hindi bolo!

Happy Birthday in Hindi!

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:28:22 PDT

Yesterday it was our friend Susanna's birthday and since she requested me to wish her a happy birthday in Hindi, I thought it was a nice idea to design a Hindi Happy Birthday card. 'Happy Birthday' in Hindi is जन्मदिन की बधाई (janamdin kii badhaaii).

Follow us on Twitter!

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 01:38:46 PDT

We are glad to announce that hindi bolo! is now officially on Twitter, you can follow us to get updates on our activities and we are also offering a word of the day service to our followers, every new word will be featured by the audio file! You can find us on Twitter here.

Telling the time in Hindi

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:52:55 PDT

Namate dosto, नमस्ते दोस्तो, hallo friends!

Here is the latest video tutorial we have made for you. If you know the numbers up to 12 you can easily learn how to tell the time in Hindi. In the previous post we have revised the numbers in Hindi up to 10, if you don't know 11 and 12 they are ग्यारह and बारह .

This video will help you tell the hours as in '1 o'clock', '2 o'clock' etc. In our members area it will be possible to watch the second part of the video where all other options for telling the time are taught. The members area will feature a complete conversational Hindi course with exercises, dialogues, presentations, audio files, video tutorials and easy grammar worksheet, there i also a section about the script... it will be a great and fun source for self taught students and also teachers, especially online teachers who are looking for some new Hindi teaching material.

Flashcards - Hindi numbers 1-10 and updating

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:47:27 PDT

Hi all,

we have prepared for you some flashcards on Hindi numbers from 1 to 10, click on the image and you will reach the page. You can select 'study' and check all the numbers clicking on 'continue', later on you can decide to test yourself by clicking on 'study other side first'!

Hindi Bolo is going to become more complete by adding a members area soon, where people who are interested can subscribe to enter a full comprehensive course we are presently working on, stay tuned to know more about it. In the meantime, we still offer free or affordable group classes on different topics every now and then, you can check the upcoming ones here.

We have also some news about our podcast project soon, because we have a new collaboration in store, the podcast is going to be avaliable on this blog while the future subscribers of the members area will be able to have access to additional reference material on the topics of the podcast.

Let's play Who wants to be a millionaire in Hindi!

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Sun, 10 May 2009 23:10:40 PDT

Everyone's invited to play with me in my free class here Kaun banega crorepati, the Hindi version of Who wants to be a millionaire. Questions will have an English translation and there will be prizes as well for those who will guess the highest number of answers!

Learn and practice Hindi greetings and basic expressions!

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Sat, 02 May 2009 06:46:40 PDT

Here is a presentation I made for you for learning Hindi greetings and basic expressions, after learning -for those who don't want to learn Devanagari there is always a transcription after the Hindi script, where underdotted m stands for nazalisation- you can practice all the expressions with audio examples in the video you find at the end of the presentation. You can select the full screen option at the right bottom of the presentation! Enjoy!

Learn and practice Hindi greetings

View more presentations from Marged .

Hindi affordable online group classes

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:56:50 PDT

Hi all Hindi fans and lovers,

I'm preparing a new offer for students willing to take Hindi classes at a very affordable rate!

I'll teach a weekly online group class on the alphabet basics and pronunciation and conversational Hindi from the basics, everyone interested in partecipating to these lessons needs only to mail me at tutonlineit(at)yahoo.it with his/her interest and most convenient time and day for the lesson. Those who already know the alphabet well will only need to join when the conversational part of the course will start. Once we will reach the number of at least 2/4 people the first class will be fixed and it will be free, for the following classes you will only need to register and pay the small fee of 8$ each lesson! Stay tuned to check a sample of a lesson and other free interesting learning tools here on Hindi bolo!

Marged

Learn Hindi through songs - Suraj hua maddham

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Fri, 14 May 2010 11:49:45 PDT

Hi everyone,

I'm posting a song from the Hindi movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham with transcription and translation. We had a fun online class on edufire about this one today and I'm posting the presentation and the video of the song. People seemed to like the choice and I enjoyed doing this a lot! Hope to see you all for the next classes!!

SūRaj Huā Maddham

View more presentations from Marged .

New Alphabet free class

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:08:47 PDT

Hi all, I wanted to let you know that I'll start again the Alphabet online group lessons and I will start with a free trial open to everyone interested. Here is a link to register http://edufire.com/classes/1601-introduction-to-the-hindi-alphabet-and-phonetics. New mterial will also be uploaded soon on this blog so stay tuned...

Marged

Learn and practise the days of the week in Hindi

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 07:58:33 PDT

Here is a slideshow with audio comment made by Marged to help you learn and practise the days of the week in Hindi. Click on the tools at the bottom of the presentation to go in full screen mode and play. Enjoy!

Hindi-days of the week

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: weekdayshindi)

Learn through songs - TAARE ZAMEEN PAR

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:16:30 PDT

नमस्ते !
We're sorry for posting after so much time but we are fixing some issues and we hope to start the podcast soon as planned. In the meantime, I think a very nice way to learn more about a language is through songs. I'm going to post a few popular Hindi songs and translate them for you from now on.

Let's start with a hit from the beautiful movie Tare Zameen Par by Amir Khan, titled माँ

TAARE ZAMEEN PAR Movie Songs LyricsMaa - Taare Zameen Par LyricsHindi Song Title: Maa - Taare Zameen Par : TAARE ZAMEEN PAR Singer(s): SHANKAR MAHADEVAN Cast(s): Aamir Khan , Tanay Chheda , Darsheel Safary , Tisca Chopra

मैं कभी बतलाता नहीं

पर अंधेरे से डरता हूँ मैं, माँ

यूँ तो मैं दिखलाता नहीं

तेरी परवाह करता हूं मैं माँ

तुझे सब है पता है ना माँ

तुझे सब है पता मेरी माँ

भीड़ में यूँ न छोड़ो मुझे

घर लौट के भी आ न पाऊँ माँ

भेज न इतना दूर मुझको तू

याद भी तुझको आ न पाऊँ माँ

क्या इतना बुरा हूँ मैं माँ

क्या इतना बुरा … मेरी माँ

जब भी कभी पापा मुझे

जो ज़ोर से झूला झूलाते हैं मां

मेरी नज़र ढूंढे तुझे

सोचूँ यहीं तू आ के थमेगी माँ

उनसे मैं यह कहता नहीं

पर मैं सहम जाता हूँ माँ

चेहरे पे आने देता नहीं

दिल ही दिल में घबराता हूँ माँ

तुझे सब है पता है ना माँ

तुझे सब है पता मेरी माँ

Translation by hindiboloblog.blogspot.com

I never show it, but I fear darkness, mom

even though I don’t give it away

I care about you, mom

You know it all, don’t you mom?
You know it all...my mom

Don’t leave me like this in the crowd

I won't be even able to come back home, mom

Don’t send me that far

you won't even be able to miss me, mom

Am I so naughty, mom?

Am I so naughty, my mom?

Whenever dad sometimes

swings my swing strongly

my eyes would search for you

I'll think you’ll come here and support me

I don’t tell him,

but I panic, mom,

I don’t let it show on my face

but in the heart of hearts I am scared

you know it all, don’t you mom?
you know it all, my mom

I hope you liked this song, as you can see, in poetry and songs, the language can be used a little more freely some some constructions are sligtly rearranged. Many people will argue that this language has many Urdu borrowings, and this is true, but this is also the language currently used in everyday conversation by Hindi speakers, so this can be regarded as Hindi.

I think that we can also learn some Hindi expressions by looking at these lyrics, for example, in Hindi
I fear darkness is expressed as मैं अंधेरे से डरता हूँ

thus, if I want to say that something scares me, I'll have to say that मैं x से डरता हूँ
for example she's frightened by spiders ---> वह मकडी से डरती है

Another expression we see in the song is मैं तेरी परवाह करता हूँ
which means I care for you, so if we want to say that we care for someone in Hindi, we can use the expression परवाह करना ,
we care for our family---> हम अपने परिवार की परवाह करते हैं

A very common expression is also तुझे सब पता है , you know everything
In Hindi there are a few ways to say I know, the most common one is (मुझे) पता है
they know who I am---> उनको पता है कि मैं कौन हूँ

Another typical Hindi expression is याद तुझको आ न पाऊँ
in Hindi किसी को याद आना means to be missed by someone or to be remembered by someone
I'm missing my family a lot ----> (मुझे) मेरा परिवार बहुत याद आ रहा है

Flashcards for practicing velar and palatal consonants

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:52:38 PDT

Namaste नमस्ते !

As promised, I'm posting a new set of flashcards for those who are learning Hindi consonants and want to practice those I explained in the video tutorial about Velar and Palatal sounds and symbols. Click on 'study' to practice reading the consonant and proceed by clicking 'c' on your keyboard or 'continue' on the screen, if you want to practise guessing the symbol just by hearing the sound, then you can select 'study other side first' on the bottom of the page. I haven't included the sounds for the nasals as you mostly need to learn the symbol. The set is here. Have fun!

Video tutorial: Hindi Velar and Palatal Consonants

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:34:22 PDT

Namaste नमस्ते !

Here is the second video tutorial on the Hindi alphabet, I hope you will enjoy it... it's about the first two groups of consonants. The Hindi alphabet is rather scientific and the sounds order follows phonetic rules. If you have any question or comment, please post it on the blog, or send it to hindiboloblog[at]gmail.com.

Learning tips since there are many letters in the Hindi alphabet, I suggest to learn each one very well, when we'll be done with all the symbols and sounds we will see how to connect them, and how to read and write words, so don't worry for now, just practise the single letters। Learn also the nasal sounds and symbols, later we will see how to use them, and don't worry about how to pronounce the velar and palatal nasal sounds because they come naturally before velar and palatal consonants, you also have them in English, but you simply write them all as 'n'! Later I will also post some flashcards on these letters, enjoy learning!!

Click on the image below to see it in a bigger size.

How to and learning tips

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 05:19:25 PDT

So you have decided you want to learn Hindi, or you have started on your own or with a course or teacher but you got stuck to a point where you feel you are no longer improving. I hope this resources will help you out in all this, because I've been a Hindi student just like you and I know the problems you can face.

First of all we're trying to provide a method which is tailored on an average student's needs, and not necessarily based on the method usually taught at school. We're willing to provide a learning source where you don't necessarily need to know the devanagari script (although I warmly recommend learning it because it makes the difference when it comes to pronuciation and it's fun also) as many of you expressed this desire. We're not willing to use transcription either as this could mislead someone on the correct pronunciation.

Later we will only provide scripts using the standard precise transcription with a reading note for those who may want to avoid the Hindi writing but would also like to have a script as a reminder. Most of the times we will provide exercises based on your listening ability, which is something rarely done from the start. This will help you develop faster a listening comprehension and articulation in the Hindi language making you more focused on the language itself.

Another aspect I'd like to point out is that according to my experience, the perfect recipe for effectively learning any langauge is having a knowledgeable personal guide who can show you the way and help you out, but who could never do the job for you... that is to say, the perfect combination is a knowledgeable personal guide who knows how to bring out the best in a single student and a student willing to invest a regular effort. Of course this will have to translate sooner or later in a practical use of the language in its natural environment, but it's not always true that you can only learn a language in the country where it's spoken.

This does not apply to Hindi specifically... Yes, in India most of the people speak English and they will use it with you as soon as they identify you with a foreigner. Even if you will try to use your Hindi, if you are not confident enough or haven't developed a speaking/listening ability, people will start using English as a medium again, even if you don't speak English well either... That is how I have seen many people who had learnt Hindi at school losing everything they had learnt even if they lived in India or went often there. I've noticed that most of the Westerners who learn Hindi at some point of their way, get stuck to the few same old words because they are not encouraged by the fact that knowing Hindi is not necessary to survive...

Keep in mind, anyway, that, on the other hand, speaking Hindi will give you a remarkable advantage, first of all you'll be able to communicate with people on the streets such as vendors, rickshawallahs, etc. who don't usually speak English and you will be considered on a different level compared to the average tourist by those Indians who can communicate in English. Moreover, you will be able to communicate with people also in small non touristic places and have access to a huge amount of interesting material such as literature, music (classical or not), movies (subtitles are useful but annoying and you won't find them in an Indian cinema anyway) and so on...

In fact, another effective way to improve your language knowledge is using interesting material, that is to say, if you like movies (not necessarily Bollywood, but why not it!) watch them in Hindi, I used to watch a scene with subtitles and then without them, or if you like cooking search for recipes in Hindi, and so on.

Listen to some spoken Hindi or read some Hindi each day, even if you don't understand it, this is really helpful believe me. You don't need to read a novel a day or watch two movies a day, a few lines and a 10 minutes recording (a movie scene, a podcast, radio news, etc.) will do a lot. Having a good dictionary also helps a lot (again, if you learn devanagari you will also be able to use this great tool), you can find two fairly good online dictionaries:

http://dict.hinkhoj.com/

http://www.shabdkosh.com/

You can start and use them once you'll get a good grasp of devanagari. If you want to go ahead and purchase a good one, my suggestion is getting the Oxford Hindi-English dictionary or the Chaturvedi/Tiwari (the one I personally use most), anyway there are some options even for those who don't want to learn devanagari and need transcription.

If you have any suggestion, question, or comment, you can submit it on the blog, or through the voice message on the left side of the blog page, or via email at hindiboloblog[at]gmail.com.

Updates and a new flashcards exercise!

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:54:29 PDT

Namaste नमस्ते !

We are still working on publishing our first podcast and we hope you'll enjoy it, Marged is also organizing some new videos for those who want to learn the Devanagari alphabet. While you wait for all these new stuff, we thought it could be useful for you to practice some more Hindi full vowels, especially focusing on the symbols and sounds (so you'll be able to do without transcription!). Here are some free flashcards we have made just for you. You can just click on 'study' and you will get each vowel sound in order to guess its writing. You can also select 'study other side first' on the bottom of the page to practice reading. Have fun learning and give us your feedback!

Video tutorial on how to write and pronounce Hindi sounds - Vowels

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:55:54 PDT

नमस्ते Namaste! Hello!

Here is a video tutorial I have made for those who are trying to learn the Hindi alphabet and sounds. I'm planning to make video tutorials on the complete Hindi alphabet, in the meantime you can let me have your opinion or questions on this first video covering Hindi vowels from अ (a) to औ (au).

Notice that in the video the full form of the vowel it's shown and not how vowels are written when attached to consonants. We will see that later.

Also if you only want to learn mainly conversational Hindi, I recommend viewing the alphabet because it's the best way to learn the basic Hindi sounds and improve your pronunciation.

You can share and use this video , but only for educational purposes and for free.

Please, come back for further educational tools. Questions and feedbacks are welcome.

A part from these vowels and sounds, there are two other letters usually taught in the Hindi alphabet, I actually couldn't fit them in the 10 minute time of Youtube, anyway I'm showing them here.

The first one is mostly used to show the half nasal sound, so it's pronounced as 'an' according to the following consonant. An example of a word beginning with this sound is अंगूर, grape in Hindi, pronounced as 'angoor' with the first अ short, and the long 'u' sound.

The other sound comes from Sanskrit and it's a short अ followed by two dots, pronounced as a light h sound, this is mainly used to teach the sound of the two dots symbol, as there isn't any word beginning with this sound.

Special tips on learning a new alphabet if you want to learn the Hindi alphabet fast a good exercise I used to do is asking someone to read the letters randomly while you guess their shape and write them down. This is ideal when two students are learning together, so they can exchange the roles in this, otherwise, if you do not have anyone to help you in this you can record a random list of the sounds and do the same on your own or simply try our vowels practice exercise here. I assure you this will work effectively because it will help you connect the symbol with its sound and shape. Before that you can exercise drawing the shape of each letter many times. There is a nice website, Akhlesh's page, where you can download and print worksheets for that here. Also, I recommend learning the alphabet in order to avoid the transcription as soon as possible, because your pronunciation skills will improve tremendoulsly like this! And now...have fun learning!!

Our team

tutonlineit@yahoo.it (Marged) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:58:14 PST

Marged is a a half Italian a half British, she graduated in Hindi with Hons at Venice University (Italy) and wrote her thesis on the poetry and history of the musical genre thumri. She's fond of Indian languages and culture and has been learning Hindustani classical music (vocal and bansuri) since 2000 at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the Conservatory in Vicenza (Italy). She's always been interested in literature, phonetics, ethnomusicology and language education. She's an experienced translator and worked for a few Italian publishing houses. She specializes in video tutorials and Hindi for Italian speakers. Her main hobbies are internet and traditional henna body art or mehndi. She's fond of Indian culture and has researched on many of its aspects. Visit her website.

For one-to-one or small group online lessons, send a mail to make an enquiry to hindiboloblog[at]gmail.com.