Have you heard of Sindhi? Or about a place called Sindh? Well, that is actually where Meena and Nariandas are from. And Sindhi is their first language. We are starting a site called ISpeakSindhi.com
The sessions will be a lot less frequent and much shorter. However, we want to go ahead and get started on it. So if you are someone you know is from Sindh, knows Sindhi, is interested in Sindhi, or plans to visit Sindh, you might want to tell them about ISpeakSindhi.com
The wiki has been overcome with spam, and I have had to take it offline. I am not sure if I will put it back online.. The content that was there is safe, but I will have to figure another way to maintain it.
The spam problem is something that has been slowly growing. Also, Google has noticed it as well and has stopped showing ISpeakHindi.com in its results. This means we are not getting any traffic from Google. So until we get that problem sorted out, we need your help. Can you please tell your friends, Hindi teachers, fellow Hindi students, etc. about ISpeakHindi.com? Also, if you are a member of any Hindi related discussion list, have a Hindi related website, etc. can you put a link to ISpeakHindi.com on your site and submit it to those lists.
I really appreciate your help. Thanks. –Nathan
I created a wiki page with a list of some of the “better” sessions from last year. I left out all of the “vocabulary building” session.
2007 Recommended ISpeakHindi.com Sessions
I am starting to put together some future session using a wiki to generate the scripts, and would like to invite our listeners to participate in this process. Please feel free to add/edit them. They are linked to from here:
February 2008 - Upcoming Podcasts
If you want to see one of our completed scripts you can see it here:
Ok.. Made a lot of progress today. I have decided to try to do a Hindi <-> English dictionary using the Wiki. And I’m going to link this to the words in the podcasts. You can see an example in Thursday’s posting:
Vocabulary Builder: Fantasy and Imagination
Click on the English word to be taken to a wiki page that has nothing more than the word association. You can click on the Hindi word on that wiki page, or the Hindi word in the podcast post and it takes you to a more detailed looking page. There is not much details there, but you can see the outline of what I have planned.
Also, this is a good time/place for you to enter any information about these words that you know. Just click the edit button and add away!
Also, on the home page you will see a way that you can subscribe to the daily podcast via email. This can be a good way for you stay on top of your Hindi learning!
And I have added a little video with a link from the front page to explain how to use the site. “Click here to watch a short video overview on how to use the site.“ I will be adding more videos about how to use the Wiki.
Plus, Sonia and I recorded an episode to be published from Friday. I still have to edit it and post it. So it might be late on Friday before it actually gets out there.
Well, with all that, I think things are coming along. It is amazing to think of how far we have come with this project. Still so much to do and learn… Well at least I have a great group of people to do it with!
BTW, thank you all for rating the podcasts, sending the emails, and leaving comments.
Have you heard of Wikis? Maybe you have heard of wikipedia? It is this online encyclopedia that is being edited by people all over the world. In fact, you can go right there, right now and contribute. You can create new articles, edit existing ones… you don’t even have to log in.. (at least the last time I checked you didn’t)
Anyway, the software behind that marvel is MediaWiki. And it is freely available, just like WordPress (which you are looking at right now!)… Anyway, I have setup a Wiki for the ISpeakHindi site.
We can make this a good resource about Hindi and Hindi learning. But we can also use it to create the scripts and ideas behind our daily podcast.
Several pages you need to check out. The main page: http://www.ispeakhindi.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Then I have created ones for sessions, both present and future. And ideas for sessions that haven’t been written yet. You can see that here:
http://www.ispeakhindi.com/wiki/index.php?title=ISpeakHindi_Sessions
Also, I have a list of all the December 2007 episodes on one page:
http://www.ispeakhindi.com/wiki/index.php?title=December_2007_Podcasts
And I have the episodes that are still coming up for the month here:
http://www.ispeakhindi.com/wiki/index.php?title=December_2007_Upcoming_Podcasts
Now how can you help? Glad you asked 
Probably the most important thing is to improve the quality of the daily podcasts. I think having well thought out and rehearsed scripts would be the best way to do that. So, please click on one of the upcoming episodes and help me create some compelling dialog:
http://www.ispeakhindi.com/wiki/index.php?title=December_2007_Upcoming_Podcasts
Ok, looking for something a little less mind intensive?
Well, a lot of people have emailed me saying that we need an easier way to get to past episodes. (Apparently people don’t like click the “previous” link a million times… I don’t like it either…)
Well, I have created a page for all the December 2007 episodes:
http://www.ispeakhindi.com/wiki/index.php?title=December_2007_Podcasts
Can you be a dear and create a similar page for the other months?
http://www.ispeakhindi.com/wiki/index.php?title=ISpeakHindi_Sessions
Ok.. so, that doesn’t suit you either? hummm. How about add some ideas for future sessions to the bottom of this page:
http://www.ispeakhindi.com/wiki/index.php?title=ISpeakHindi_Sessions
Ok, well, I hope that you all will help me out here. We can really get a good thing going.
However, remember that anyone, and I mean ANYONE, can edit these pages. that means we are going to have people posting spam, and other craziness. So, when you see this, look at the history tab, and roll back to a better version.. Or just delete the bad stuff. This is one thing that I am really concerned about. and if you have experience on how to fight it, just let me know.
Thank you all for the wonderful emails and helpful advice. I find it very encouraging and very helpful. There are lots of improvements we can do to the program, and they will be done. But it will take some time. I need to recruit some more help for this site and the daily program. I need to find more effective ways to organize the help. And I need to spend more time learning Hindi, working on the daily podcast, and improving the site.
Unfortunately, there are many demands on all of our time, and everything is a balance between what has to be done and what we want to do. Everything is a balance between what could be done and what we can actually do. But I think over the long term, it is about sustained effort. It is about taking a step everyday in the direction we want to go.
I am finding from the emails that I get there is a demand for learning Hindi. There are people in various roles that have taken the initiative to learn Hindi. Many of these people have come to this site. These people are trying to bring the world together by promoting understanding and encouraging communication.
You can help too!! And I could use your help. If you are learning Hindi, please make a list of phrases and dialogs you are interested in learning and email it to me at nathan@ISpeakHindi.com If you know Hindi, then email. Perhaps you already have some words and phrases and dialogs you think you would like to teach. Please email them to me. Or I can email you the wish list that the Hindi learner have sent me, and you can translate them.
If you feel up to it, maybe you can record a program, then just email it to me. Or maybe you can create some flashcards, exercises, quizzes, etc that can go along with the audio progrm.
Also, if you have PHP/MySQL/WordPress skills, then we can definitely use your help. I do a little programming on the side, but there is more work than I can do. If you are a programmer in search of a job, but don’t have experience, then working on a site like this can help you get that experience. After working together, I could provide a recommendation.
Also, if you like to edit audio, removing all those “ums”, “ahs” and the other things that distract from the program, we can use you too!
Anyway, you might be interested in how the site has been progressing from a usage stand point. We get between 100-150 visitors a day. Below you can see the changes in visits per day since we started the site. It pretty much peaked in September, and since then we have been within a certain range.
From a financial point, we have been doing OK. We have received two donation of $10 each. The site has earned about $80 in ad revenue. Considering that we only pay $8/month in hosting, the programming and site has all been donated, we are in the clear. But we are in no position to compensate people for their services. And I have bought a $30 recorder from Walmart to let me record while I am out and about.
So, I think the site is in a sustainable position from a people and finance stand point. But clearly there are easy ways for us to really advance the program and the reach of the program. But it is going to take more than I have been able to put into it so far. So, send me feedback, rate the podcasts, and volunteer if you can.
There will be about a two week break in the daily learn Hindi podcast. I regret this delay, but it is unavoidable at this point. Expect to see future podcasts appearing in December 2007.
The reason for the delay is that my family and I are going to Dubai, UAE and Frankfurt, Germany for 10 days. Also, Meena and Nariandas, my Hindi speaking stars, will be continuing on to India until February, 2008. This means producing podcasts daily will be difficult. I have some friends and people that have emailed, that have offered to help. But we may have to reduce the frequency of the program until they return.
If you know Hindi or know somebody that does, and you would be willing to create some scripts for the show, then please put some together and email me at nathan@ISpeakHindi.com.
So, I will be out of the country from November 17 till November 22. Also, from the 22nd till February or March of next year, I will not have access to Meena and Nariandas to do the program. Both of these items have me concerned. So, I want to have all the sessions from now till the end of November recorded, edited, uploaded, and posted, ready to go live on the appropriate day.
Also, I want to identify some Hindi speakers that are willing to do the program and to have them lined up ready to go. That way, when I return, we will be ready to start producing more programs.
Well, today I posted the session up till 11/17. So, I’m half way there.
BTW, if you have emailed me and have not gotten a response, please do not take offense. I am trying to stay on top of everything, but am falling behind on email.
In less than 2 weeks, I will be going to Dubai and Germany for 9 days. So, this is putting me in a “squeeze” for getting this program done. My plans are to have those 9 days covered, and a little after that as well so that we still have a program for every day.
This brings me to another point, I have gotten several emails suggesting that we should do fewer programs and try to make them better. I completely agree that the program can be improved, and I am committed to doing so. However, I also feel committed to doing a daily program. It is a discipline thing. Once I start to move the line from daily to something else, then I am the afraid it would be the beginning of the end of the program. I have seen this in several other things that I have been involved in. Once I reduce the frequency, then I am tempted to reduce it again, until it becomes so infrequent, that I’m not really doing it. So, I really feel like I have to stick with a daily program.
However, it has occurred to me, and been suggested by some people via email, that the programs should be related to each other. So, my thinking is to have a big program, recorded and planned together, that would be broken up into 7 pieces are so. For example, we could have day 1 a vocabulary builder lesson. Day 2 we can do a dialog using those words. Day 3, we can have a grammar lesson tied into the vocabulary/dialog someway. Day 4, find some of the words/grammar “out in the wild” in some printed material and explain that on the program. Day 5, another dialog using the grammar/vocabulary, Day 6 have a excerpt from something on the radio or TV tied in with the grammar/vocabulary. And the day 7 would be saved for something completely different: interview, cultural lesson, review a song, etc.
Anyway, still working through some ideas, but I think this could be a good way to improve the program.
Also, over the next two weeks I’m trying to learn some German on the LiveMocha site. It is a really good program, I think all of you might like to try out the Hindi program there.
Today I edited and posted two sessions. These will go live tomorrow and the next day. So, now I do have a one day buffer. Also, we recorded 2 vocabulary building sessions and 1 dialog. I hope to intermingle the dialogs and vocabulary building to keep it more interesting for you. But I have already staged the vocabulary sessions in wordpress and I do not want to manually change the post dates on several sessions. I am hoping to write a WordPress plugin to do that at some point.
Ok… Now about the ads.. You will notice them at the bottom of the pages again. Which might surprise you considering on of my earlier postings. I have a theory that google favors sites with adsense on it. So, I am going to leave one ad at the bottom of the page to be safe. And it will be a while before I can remove the side ads on many of the pages.
Now about money… I keep wondering if I can improve the quality of this program, add a lot of additional resources, and really build up the audience, would it be possible for this site to make enough so that in combination with other things, I could do it full time. What are your thoughts on this? What do you think is the best way to do that?
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