Why do we study hindi

This makes learning to read both languages a simple exercise in memorization. CAS is committed to offer at least first- through fourth-semester Hindi-Urdu every year — and more advanced course offerings are at the ready as soon as enough students complete second year. I hope to reach advanced proficiency eventually — can this program accommodate me? Hindi-Urdu is brand new at BU. Faculty may be able to work on individual projects with advanced students in the meantime.

Q: I have some limited proficiency in Hindi or Urdu already. Are the courses appropriate for me? Almost certainly yes. You should approach one of the current instructors for an evaluation of your proficiency and placement in the appropriate class for your level. Q: I know absolutely zero Hindi-Urdu and am afraid the course will be for students who already know some. Is that true? Hindi-Urdu students come from a diverse array of backgrounds and come to the study of Hindi-Urdu with different objectives.

At present there is a balanced mix of students with no prior connection at all to the cultures of the Indian subcontinent and those with a family background in South Asia.

Some students intend to travel and work in South Asia, some need these languages for their research, some wish to connect with South Asian cultures; others are motivated by a strong desire to work with media and films in particular, or the history and political traditions of South Asia. This is not yet an option, but as increasing numbers of students begin to take the language and related courses in other departments a minor may be developed.

At present BU does not have a study-abroad program in India, but several initiatives are afoot that could lead to such a program being established in due time. Be it a student, a professional or even a retired person, knowledge of multiple languages always help.

It broadens your travel and culture horizons. Well, this is just one advantage. Keep this in mind, you may want to know the importance of learning Hindi. So, without any more time, let us quickly check the importance of learning Hindi.

The Hindi language is spoken by more than million people across the world as a native language. In addition to this, around million people use Hindi as a second language. Due to this vast number of speakers across the world, Hindi is the fourth most spoken language in the world after English, Chinese and Spanish. So, you know if you learn Hindi you will have plenty of people to interact with in different parts of the country and also the world. Besides, Hindi is the most common language spoken across India.

This makes it one of the most important languages of South East Asia. If you are looking to learn a language which provides maximum value, Hindi should definitely be one of your choices.

Once you have learnt Hindi, you can naturally also speak Urdu and other languages. These languages share certain features to a point including vocabulary and grammar. Urdu is a recognized language in India and has over million speakers across the world.

In India, there are almost 50 million native speakers of Urdu. The only wall would be writing as both the languages are written in different scripts. India is a booming economy and every country is expanding trade in India. Many companies are also finding a home to their offices in India. As such, anyone who is looking to do business in India would perform well by adding Hindi to their repertoire. As Hindi is a very crucial language in India, it helps businessmen in doing business in India.

This is one of the main importance of learning Hindi for businesses and companies. Hindi is a phonetic language, unlike languages like Hindi. This means that Hindi words are written exactly how they are pronounced. This makes learning Hindi easier. You only have to learn how each letter sounds. Just by learning the Hindi alphabets, you can read and spell any word you come across. The two languages do have differences, primarily in that Urdu draws vocabulary from the Persian and Arabic cognate pool, while Hindi draws from Sanskrit.

This is apparent in greetings and the formal written language. Urdu is written in a modified version of Arabic. This is expected because of the distance between English and Hindi. A large number of Hindi words have their roots in Persian. During the Mongol Empire, Persian was the lingua franca in modern day India.

Hindi also contains a fair bit of Arabic because of the influence of Islam in India. Some of the most beautiful words in Bollywood are pulled from Urdu. They are Persian and Arabic in origin.

Because of its borrowings from many different languages, Hindi is rich in synonyms. These can hold you up as you learn the language, and it also gives Hindi amazing flavor. Love alone has four common variations. Indian food is among the most diverse and flavourful on Earth. Roti , naan , parathi and chapati are breads. Starters include poppadoms and samosas.

Other words you might see on a menu include: daal usually lentils , mirchi chilis , machli fish , maas meat , and khargosh rabbit. This is Hindi with chunks of English thrown in for emphasis. This can be especially useful in deciphering Bollywood movies. If you are lucky to have the chance to go to a cosmopolitan part of India where English is commonly spoken, you might find it difficult to find people willing to speak Hindi with you.

English is now widely recognized as the global language of business, science and entertainment. At the very least, you can leverage this to ask questions about local customs, foods, and sights.

My Hindi experience started with Bollywood movies. Looking up a word here and there for fun blossomed into a full-blown vocabulary list and forays into grammar. Lesson 1: Context is everything in language learning. The meaty stuff comes later. My first exposure to Hindi was very advanced: Bollywood movies. The downside was that I could understand hardly any of it, but the upside was that it was meaningful. I wanted to understand these movies to follow the storylines. And those stories gave context to the language, so I could follow what was happening without understanding every word.

Lesson 2: Google Translate is your friend. Google Translate works pretty well but still makes some mistakes that you just have to look past. A great benefit is that you can also listen to words to learn pronunciation.

From day one of learning Hindi, I took time to keep a digital record of the words I wanted to learn. I did this in a Google spreadsheet. In other words, there are no definite or indefinite articles. Three important glue words in Hindi are aur and , lekin but and ya or. The sooner you conquer them, the better. Lesson 6: Get ready for formalities. Hindi is a formal language and there are three levels of formality.

Tu is another Sanskrit cognate that speakers of romance languages will recognize! Lesson 7: Get ready to show respect. The post-fix ji is a formality token added to the end of names and responses — like, yes and no. So, in a formal situation, haan yes and nahin no become haan-ji and nahin-ji , respectively. Lesson 8: Put verbs last. This means basic word order will be different from English — get used to putting your verbs last. Lesson 9: Gender matters.