Learn to Speak Hindi

Although not as studied as European languages in the United States, Hindi is spoken by over 500 million people worldwide and is one of the most spoken languages in the world. Hindi is the official language of India and it is also used in many other countries, including Fiji and Nepal. Evolved from Sanskrit, Hindi is one of the most predominantly spoken languages in Asia (besides Mandarin Chinese). Recent waves of immigration from India to the United States and the United Kingdom have also established large communities if Hindi speakers in both Europe and the United States.

Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language, which included other languages spoken in Indian like Begali as well as Iranian, Nuristanu and Dardic. Hindi, like the other languages in this group, originated from Sanskrit. In the Hindi writing system, a character can stand for only one sound, making is easier for English speaking learners to pick up on correct pronunciation when reading the language. In general, when a Hindi consonant is not written with a vowel character immediately following it, it is automatically pronounced with a certain vowel sound called a schwa. This sound is very common in Hindi and because it's not written out, it makes Hindi spelling much simpler. While the spelling is made simpler, the problem most English speakers have when learning Hindi is that many consonant sounds are very similar to each other and small movements of the tongue can determine the entire meaning of the word. Practice and exposure are the only remedies.

There are many ways to go about learning Hindi. Although one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, you may have a hard time finding a Hindi class at a local community college (depending on where you live). A good way to start learning the basics of Hindi can be to purchase a program like Rosetta Stone. Hiring a private tutor and/or trying to find a local conversational group could be helpful also. Of course the best and easiest way to learn Hindi (or any other language for that matter) is through total immersion. A few weeks of speaking Hindi on a daily basis can be worth a year or more in the classroom. If you can't make it to India to practice your new language skills, looking for opportunities to converse is probably your best bet.