Hindi Vs. Urdu?

[AfgJasmine16]

Sorry, I'm sure this has been created as a topic before but I searched and couldn't find. Anyway I was wondering which lanaguge is better to learn Urdu or Hindi? I know they aren't that different from each other. Just the script and urdu is mmore perso-arabic loanwords while Hindi is more sanskritic loan words. But if you want to understand movies/songs and be understood in India whch one should you learn?

[bollyking]

Sorry, I'm sure this has been created as a topic before but I searched and couldn't find. Anyway I was wondering which lanaguge is better to learn Urdu or Hindi? I know they aren't that different from each other. Just the script and urdu is mmore perso-arabic loanwords while Hindi is more sanskritic loan words. But if you want to understand movies/songs and be understood in India whch one should you learn?

It's a hard call because even modern colloquial hindi is not the "purer" hindi you'll find in textbooks--even in BW hindi there's a lot of urdu/persian/arabic words thrown in, plus marathi based slang words. But if your goal is to understand movies and music then id say get hindi learning material.

Best call is to pick up vocabulary from movies and music and then learn hindi grammar from whatever resources you prefer.

[AfgJasmine16]

It's a hard call because even modern colloquial hindi is not the "purer" hindi you'll find in textbooks--even in BW hindi there's a lot of urdu/persian/arabic words thrown in, plus marathi based slang words. But if your goal is to understand movies and music then id say get hindi learning material.

Best call is to pick up vocabulary from movies and music and then learn hindi grammar from whatever resources you prefer.

Is Rosetta Stone and Teach Yourself Hindi good to understand Hindi in movies/songs?

[bollyking]

Is Rosetta Stone and Teach Yourself Hindi good to understand Hindi in movies/songs?

I dont know about TYH--if you're willing to make a serious and long term committment to learning hindi than RS is good, though you have to be willing not to have an instant reward, and it wont really teach you  a lot of words that you will find in songs related to love and such! (I doubt the words 'ashiq' or 'mohabbat' are in there). For that you'll have to look them up on the net.

Here are my two suggestions for you, they worked for me and drilled a lot of vocab into me that i either forgot from childhood or never learned:

1.Create a word file on your computer with the lyrics and english translations of your favorite songs. You've probably got a number of hindi words in your mind from songs that you just dont know the translations for. Once you see what they all mean, you'll remember them easily and will instantly boosted your vocabulary by several folds.

2.Everytime you watch a hindi movie, keep a pad and paper with you and try to identify new words to learn up.  Maybe even phrases you find interesting, sweet, or funny. This will help you both with vocabulary and grammar.

Moafagh bashed!

[LinKarish]

^^^ETA: Bollyking's method is how I know what I know so far.  I don't actually write it all down, but I keep in mind the words I have already learnt.  But I guess this is a good time to ask, since Rosetta stone is recommended.  How good is it in terms of being able to understand colloquial Hindi.  Like does it have "Duniya" for world, or some other word like the one panelist's teacher corrected his papers with?
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I've been thinking about this for some time too. I've been wanting to learn Hindi for a long time.  But now I've come to the decision that I may just invest in both__learn Hindi and learn Urdu.  Technically, I shouldn't need to buy an Urdu learn it yourself, since I already know the Arabic script.  But I have a suspicion that the Hindi learning materials may be highly sankritised Hindi.  And Urdu materials would be highly perso-Arabic. In other words Shudh Hindi/Saaf Urdu

In an NDTV discussion on whether Hindi should be imposed, Sudhir Mishra (who is from Lucknow, the birthplace of Urdu and said he speaks Hindustani) said the problem with it is that it tends to teach one version of the language, which is again the highly sankritised Hindi.  And another guy on the panel said in his Hindi class the teacher kept crossing out "Duniya" with some other word.  And that is the problem with such classes.

Now again these are classes in India, but I've been wondering if this could be the case for CD/self learning materials as well.  The same goes for college classes, I think. While a great professor (from my experience with other languages) and learning materials talk varying differences, colloquial uses, different dialects, etc-- while there are some who may adhere to a strict specific version.

And Bollywood uses both, Hindi and Urdu (especially for lyrics).  in terms of India itself, the dialect changes. I've noticed the Delhi vocab has more Urdu.

The closest thing I found online was a Hindustani tutorial.  I have no idea if it's good or not.

http://www.worldlanguage.com/Products/Spoken-Hindustani-234-pages-6-cass-Tutorial-Learning-8362.htm

And some kind of class on Hindustani. But the site is down, so I have no idea what they offer.
Here's cached link.
http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:SZ4I99FL8y4J:www.knowledge-must.com/index.php%3Fid%3D251%26L%3D0+learn+hindustani+language&cd=12&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Learn  Hindustani  / Hindi / Urdu

Hindustani, also known as "Hindi-Urdu", is a term covering several closely related dialects in Pakistan and India, especially the vernacular form of the two national languages, Standard Hindi and Urdu. Hindi and Urdu can be seen as a single linguistic entity, the key difference being that Urdu is supplemented with a Perso-Arabic vocabulary and Hindi with a Sanskritic vocabulary, especially in their more literary forms. Besides, the difference is also sociolinguistic. When people speak Hindustani, Muslims will usually say that they are speaking Urdu and Hindus will typically refer to themselves speaking Hindi, even though they are speaking essentially the same language.

Hindi, the official language of India, is based on the Khariboli dialect of the Delhi region and differs from Urdu in that it is usually written in the indigenous Devanagari script of India and exhibits less Persian influence than Urdu, employing a more sanskritised vocabulary. Devanagari is an alphabet that is written from left to right, lacks distinct letter cases, and is recognisable by a characteristic horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together. It is also the main script used to write several other languages, including Marathi, Nepali, and Sanskrit.

Urdu, having about 80 million native speakers, is the national language of Pakistan and an officially recognised regional language of India, being an official language in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, National Capital Territory of Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh. But Urdu's reach goes far beyond its number of native speakers. In Pakistan, Urdu is initially spoken and understood by most people, including a majority of urban dwellers. Urdu is written using a variation of the Arabic script. The Arabic script and its variants are used in a wide range of languages, including Persian, Urdu, Pashto, Dari, and Kurdish. The Perso-Arabic script employed by Urdu is based on the Arabic alphabet, but was modified to match the demands of Urdu by adding several new letters.

 

Why Study Hindustani?

    * Depending on definition, Hindustani / Hindi / Urdu is the second or third most widely spoken language in the world, after Standard Chinese and maybe English. If second-language speakers are included, the combined number of Hindustani speakers rises to about 800 million.
    * With its rapidly growing economy, India has opened the doors for many opportunities. There are many professionals wishing to connect to India and work there. Knowledge of Hindustani will pave the way to success.
    * Since not many outsiders have yet mastered Hindustani, early movers command outstanding employment opportunities.
    * In India almost every state has its own distinct cultural background, dances and music, prayers, rituals, languages and dialects. With the help of Hindustani you will be able to unravel this diversity in major parts of the country.
    * Accessing India via English only will give you a heavily distorted picture. For instance, the picture of India depicted by the English-language media is incomplete and needs to be supplemented.
    * India is also the birthplace of several great religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, and other religions such as Islam and Christianity have found a new home there. With Hindustani you will get a simultaneous exposure to this diverse range of religious traditions.
    * Hindustani is an increasingly international language that is widely spoken in other South Asian countries (Pakistan, Nepal, and Bhutan) and also in other countries outside Asia (Mauritius, Trinidad, Fiji, Surinam, Guyana, and South Africa). Hindustani language also allows one to communicate with the growing South Asian diaspora all over the world.
    * Studying Hindustani will not only increase your knowledge of South Asian culture, but will also open new horizons for you. Whether you want to enjoy some of the about 1,000 Hindustani/Hindi/Urdu films produced each year or study Hindustani to be able to conduct original research in India, we will accompany you on your way to fluency. Whatever your particular objectives, as citizens of a rapidly globalising world you will undoubtedly benefit from studying Hindustani.

At Language Must we focus on instilling Hindustani in our students. However, based on a sound understanding of the language, we offer further specialisations in its standard registers: "shuddh Hindi" and "saaf Urdu". Hindustani is the true lingua franca of India. In order to grasp India, Hindustani is a must!
http://www.knowledge-must.com/index.php?id=251&L=0

[someone]

AfgJasmine, if you already know Pashto or Farsi etc, and you're not too keen on learning another writing script, then my recommendation is to learn Urdu. You won't have to pick up a brand-new script and a lot of the Perso-Arabic words will already be known to you. Once you have the basics of the grammar and so on, you can easily pick up the Sanskrit-based words used in India as part of vocabulary.

Learning from movies is good, but it'll never give you any grounding in the language. You'll forever be fumbling around trying to put together sentences from the bits and pieces of dialog that you know without any grammatical compass to tell you what goes where.

In India, the Sanskritized Hindi is good for people who don't speak Hindi as a native language. A language like Marathi for instance is heavily Sanskrit-based in grammar and vocabulary, and so when people speak Sanskritized Hindi, it's easier to pick up because of the commonality in vocabulary than if they spoke Urduized Hindi. But the further up North you are in the country, the more people will understand heavily Urduized Hindi.

[kmemphis]

Learning from movies is good, but it'll never give you any grounding in the language. You'll forever be fumbling around trying to put together sentences from the bits and pieces of dialog that you know without any grammatical compass to tell you what goes where.

I'm well aware of that, because I keep doing that in French! I just remember a word I've heard about the same thing in multiple movies or that I've seen translated here.

[AfgJasmine16]

thanks everyone, your advice is very good.

[Putturani]

A good understanding of "Sanskrit Hindi" will help you with other Indian languages as well, including South Indian languages but both are good languages to learn.

[AfgJasmine16]

Thanks

[Putturani]

Learning from movies is good, but it'll never give you any grounding in the language. You'll forever be fumbling around trying to put together sentences from the bits and pieces of dialog that you know without any grammatical compass to tell you what goes where.

Not true. I learnt Hindi mainly from movies and my grammar is pretty good and I can quite easily carry on conversations in Hindi. Of course, I don't know whether this could also be because I know Kannada, another Sanskrit-based language. Hindi and Kannada have similar word-order and sentence construction but Hindi has genders for nouns whereas Kannada doesn't.

[Manturo]

Maybe, just maybe, we need to come up with a video series of Teach Yourself Hindi/Urdu using Bollywood movies. I for one would totally buy that over Rosetta Stone. 

[omlick]

Not true. I learnt Hindi mainly from movies and my grammar is pretty good and I can quite easily carry on conversations in Hindi. Of course, I don't know whether this could also be because I know Kannada, another Sanskrit-based language. Hindi and Kannada have similar word-order and sentence construction but Hindi has genders for nouns whereas Kannada doesn't.

When did you start learning Hindi from films?  I am just curious at the age, if it was before puberty when language is so much easier to pick up.

[chinchinchu]

Maybe, just maybe, we need to come up with a video series of Teach Yourself Hindi/Urdu using Bollywood movies. I for one would totally buy that over Rosetta Stone. 

The A Door into Hindi site gets rather filmi at times. You can tell they are film fans, and stars' names sometimes pop up in sample sentences in exercises as well.

[Putturani]

I started learning approximately around age 11-12, but I had already hit puberty at that time. That is an interesting observation though. I learnt Hindi very organically and automatically, and now I think I realize why. We should start a Bollywood-based Hindi course, I'm sure it would have many takers. But of course, one of the first sentences you'd have to learn is "Nahiiii yeh shaadi nahi ho sakti!"

[chinchinchu]

I started learning approximately around age 11-12, but I had already hit puberty at that time. That is an interesting observation though. I learnt Hindi very organically and automatically, and now I think I realize why. We should start a Bollywood-based Hindi course, I'm sure it would have many takers. But of course, one of the first sentences you'd have to learn is "Nahiiii yeh shaadi nahi ho sakti!"

And there's always the classic, Bhagwan ke liye, mujhe chor do!

[Manturo]

And there's always the classic, Bhagwan ke liye, mujhe chor do!

It should be called "Dance and Sing Yourself Into Hindi."

Or "Hindi via Bollywood."

We could start a youtube channel! Like this dude: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Es9_AuPX4

[chinchinchu]

It should be called "Dance and Sing Yourself Into Hindi."

Or "Hindi via Bollywood."

We could start a youtube channel! Like this dude: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Es9_AuPX4

There is the guy who has a Learn Hindi from Bollywood Movies podcast. It's amusing but you don't really learn much Hindi. www.cuttingchai.com

[Karobaar2000]

if you are dari speaker then urdu should be really easy for you, espeically real urdu is like 30-40% dari, just read some of iqbal's poetry, he did both urdu and dari

Now days however the urdu spoken is not pure

[AfgJasmine16]

if you are dari speaker then urdu should be really easy for you, espeically real urdu is like 30-40% dari, just read some of iqbal's poetry, he did both urdu and dari

Now days however the urdu spoken is not pure

I don't speak Dari well. I actually speak Pashto because Im from Kandahar. I can understand some conversational Dari but higher dari I cant understand.

[GabberSingh]

I don't speak Dari well. I actually speak Pashto because Im from Kandahar. I can understand some conversational Dari but higher dari I cant understand.

senga yee?

thats all the pushto i know. I would like to be able to speak it one day.

[omlick]

I started learning approximately around age 11-12, but I had already hit puberty at that time. That is an interesting observation though. I learnt Hindi very organically and automatically, and now I think I realize why. We should start a Bollywood-based Hindi course, I'm sure it would have many takers. But of course, one of the first sentences you'd have to learn is "Nahiiii yeh shaadi nahi ho sakti!"

There is a podcast, learn Hindi through Bollywood up on Itunes.

[AfgJasmine16]

senga yee?

thats all the pushto i know. I would like to be able to speak it one day.

kha yam, tashakor. ta pashto poheje?  How do you know about Pashto?

[GabberSingh]

kha yam, tashakor. ta pashto poheje?  How do you know about Pashto?

za pashtun yam

isnt tashakor farsi/dari? Is it a common word?

[AfgJasmine16]

za pashtun yam

isnt tashakor farsi/dari? Is it a common word?

oh Really? From Afghanistan?

yes, but we also use it in Pahsto, you can also say Mehrabani or shukriya.