More Ways to Learn Hindi for Fun

It's been 3 years since I wrote How to Learn Hindi for Fun, and I'm still learning, because - spoiler alert - it's fun!

In the meantime, I've discovered several more tips and resources that have helped me out, so it seems like it's time for an update.

You (or at least I) need flashcards!

I have heard it said by devotees of Stephen Krashen/comprehensible-input based methods that you shouldn't try to memorise vocabulary. It's apparently a waste of time, because all the words you need will be repeated often enough in your input for you to eventually pick them up naturally.

So, if you've successfully learned a language as an adult without any deliberate memorisation of words, you can skip this section, genius.

Those people ^ either have superior brains to me or much more relaxed personalities because this does not work (for me) and there is nothing more frustrating (for me) than the feeling of hearing a word I know I "knew" a few months ago and now cannot remember. While not foolproof (I should know, because I am a fool), a good flashcard app will at least help you remember your vocabulary long enough to actually remember it.

I am a devotee of Lexilize Flashcards, an easy-to-use app which allows you to practice two languages for free, in a reliable learn-pair-recall-write sequence. It then uses spaced repetition to ensure you have actually learnt them, over a period of weeks, months, or (if you're me) years. Trust it. You have not learnt the words before it thinks you have; you only think you have. If you throw them happily into a list called 'known', 'memorized' or other such arrogant nonsense, they will come back to haunt you, probably in a cinema, during the charming proposal speech of your beloved, or some other location where it would be frowned upon to whip out your phone.

It has the option of starting with pre-populated lists, based on topics like 'Vegetables', 'Drinks', etc. You probably don't need to bother with these; it really leans towards English-in-Devanagari, especially in the Drinks sections.

The main downside of Lexilize Flashcards is that it seems to only be available for Android. Apple Addicts will have to make do with Quizlet (quite good, but I have only used it on browser and therefore cannot vouch for the app) or Anki, which is decidedly not free.

Stories don't have to be walls of text!

You may have long since progressed past the beginners' reading resources I mentioned in my first article but still suffer brain freeze when faced with an entire page of pictureless Hindi. No need; stop torturing yourself.

Download Kahani Box, and play fun little story games while reading. The pictures don't really illustrate the story, so you do have to understand what you're reading, but they do remove the wall-of-text intimidation factor. Some of the stories have voice narration, too, although sadly there is no way (that I can find) to search for them, so good luck finding them. Off the top of my head, 'Love Wars' had voice when I played it, but that was some time ago.

Pro Tip: Be careful with tapping on the screen willy-nilly; there is no way to go back without restarting the whole chapter, so don't just tap to keep your screen awake while stumbling through a paragraph, or you will lose it. Sounds irritating? It is, but you'll get used to it.

You will not be impressed by the outfit and hair choices; you get three of each per game, and they make no difference to anything. You will be amused, after a while, by the huge proportion of stories that begin "You are a beautiful 22-year-old girl...". The author doesn't seem to think any other type of character is worth writing about, although you do occasionally get the option to play as a male.

Also, the app has for some reason in recent months become a bit flooded with slightly pervy English-language games. Just keep scrolling past the 'New Stories' sections and you'll find the Hindi stories hiding underneath!

Poems are also not walls of text

Sometimes, for some reason (no judgement), you may wish to read something Serious and Grown-Up. For that, I recommend poetry, with the caveat that you may find words you will find nowhere else, ever again, as long as you live, because that is the nature of poetry. Copy and paste with caution.

You can simply Google 'Hindi poetry'; you will find legions of social media pages, just like you would in English. Read to your heart's content for free!

If you are already paying for an Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscription, you should search there too, as there are some really nice books there. I particularly enjoyed Khwahishein.

There are Hindi subtitles on Netflix, too.

If you have progressed past the stage of really needing subtitles to watch a movie, but not yet reached the stage of definitely not needing them, try the Hindi subtitles, which are generally available for new releases on Netflix. You may get a bit tangled up at first, especially if you try to read and listen; just try to relax and use them as back-up for when you really don't get something, rather than attempting to juggle both skills.

There's also Hindi audio for non-Hindi films.

Including cheesy American Christmas movies! OK, this isn't the season, but check them out from November.

It is a lot of fun to watch the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Brooke Shields blethering away in Hindi, and your brain will accept it weirdly quickly. When I was watching 'A Castle for Christmas' with Hindi audio, I found myself thinking, towards the end when the Christmas Fuss was reaching a crescendo, "Why are all these Indian characters so stressed out about Christmas anyway?" Reader, there were probably zero Indian characters; my festivity-addled mind had just made them Indian because they were speaking Hindi.

I hope this list has introduced you to a helpful resource or two, as well as motivated you to keep going in your Hindi learning journey!

If you're interested in online Hindi lessons, you can try italki.com, and get a bonus $5 reward when you buy $20 of lesson credits using this link. Alternatively, get 500 points, also around $5, straight away on Cafetalk.com with this link.

Let me know of any helpful language learning resources you've found in the comments, even if they're not Hindi-specific. <3