbrahim! I love those sort of meta articles (they are great motivators, at least for me), so I’ll be reading through the Language Impact site with relish.
We don’t know any “older aunties” in the area – I can’t even think of anyone two or three connections away who would fit that description. :-/ DC is a very odd area, and all of our friends are young, and transplants to the area. However, it’ll be great to read articles that will give me good ideas for practicing with Aditya and my MIL (who is somewhat uncomfortable in English).
I hope you keep popping in to share tidbits – I’m sure a lot of people here besides myself would be interested to hear more about how the language learning went, and how it is raising three boys (I’d start with… tough!
).
22. December 2009 at 8:54 am
I saw this in the news this morning and I thought of you guys: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8425744.stm
4. June 2010 at 1:12 pm
I know this post was a while ago, but I just found you!
I have links to all my Hindi resources at my blog at http://whitehindu.blogspot.com/2010/02/hindi.html
Also, if you are still in the D.C. area, there is a fantastic Meetup.com group particularly for practicing speaking Hindi. I go every month. Their website is: http://www.meetup.com/hindigroup/