Complete Hindi Beginner to Intermediate Course: (Book and online audio support) (Teach Yourself): (Book and audio support), cover may vary Paperback – MP3 Audio, 26 Nov. 2010

This was purchased for my son who is interested in learning Hindi. Although spoken Hindi is very similar to Urdu, the Devanagari script is much more accessible to a beginner. The author has an interesting story about how his interest in Hindi was sparked upon his visit to a shop where the music of Ravi Shankar happened to be playing in the background. He was captivated by the sound and the rest, as they say, is history. As for the book, my son did extensive research before opting for this one and he is pleased to have made a good choice. He praises the format and depth of the book which is pitched perfectly for a beginner.

This is the perfect book to learn Hindu. It explains the detail to build a strong basis for the language. It’s easy to follow and it has online listening exercises which makes it the best method I’ve seen. Hugely recommended.

I felt moved to add my review of this book as the only existing review gives a single star which I considered unfair for this impressive product. My own purpose for buying the course was twofold; to learn at least some level the language of my partner, and to prepare for an upcoming trip to India in the summer. I considered the simpler books (beginners or starter) both by the same author and different authors but settled on Complete Hindi in the knowledge that it would be fairly demanding but hopefully yield more satisfying results.I am currently halfway through the course (completed 9 chapters out of 18) and I am so far very pleased both with my choice and with my progress. From a standing start I am now able to hold simple conversations in Hindi with my partner, albeit a lot more practice is required before my command of the language would be at a truly conversational level.From my perspectives, Complete Hindi has the following strengths;- it is well structured with a clear view of the upcoming topics and fairly detailed desciptions of each with worked examples and exercises, both written and audio.- it appears to me to be fairly comprehensive, certainly as far as is possible for a single volume- it takes into account everyday hindi, including such things as Urdu and English loanwords, regional variations and non-standard- it provides sufficient exercises and self-tests to stretch the student and allow extra work- The audio CD included is a precious added resource allowing for understanding of the (different) pronunciations to be practised.- at £20-£25 it is very cheap compared to other options, like Rosetta StoneThe following may be considered weaknesses;- It lacks many of the cool multi-media features of Rosetta Stone, such as flashcards and online services.- It can appear a little dense and forbidding and perhaps this has affected an earlier review. I must say this does not bother me, but I can see that this could be off-putting for many people.Overall however I am very satisfied with this purchase and I wanted only to add my review to balance the overall impression.

Have only just started going though this course but already there is a lot that sets it apart from the rest.

The DVDs are great easy to follow. I hope I will pick the language as quickly and fluently as speakers on DVD.

I liked this course up to a point - mainly up to chapter 6 and then I floundered. I imagine this is probably more down to my lack than the book itself but it was at this point that the author stopped using romanised script to guide you. I felt that the the stabilisers had been taken off my bike and I panicked and gave up! Yes, that says more about my tenacity than anything else but it put me off nonetheless!I know the whole point is to be able to read/write the Hindi script but I just wasn't ready for that abrupt stop. It's hard enough learning a foreign language even when the language shares the same alphabet but I found it useful to have the romanised script so that I could check my understanding of the component parts of the (romanised Hindi) word against the Devengari script.

Great book and fast delivery!

mmm perhaps I got a bit carried away thinking I would learn the lingo to understand my lovely fellow workers who switch to Hindi when being questioned at work (!) but I was out of my depth by page 10 ! sent back . will save for rosetta stone!