How to Learn Hindi for Fun

I've been learning Hindi for over a year now, and I've made an awful lot of mistakes. I don't mean grammatical ones; I mean I've spent hours doing things that resulted in me learning no Hindi whatsoever. That doesn't sound like much of an advert for this article, but the thing is I've turned it around and I'm here to help you get straight to the good stuff.

This is emphatically not one of those 'Learn a Language in 30 Days' type articles. If that's what you're after, you may as well click away now.

Right, now we've got rid of those type A personalities, let's get down to the real business - how to learn Hindi in a way that retains or even grows your delight in language learning, while being at least as effective as a traditional intensive course over the long term. The focus is not on fast; it's on fun. It's also often free.

Many of the things I'm going to tell you are things that I theoretically knew starting out, because I'm an English teacher and they apply to all language learning, but some of them came as a complete shock. So here, in a list of my erroneous assumptions and ones I've heard other people make, is how to learn Hindi without losing your mind or your time.

Just for fun, I've thrown in a few Hindi words that you should be able to get from context. This is an important skill that you're going to be using a lot. You can find the English translations right at the bottom if you want to double-check.

Do not waste time not learning Devanagari (the alphabet).

My very pahalee mistake. I spent several days riiiight at the very beginning trying to find a program that didn't teach me the alphabet. (Technically, it's an abugida - don't worry about it.)

My main justification was that I mostly wanted to learn Hindi for watching movies that weren't available with subtitles, so I didn't need to read. Also, I kept seeing people writing Hindi using the Latin alphabet. So I could skip it, right? It was not only boring and hard, but unnecessary!

I finally caved on this not because I realised I was wrong, but because everything I clicked on when I googled learn Hindi for beginners started with Devanagari. I was positively angry about it. What about all those polyglot promises about speaking from day one? I was going to be bogged down in intimidating squiggles I could never possibly understand for weeks!

I was mistaken for two main reasons. Number one, Devanagari is easy. Unless you read Korean - I think their alphabet has literally won awards for ease of use - it's the most logical writing system you're ever likely to come across. You can learn it in a dedicated weekend, if you want. When you read your first sentence at child-speed, you'll be so proud! It's the little moments like that that'll keep you going.

Number two, you will never understand the sound system if you don't learn Devanagari. The people who write Hindi with the Latin alphabet can do so because they already know how it works. How do you pronounce khiladi? The two i's are different - not too shocking for an English speaker - but there's no d sound whatsoever. The reason for this lies in Devanagari, and you will be caught off-guard by stuff like this forever if you don't bite the bullet and just learn it.

Do not spend a minute longer on Duolingo than you need to learn Devanagari and some basic vocabulary...

...or at least don't call the time you spend with that false-promise bearing little green owl Hindi learning time.

Here's where I'm going to get really controversial - hold onto your seats.

Duolingo is not a language learning platform, it's a weird mind-sucking game that occasionally helps complete beginners.

Have you ever met a real Duolingo fan - one of those people with 6+ flags next to their name - in real life? No you haven't, because they spend all their time feeding the demon ulloo and he won't let them out of the house.

I should know - I am (a recovering) Duaddict. But you don't have to be. Get in and out fast. Do anything you can not to get invested in it. Pay no attention whatsoever to your streak, let alone anyone else's. If anything, you should wilfully break it every so often by alternating with the beginner lessons on Learning Hindi. Do not invite your friends; do not start hanging about on the forums. You have been warned.

The Hindi tree on Duolingo is legendarily rubbish. It is much shorter than the other trees; I read somewhere that the original team creating it had some interpersonal issues and quit early. Literally the only benefit I have gained, beyond the first month or so, is that I can tell you how long I have been learning Hindi in days - which could be achieved by making a note in your diary if you really wanted.

Once you have learned that first bit of vocabulary, you can immediately start reading and listening.

Many language courses emphasise speaking at an early stage, but speaking is not the only way to use a language, nor is it necessarily advancing your learning. Saying things you've already learned is practising, not learning.

The key to using and learning at the same time is something called comprehensible input: content that you can just about understand. There's plenty of scientific theory about this you can look up if you want, but you can experience the magic for yourself by reading stories from the wonderful Storyweaver. This website is an absolute goldmine for simple Hindi reading, in the form of storybooks. Hundreds of other languages are available too.

You can select the stories by level, starting from 'emergent readers'. The levels are chosen by the users who submit the stories, so don't panic if you find one that seems way more advanced than the level you searched for; simply choose one of the hundreds of others. You can also choose books labelled 'flashcards' which are designed to teach specific structures or vocabulary.

Many kahaniyaan are 'readalong', so you can listen and read at the same time. (Or, realistically, listen and then read, because you'll still be stumbling along at toddler speed. This is fine; you did it in your first language too, you just don't remember.) If you like, you can contribute to the project by translating in the future.

You should still be reading the lessons on Learning Hindi (otherwise known as - suck it up, you have to learn a little grammar).

I do not like grammar. I know English teachers are supposed to; I know I'm supposed to get excited about prepositions (in Hindi it's postpositions, enjoy) but I just can't. Vocabulary is my jam; I love collecting words.

Eventually, though, I had to face facts: some grammar cannot be intuited, and you do have to learn it. (Shock, horror, yuk.) Learning Hindi is one of the best resources for pain-free easy grammar explained in English. There are no textbook style exercises, but you're not missing much in that regard; if there's one thing I've learned from unwillingly torturing my own students with them, it's that doing thousands of grammar exercises mostly just makes people good at doing grammar exercises. When it comes to the everyday beginner structures, you are guaranteed to keep coming across them in stories, which is practice in and of itself.

Your pronunciation is likely to be terrible (unless you already speak another Indian language).

Hindi has these magical horror things called murmured consonants, which they share with many other languages spoken in India, and few others. Native speakers will persistently describe this as the previous consonant 'plus h' or tell you to 'add h'; this will make no sense whatsoever to you for months. This is not their fault; it's Native Speaker Syndrome and they can't help it. We all have it - if your native language is English, try to explain to yourself why we say 'interested in languages' and not 'interested on languages', and you'll see what I mean. If you've already learned angrezi, well done, and I'm sure you've encountered this syndrome before in your Anglophone friends.

Murmur hardly exists in English at all, but can occasionally be persuaded to happen in the middle of words with an h - like behind. If you say it aloud, you can feel that there's a bit more force to the h than there would be if it was just hind. That force is roughly what native speakers mean when they tell you to add h; it's not exactly what they're doing, but it's usable.

You can find tutorials on Youtube, some more useful than others. This is a nicely explained one in English.

When you have reached the listening level required to understand the relevant instructions, another thing you can check out is Hindi speech therapy videos. I like Mohd Intezar; his videos saved me from a black pit of pronunciation despair.

On top of murmur, you've also got retroflex consonants to deal with, and then the final boss - murmured retroflex consonants. It's an ongoing process; do practice, and don't despair. As well as doing the exercises in these videos, read aloud sometimes. If you do succumb to grammar exercises at some point, definitely read those aloud.

You don't actually need a teacher at this stage.

Language teachers are swiftly becoming obsolete for lower level students. (This sounds like I'm shooting myself in the foot, but we do become useful at a later stage.) It's possible that a confident extrovert might benefit from coversation at this level, but for most of us, the main outcome is stress. And remember, despite the consonants, we're aiming for fun here. An awful lot of what a teacher will teach you on a beginner's course can be found in Youtube lessons.

You might want to check if your pronunciation practice is paying off; an obliging native speaker would be just as good as a teacher in this regard, but if you haven't got one, they can be found on italki.com. Language exchange partners - people who you help with your native language in exchange for help with the one you're learning - can also be found there. Personally, I'd be wary of going down that route for much the same reason as taking regular lessons with a teacher - it's often pointless stress. As well as stumbling along in a second language, you'd also have to deal with the endless fun of timezones and the interpersonal issues that can occur in any context, such as rude, impatient or no-show language partners.

If you decide to go the pronunciation-check lessons route, you can join italki through my referral link by clicking here, which will net you a bonus of $5 when you buy $20 of lesson credits.

Once on there, check out the difference between a professional teacher and a community tutor: the former has to have a teaching qualification, while the latter is a willing native speaker. In practice, there's a lot of grey area in the middle; some community tutors offer planned lessons, for example, so read the teacher or tutor's profile carefully to manage your expectations. Either a community tutor or a professional tutor may be able to help you check your pronunciation; all it takes is a little reading aloud or repetition. Skip to my top tips for your first lesson later in this article if you like.

If you don't want to take any lessons yet - and I want to re-emphasize that I think that's totally fine, you don't need them at this point - italki can still be a useful tool. That's because of the community section, where you can post writing and have it corrected by native speakers. You can use it to practice the grammar topics you're picking up on Learning Hindi, summarise stories you've read, keep a little diary of your day, and so on. You can use the Hindi keyboard available here.

It would be nice of you to also correct the writing or one or two English learners, but you don't technically have to. Also, if you join through my referral link, you will get the $10 any time you decide to start taking lessons, even if it's a little while in the future.

Try doing things you'd be doing anyway in Hindi

This is a handy way to build language practice into your day, even if you haven't got much time.

One example is workouts - once you've learned body parts and some basic verbs, you can check out Hindi workouts on Youtube. You definitely won't understand everything, but if you watch the video a few times before doing it, or integrate it into your regular routine, you'll keep learning from it. As well, if you repeat it over the course of weeks or months, you'll be able to sense your own progress, as you suddenly understand word-for-word sentences you only vaguely got before. As with the initial pick-up of Devanagari, these moments will boost your confidence and motivate you to keep going.

I like this abs workout by FoodFitness&Fun. Their Youtube channel also has a lot of content about nutrition, which you can bookmark for the future if you're interested.

Another example of everyday things you can do in Hindi is cooking. Videos are best for this too, as you can generally watch step-by-step as well as listen. Don't panic if you're not much of a cook - you can find some really nice basic recipes out there. There are thousands of results for 'Hindi sandwich recipes'. Here's just one:

You can also explore tutorials to do with any topics you're already familiar wth - building or fixing things, for example. It's probably not wise to try to teach yourself completely new skills in Hindi at this stage - learning two things at once could cause either headaches or accidents. :)

'Bollywood' will do nothing for you.

Damn. It hurt me to type as much as it hurts you to read. I'm sure a pretty big proportion of us are learning Hindi because of the movies in some way, and it's really tempting to imagine that we can simply magically absorb the language through a good SRK blockbuster or two. Alas, no.

I was watching Hindi movies with English subtitles for years before I actively started trying to learn, and I didn't pick up more than twenty words. Think about it - the whole point of subtitles is to help you avoid having to understand the language the movies are in. Your brain just starts blocking out the Hindi and concentrates on the text because it's the fastest way to get the information.

I sometimes recommend to my intermediate or advanced English students that they watch English movies with English subtitles, i.e. read and listen at the same time. At a higher level, this can work really well. At the moment, you're extremely unlikely to be able to keep up with Hindi subtitles - though by all means give it a go if you like.

It doesn't mean that you can't watch Hindi films - just don't think that it counts as studying Hindi, because it doesn't. You'll grab an isolated word here or there, but it's ultimately incomprehensible input, the opposite of what we're aiming for.

The same goes for songs - they're an extremely difficult listening task. I've met extremely advanced English learners who still bemoaned their inability to properly grasp lyrics. The reality is, of course, that we can mishear lyrics in even our native languages - there are entire websites devoted to it as an amusing phenomenon. There's no reason to be disheartened about it happening in second or third languages.

The one great exception to the songs might be the classic song 'Ek Do Teen' from the movie Tezaab. This is nearly impossibly head-sticky and will defintely help you to memorize the numbers 1-14. For a while, I couldn't get through them without singing a little. There's both a male and female version of the song from the original movie and a remake from Baaghi 2 so choose the version you prefer. Don't worry about the rest of the lyrics.

There are thousands of engaging stories you can watch at a lower level.

If you aren't sick of little children's stories yet, try out Peppa Pig Hindi. Being kids' TV, it's narrated quite slowly and it's very easy to understand what's going on from the context. I think the episode where Daddy Pig loses his glasses is the first video I ever truly understood in Hindi. It also has the built in advantage that you can easily locate the same episode in another language to check what you got.

Another channel I love is KooKoo TV. It looks like a children's channel because it's all animated, but a lot of the stories are on quite adult themes, like conflict between mothers and daughters in law (known as sas-bahu stories). They constantly bring out new stories and are very up-to-date on current affairs. It was only a day or two after lockdown began in India that they started bringing out life-in-lockdown type stories.

The related channel KooKoo TV Horror has a pretty obvious theme - ghost stories and monsters. Some of them are positively gory, and a lot of them are quite powerful stories in their own right, with proper romantic tragedies and vengeful ghosts attaining justice. They're generally at a similar level to the videos on the main channel, so you can go straight to it if it sounds more your type of thing.

After getting through a fair amount of these, you can then progress to short films.

I'm sure you're getting the gist of this by now; it's all about slowly increasing the level of your input. Don't ever hesitate to reject a story or film that seems too difficult; add it to your 'watch later' if it seems really interesting. Slogging through things you don't understand a word of will do nothing but put you off.

The first Hindi short film I watched was #PuranaPyaar. As well as being a sweet, engaging story, it's relatively easy to keep track of; the dialogue is occasionally in English, and there are Hindi subtitles in the Latin alphabet. There are English subtitles too, but try to resist turning them on the first time you watch it - see what you get.

It's part of a series called 'Love Handles' by Gorilla Shorts. I also particularly enjoyed #ChoriChoriPyaar from the same series. If love stories aren't for you, never fear; check out the channel and you can find something for every taste.

You really do have to do something in Hindi every day.

Hopefully, you'll find that easy with these great stories, because it really is essential. I have occasionally taken a week or two's break because of other commitments, and the difference when you get back to it is surprisingly horrible - you really feel like you've lost a good chunk of progress. It isn't really true, usually; you're just rusty, but it does take a day or two to get going again.

It's these kind of setbacks that are liable to lead to you abandoning your language learning efforts. I once took 20 hours of French lessons in a month for an italki language challenge and made a striking amount of progress, then I decided to allow myself a few days off to relax - I never touched French again. On the other hand, I have never attained the same rate of lessons in Hindi, but my Hindi skills are now streets ahead of where my French ever was (not that that's saying much). That's because I have found ways to mostly enjoy Hindi and make daily practice a part of my life.

It doesn't have to be hours and hours - the more you do, the faster you'll go, but 30 minutes a day has usually been enough for me to make noticeable, if slow, progress and I can always up it when I have extra time.

Once you're understanding short films, the world is your Hindi oyster.

Or at least, Youtube and Kindle Unlimited are. Start searching for content in the wild - there's something available on any topic you might be interested in. You may feel a bit shaky at first, having been deprived of some of the context clues that abound in animations and cooking videos, but you'll be amazed at how the second listening can clarify things. You will likely find that you find certain speakers, accents or writers easier to get than others; stick with them as much as you like.

There are many registers of Hindi, from 'Hinglish', a mix of Hindi and English which can have any proportion of both of them, to 'pure Hindi' which contains many Sanskritised words and borrows little from English. It's really not an emergency if you don't get much of the latter. I tried watching BBC Hindi last month and it was a nightmare. I could hardly get a thing, but it's OK, I'm just not there yet.

Are you ready for lessons?

This depends on your personality as much as anything. If you're shy, don't be afraid to plough along for months just understanding more and more, and maybe contributing occasional short writing on italki. The more you understand, the more you'll be able to speak. You can also join Facebook groups dedicated to Hindi learning; they are often very active, and offer a way to participate in conversations without a time limit. You can join spaces where you expect the content to be largely 'Hinglish' as well, such as fan groups of Hindi celebrities or the pages of Youtubers you like. Here are two Facebook groups I belong to:

Learn Hindi Language

Learning Hindi

When you do feel ready for lessons, join italki, if you haven't already. Here's that referral link with the bonus $10 again.

Aother platform you can try is Cafetalk.com. There aren't as many Hindi teachers on there, but it's a great option if you're short of ready cash, as they occasionally hand out free promotional points. Be sure to book quickly if you get one of these, because they usually expire in a matter of days.

They also have a permanent promotion called 'Cafetalk Day', where all lessons on the 19th or 29th of the month get a 1/3 refund. As well, you can use my referral link to bag 500 points (equivalent to $3.35 at the moment) on sign up. Unlike the italki bonus, you don't have to wait until you've bought points to get the free ones. It might not sound like a big amount, but many teachers offer very short lessons or heavily discounted trials, so it can be a really big discount or even a free lesson. Here's the link: https://bit.ly/38KdclZ.

Top tips to enjoy your first Hindi lesson

Try a short lesson first - italki's minimum length is 30 minutes but Cafetalk offers tutors the opportunity to offer lessons as short as 15 minutes.

If your teacher has an introduction video, watch it. This way, you can familiarize yourself with their accent.

Read the teacher's profile! This will give you an idea about their style and what to expect.

Communicate with the teacher first. They will really appreciate it. Let them know your level and goals for the lesson.

Add them to your chosen platform ahead of time; there is no need for a last-minute scramble because one of you (and it's probably you - this is the teacher's job, remember) has entered the wrong Skype name.

Choose a time when you are guaranteed to be fully awake and able to concentrate. You can experiment with early-morning lessons in the future; your first sabak is not the time.

Be ready before time. You don't have to be sitting there twiddling your thumbs for an hour before, but do be sitting, ready and waiting.

Have a glass of water or something beside you, especially if you're nervous. Dry mouth helps with nothing.

Warm-up; watch or read somehing in Hindi, practice your self-introduction alone, or similar, so your brain is a little bit ready.

If you find that the lesson was tougher than you were expecting, don't feel obliged to take a second. You can try again in a month, or try a different teacher.

Enjoy your first lesson!

The Bottom Line

I can't promise you that you will learn Hindi in X number of days or completely effortlessly, but I can tell you that if you stick to comprehensible input as described above, avoid the pitfalls I've mentioned, and do a little every din, you will have a great time a great deal of the time. You will find a thousand little moments of joy and pride, and they will definitely outweigh the OH MY GOD WHAT TENSE IS THIS moments you remember from language classes in school. You will get there in the end.

These tips willl also serve you well if you go on to learn other languages in the future; the basic methods are the same for all of them, although the channels and stories might change.

The most important thing to remember is, don't fall for the blandishments of that little owl.

Translations

• pahalee - first (in the feminine form, because 'galti', mistake, is feminine)
• ulloo (उल्लू) - owl
• angrezi (अंग्रेज़ी) - English
• kahaniyaan (कहानियाँ) - stories
• sabak (सबक) - lesson
• din (दिन) - day

If you've enjoyed this article, please share it with others who might benefit in your Hindi classes or groups.

If it's saved you money on unnecessary paid apps or textbooks, a little tip would make me nearly as happy as the first time I ate a Ghughra sandwich.

If you have any thoughts on the resources I've mentioned or have more you think I should check out, you can contact me via my blog or Pinterest, linked in my profile.