Friday, March 7, 2014

Some acche Hindi links idhar


A fellow Hindi learner: 
http://pictureverything.com/ultimate-guide-to-learning-hindi-free-online/

http://housefull.cuttingchai.com/
podcasts

http://blogs.transparent.com/hindi/
grammar and other things

Another Hindi learner's link collection:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/whitehindu/learn-hindi/

Eros Now offers Bollywood films. Some cost money, some are free. Watching Om Shanti Om right now.
http://erosnow.com/#!/movie/watch/1000457/om-shanti-om

http://www.wordchamp.com/lingua2/Reader.do
Useful tool for reading Hindi web pages

http://www.join4movies.com/

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/platts/

Hindi-Urdu idioms

Monday, March 3, 2014

I love this song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3dx8wbwlP8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuQDCCbQOVA


Kehne ko Jashn-e-bahara hai
Ishq yeh dekhke hairaan hai
Phool se khusboo khafa khafa hai gulshan mein
Chupa hai koi ranj fiza ki chilman mein
Sare sehmein nazare hain
Soye soye vaqt ke dhare hain
Aur dil mein koi khoye si baatein hain
Kehnke hairaan hai
Ishq yeh dekh
Kaise kahen kya hai sitam
Sochte hai ab yeh hum
Koi kaise kahen woh hai ya nahi humare
Karte to hai saath safar
Faasle hain phir bhi magar
Jaise milte nahi kisi dariya ke do kinare
Pass hain phir bhi paas nahi
Humko yeh gum raas nahi
Seeshe ki ek diware hai jaise darmiya
Hum ne jo tha nagma suna
Dil ne tha usko chuna
Yeh dastaan humein vaqt ne kaise sunai
Hum jo agar hai gumgee
Woh bhi udhar khush to nahi
Mulakato mein hai jaise ghul si gai tanhai
Milke bhi hum milte nahi
Khilke bhi gul khilte nahi
Aankhon mein hai baharein dil mein khiza

Random words I've looked up


अमानत amanat: fidelity


दौलत  daulat prosperity, wealth

फ़र्ज   PHARJ duty

खानदान  khandan clan


नंगा nanga naked


सबूत sabuut - proof, evidence, witness


अतीत atiita - the past


दिमाग dimaag - head, mind, brain


दौरा dauraa -seizure fit stroke


ख़ुदगर्ज़  (khudagarza) SELFISH

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Memrise update

I've planted about two thirds of the words in the Teach yourself Hindi course but finding the time to water them is a little bit of a problem.

Nikhil Paul George

Shaadi ke side effects
I want to see this film just because  this song makes me so happy:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-unxEfYcRxI&list=TLwJ9NRrz40hcJddFGMVFP4W3YCnZ061Wa


The singer is Nikhil Paul George who also sang two songs on the Barfi soundtrack. These songs have got a lovely jazzy style. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkTvafj9-9c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz5zEI5WkKg

Main tera hero

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhPGmZkgocc

I gather he thinks he's her hero.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l586g04uLlE

Suno na sangemarmar

Lovely song. It's about love, of course. He's saying she's more beautiful than marble minarets and the starry skies and his heart is flying because of his connection to her and she rules his heart now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js2uARlb9Tg

Suno na sangemarmar ki ye minarein
Kuch bhi nahi hain aage tumhare
Aaj se dil pe mere raj tumhara..
Taj tumhara
Bin tere maddham-maddham
Bhi chal rahi thi dhadkan
Jab se mile tum hamein
Aanchal se tere bandhe
Dil ud raha hai
Suno na aasmaanon ke ye sitaare..
Kuchh bhi nahi hain aage tumhare..
Yeh dekho sapne mere
Neendon se hoke tere
Raaton se kehte hain lo
Hum toh savere hai wo
Sach gaye jo
Suno na do jahaano ke yeh nazaare
Kuch bhi nahi hai aage tumhare
Aaj se dil pe mere raaj tumhara
Taj tumhara..
Suno na sangemarmar ki yeh minaare

 
http://www.lyricsmint.com/2014/02/sangemarmar-youngistaan.html#ixzz2uohdqA6u


http://www.bollymeaning.com/2014/01/suno-na-sangemarmar-ki-ye-minarein.html

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Aamir Khan

Aamir Khan sings Aati Kya Khandala with Alka Yagnik
Yes, that is his real voice, not a playback singer, I'm told.

He's going to do another season of Satyamev Jayate starting in March.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Tej Bhatia's Colloquial Hindi course

I borrowed this course from the library. There's a book and two CDs. It's okay but not excellent.
The book is interestingly written but it annoys me that some of the early lessons only give the romanizations and not the Hindi script. The least you could do is to print both, particularly in the pronunciation lessons where it would be quite nice to be able to connect the sound to the Devanagari letter.

The CD's I don't care for that much. I like the dialogues, but the exercises aren't that good pedagogically. In my opinion a language course CD should be suited to listening to over and over again, and this one isn't. There are some exercises that it's kind of pointless to repeat when you remember the answers from the last time. Too many questions and instructions are given in English when Hindi would do. The English narrator insists on telling me the life stories of everyone in the dialogues in long-winded English even though there is no need to know their names and their professional background to understand what's going on in the dialogue. I think most people who listen to language courses are intelligent enough to figure out that you can pause the tape and listen to difficult passages again without being reminded about it over and over again.  The narrator tells us some stuff that is in the book and there's really no need to hear it on the CD again.

There is simply far too much blah blah blah in English, and it gets annoying on repeated listening. I feel like I'm wasting my time if I'm listening to a person talking English to me when I wanted a Hindi course.


Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Jab we met script


Downloadable here:

https://app.box.com/shared/7yqhv254zp


Parts of it are different from what happens in the movie but it helps to understand some of the dialogues in Hindi.




Monday, November 25, 2013

Monday, November 18, 2013

Chennai Express and blood thirsty Bollywood dads

Chennai Express was a huge hit. I couldn't see it in the theatre but it didn't take very long for somebody to upload it on Youtube. It was a lot of fun, in a somewhat corny way. Have fun spotting the movie references.

Basically this is Dilwale Dulhanie Le Jayenge with bigger goons and an extra murder attempt added. (No, this is not a detective story, the murder attempt is  forgotten just as soon as it happens and never gets resolved in any noticeable manner. Just one of those things I guess...)  The plot starts with SRK's character Rahul lying to his  grandma so he can go on a holiday on Goa with his pals. It seemed rather juvenile for a 40 year old character played by a 48 year old actor... he wasn't old enough to go on a holiday if he wanted to? Then he meets a girl on a train while Tujhe dekho to yeh jaana sanam plays in the background. Then someone dies and SRK and the girl are forced to travel together, singing and bickering.  Then her dad wants her to marry somebody else and SRK needs to prove his worth by getting beaten up. There's just no way that these Bollywood dads will allow a guy  to get the girl unless the guy bleeds. Oh well. I suppose sons-in-law with a head injury are just the thing in India. The part where SRK is the only witness to a murder attempt so they take him home with them doesn't make much sense to me. Why didn't they just throw him out the same way? And if someone saw you committing a serious crime on the train, do you really want them to know where you live?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd7VzfqprXQ


Sunday, September 1, 2013

Memrise

Memrise is working pretty well for me.  I'm learning  vocabulary from the course Teach yourself Hindi, and the format that forces you to type the words helps me with the reading too. Most of the symbols are starting to make sense although I'm still a very slow reader and it feels like I'm deciphering a code. An annoying thing about the course is that they have words that contain characters that are impossible to type with the keyboard provided.

I haven't found any Memrise Hindi courses with phrases and grammar or audio but I like the possibility of making mems. They are pictures or sentences or both that help you to connect the word to something and it helps memorize it.




Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Think I actually understood this joke...

kitne baje hai

2 student raat me padh rhe the.. 
1st:"kitne baje hai yaar.. ??
2nd ne patthar uthakar samne
girls hostel me mara..
1 ladki nikli boli:"kamino ab to
so jao raat ke 2 baj rahe hai...


I've heard a similar one in my mother tongue

Some humor  is universal it seems