Languages > Hindi > Hindi, Comprehensive

Comments about Hindi Phase 1, Units 1-30:

I listen on my 45 minute commute to and from work. I am not a natural when it comes to learning a language. I have studied Spanish on my own and taken college classes and I still lack confidence and struggle with grammar. Several years ago for 6 mos prior to traveling to France, I listened to CD from other programs in an effort to learn French and my Hindi, in less than 1 month is far better than my French ever was. I am so excited. I am actually learning Hindi and will be able to speak and understand the language prior to my trip to India this winter. This is so much fun..and affordable, I plan to learn other languages.I can't think of any downside to the program.

Comments about Hindi Phase 1, Units 1-30:

This is really good staff. You hear the dialogue and don't understand a thing. Then you listen to the lesson, hear it again and you understand it all. I am not sure how my spoken Hindi is, but I can understand quite a few words from Bollywood films. And I pick up intuitively the counter-intuitive sentence word order in Hindi if compared to English and Spanish. I love it. I am sure it is very useful for travelling in India. I just wish there were more than 30 lessons in Hindi, because I will build my vocabulary but it won't be enough yet to be fully fluent (I am in lesson 15 now) I am sure if there were more lessons I could make it though.

Comments about Hindi Phase 1, Units 1-30:

I bought the conversational CD package from a promotion, followed by the rest of the MP3's in sets of 5.

I had already worked my way through the first 6 chapters of a texbook on my own. The textbook included a CD but I did not feel that I had learned much pronunciation.

I found the Pimsleur lessons very helpful as an addition. I listened to each one two days in a row while walking to work. I think I looked like I was talking on the phone! I now go back and listen to the later ones occasionally.

I had trouble importing the CD's as several of the lessons came up with the same name and had to be renamed, and there were a bunch of short files that apparently weren't needed. If you are going to transfer the lessons to an iPhone or iPod, I would recommend purchasing the MP3's.

I would also recommend a textbook for Devanagari and underlying grammar. I find it much easier to pronounce things that I can spell, and transliteration into Roman characters is often very misleading. I also don't think I would have realized when the instructors were teaching how to change to feminine or plural or oblique if I hadn't understood it on paper already.

I wish there were more lessons available.

Comments about Hindi Phase 1, Units 1-30:

My goal is to have at least moderate speaking ability in Hindi by the late fall for an anticipated trip to India and so far the package will be quite helpful in meeting that goal. I am about 15% through the set of lessons and feel that I can grasp the material and could carry on a conversation, although at this point in a very limited way since the vocabulary is still quite small. I have studied other languages in the past but in a college/university setting where the emphasis is quite different with a much stronger emphasis on grammar and on reading and writing. The package does provide some reading exercise, but the Hindi script is so different from English and other European languages that I am familiar with that the Pimsleur readings don't help much. Nonetheless I would still strongly recommend this package to anyone that wants to get started in a new language. The quality of the recordings is excellent and the native speakers are easy to understand.

Comments about Hindi Phase 1, Units 1-30:

I had been using Pimsleur's Hindi for 11 days when I decided to start slipping it into conversations with my fiance' who is fluent in Hindi. It was actually the day after valentine's day and living 2hrs away from each other I didnt see her until the day after. So the first thing I said to her was "Do you want to go to dinner with me?"(in Hindi) And she just stopped and looked at me for a second and I said "What?" (in Hindi)And she asked how long have you been studying Hindi? And I tolde her only a little while, about ten days. And she looked at me and said no really. O yes I said. And she said But how are you learning complete conversations in that little time. She told me about her two friends that have mastered a few languages and have been trying to learn Hindi for a few years and I had better pronounciation and conversational skills than they. There was also another time that I said something and she corrected me, well tried to, and I told her what she said and what I said and then translated it and she just said in a slow voice..."You are right, that is what that means." She was very impressed that I was gaining a comprehensive learning of the language. So I think Pimsleur has done a good job with this. And I have even used the hear and reapeat with the lengthening of distance in between repetition and question method for Bible verses and many things and it really works.
There are some things that potential users need to be aware of. The cds or mp3s tell you to take time to interact with the lesson in a spot alone and where you can think. I didnt have much of that except when I am driving so I was forced to go over more than once the same lesson in a day. As the lessons increased, I found, as they should, the lessons became more difficult and therefore required me to pause more often to answer questions. Those are the only things I found to be aware of and know beore buying. I should say this is my first time learning a new language other than high school which was just to pass a required class.