The Best Ways to Learn Hindi

The Best Ways to Learn Hindi Learn to Speak Hindi Without a Hindi Teacher ChaptersHow to Learn Hindi Vocabulary in Your Spare TimeHow to Learn Written HindiHindi Lessons in Oral UnderstandingLearn to Speak HindiLearning a new language is never easy. It’s one thing to study in Hindi language courses and learn the vocabulary your teacher sets, but if you really want to improve you will need to immerse yourself in the language.This is not something you can do in a classroom. Mastering a foreign language on your own is hard, but once you learn to incorporate some simple tricks for practising into your daily routine, nothing will stand in your way.So here are some tips on how to learn Hindi in your spare time and acquire fluency.Hindi Lessons in Oral UnderstandingSeeing a word written on a page is not the same as hearing someone speak in a foreign language. The accent, the rhythm of the language, is often slightly different than what you hear in your head when you learn Hindi. To be able to understand a native speaker, listening to the Hindi language being sp oken is the best way.Listen to Hindi podcastsYou can learn Hindi online! Find a YouTube channel with podcasts in Hindi. Look for those that teach the Hindi language and culture, or else look for vloggers reporting on your interests. Some of them might be captioned in English, but most won’t, so you’ll really need to work on your listening skills!Watch Hindi televisionHindi news sites such as Aajtak or Khabar will often have clips and videos.Some Hindi TV channels are available via satellite, such as DD International, the worldwide version of DD India (which also has programmes in other languages of India such as Punjabi and Tamil). You can watch Hindi news and series in the original language and learn vocabulary through Hindi dialogue spoken by actors with Hindi as a first language.Watch movies to learn HindiWatching movies is a wonderful way to learn a new language. You can first watch it in English, then in the original language, or put on English or Hindi subtitles depending on your fluency. It’s a good way to learn words in context and hear proper pronunciation.Bollywood movies are a great way to learn Hindi. Photo credit: classic_film on VisualHuntBe careful, though: not all Bollywood films are in Hindi! Some are in other Indian languages such as Marathi, Bengali or Kannada.Learn to Speak HindiOnce you can reliably understand the Hindi tongue, you will need to practice your spoken Hindi. Not just your pronunciation, but your conversation skills. There are several ways you can gain proficiency in Hindi phrases and common words and pronunciation.Find a Hindi language partnerA wonderful way to practice speaking Hindi is to find a language partner - someone for whom Hindi is a mother tongue, with whom you can regularly have a conversation in Hindi.Language partners often operate on the mutual help principle - you will help them learn English while they improve your conversational Hindi. There are a number of websites and apps that can help you find one - such as my language exchange, italki  or conversation exchange.Get a private Hindi teacherWhen you think of private tutors, you mostly think of a teacher at home who makes you recite the declension of verbs and has you writing out sentence structure exercises.But a private tutor can also help you with your conversational Hindi. Instead of teaching grammatical rules, a Hindi language coach can talk with you in Hindi about current events, or you could discuss a book you just read. Unlike language partners, private tutors are paid a set rate.Go to India to learn the Hindi languageLanguage immersion is the best way to learn a language, and nothing is more immersive than living in the country where it is spoken. There, you will be forced to read and communicate in the language, will hear it constantly and learn ten times faster than when pouring over books.Going to India is the best way to learn Hindi. Photo on VisualHunt.comBut careful when booking your trip to India: make sure you ar e staying in an area that speaks primarily Hindi, or you might come home speaking Gujarati instead!Find some lessons Hindi on Superprof!