I'm interested in learning hindi. How hard is it?

Question

I wanna take a hindi language course. I've studied Japanese before and I'm wondering how difficult hindi is in comparison? easier? harder? I would like to learn to read, write and speak hindi. Any comments and/or advice would be greatly appreciated. Also if anyone knows any good schools in london that teach affordable hindi courses that would be great too! Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

If you learned Japanese from scratch (wow!) than Hindi shouldn;t be too much of a stretch. Affordable classes for beginners can be booked in West London - check out the brochure for Adult Education in the borough of Hounslow (at the moment they've not updated it yet for 2007 but call them up) Page 16 for Hindi

Answer 2

If you're an English speaker it's fairly hard, but I shouldnt think harder than Japanese and the writing will be easier because it's an alphabet (well, a syllabary, but at least you don't have to learn all those characters like Japanese)

There aren't many classes in London. SOAS does an expensive one which is rather formal and not collquial and I used to go to the Mary Ward centre in Queen's Square. But I gave up because the teaching was quite poor. But the teacher could have changed by now.

I wish I'd learnt Urdu script, instead of starting with Hindi. In their spoken forms they are the same language pretty much ie the language of Bollywood. It was the spoken language I wanted, and with Urdu I would have had access to more practical, down-to-earth dictionaries and books.

That's what I wish I'd done- but you might not want the same kind of spoken language I did.

Answer 3

Speaking Hindi will be easier to learn, just watch loadsa bollywood movies and you will be on your way. As for writing hindi it is more of a task. I would suggest you enquire at your local community college. I am in London and they usually have adult education classes.