On each of the postings for the podcasts, there is a group of 5 stars.  Hover over these stars with your mouse and text will appear saying “1 star” or “2 stars”, etc. depending on how many stars you are giving it.  When you have the right number of stars selected, click it.  This will save it and your selection will be averaged in with everyone else’s.  This information will be critical to us to know which podcasts are great and need more of and which ones probably need to be revisited and possibly re-recorded.

It will also help other visitors since it will help them to find the most effective lessons.

So, to run through my daily three questions.  I have not done anything to really improve the site today.  I did try to get today’s podcast to appear on the front page, but had trouble and could not get it to work.  I also looked at http://www.phpdictionary.com and installed it on our server to be used for the Hindi-English dictionary.  However, the Hindi words in the database are messed up.  so, that did not work either.  I did go through and give all the podcasts an initial rating.  Most of them I gave 3 stars to.  There was one that I gave a 1 star to.

Regarding the podcast itself, today Meena and I recorded 4 lessons.  And I edited a lesson at lunch time.  So, a little progress there.

And besides that, I did not do anything to do to learn Hindi.

I need to get ahead on the recording so that I have some time to spend on adding functionality.  I also need to setup a development environment so that I do not risk damaging the live site.  Once I get that working, then I think I will go to a weekly development cycle.  Code on Sunday-Wednesday.  Test on Thursday and Friday.  Deploy on Saturday.  Something like that.

Last night, I installed a WordPress plugin that lets you rate the posts.  This means you can rate the ISpeakHindi.com podcasts.  Give the podcasts that you really, really like 5 stars.  Give the ones that you think need to be redone 1 star.

Unfortunately, I’ve been ill today, and we did not record any more podcasts.  Thank goodness we are recorded ahead.  So, there will still be a podcast posted tomorrow.

In terms of learning Hindi, I watch some news in Hindi.  I was surprised by how much of the printed text I was able to pronounce.  I believe my ability to read Hindi is coming along.  I need to improve my vocabulary though.

I would like to answer three questions everyday:

1) What did I do to improve our daily podcast?

2) What have I done to improve the site?

3) What have I done to learn Hindi?

Today, I attempted to improve the podcast by looking up the words that we covered in other dictionaries to ensure that they were correct, understand if they were masculine or famine,  and to check on how to make the plural form.  Also, I reviewed the word list with Meena and Nariandas before recording.  Also, on the podcast, I started to say the English words more.  Today, we recorded 4 podcasts that should go live on 10/22, 10/23, 10/24, and 10/25.  So, you can see these changes then.

Today, I have not been able to make any progress on the site.  Hopefully, I will be able to make some later this week.

In terms of learning Hindi, I practice writing and looking up today’s words.  I found many alternate spellings/pronunciations for some of them.  I listened to some Hindi music (from the film Guru).  I practiced talking in Hindi with Meena and Nariandas.  Also, I listened to some of the New Testament in Hindi.  I was able to get a recording of the New Testament in Hindi on cassette tape.  It provides another way to expose myself to the language.  I recommend it for Christians and non-Christians a like.  I would also like to find other books in Hindi in audio format.  Please email me at nathan@ISpeakHindi.com or leave a comment if you can recommend some.

I am going to start blogging about my own experiences learning Hindi.  Learn Hindi is one of the main motivators for creating the site.  And telling people that I have a site called “ISpeakHindi.com” and then having to add that I don’t quite yet speak Hindi is some what shameful.  So, all the better, because now I am committed.

And I believe that it is the commitment that I have really lacked.  For the past 10 years, I have started and stopped learning Hindi over and over.  There would be weeks were I would spend ever available moment trying to learn to read, write, understand or speak the language.  I would listen to tapes on the way to work and back.  I would watch Hindi movies at home.  I would practice writing.  I would carry flashcards.  And then after a couple of weeks, it would fizzle away.  And then it would be several months to pick up again.

However, by starting this site, I have committed to doing a little Hindi on an ongoing basis.  I have created the expectation that there will be an ISpeakHindi podcast everyday.  This means that they have to be created routinely.  Also, I am getting a lot of emails from people on how to improve the podcast, and things to cover.  Lots of good ideas and feedback.  Please keep them coming.  (The emails are one thing that really motivate me.  It is so nice to get a suggestion for a new program.  Or a comment about something that could have gone better.  Or just a note “hi, I stopped by.”)

So, now I kind of have several paths going toward the goal of learning Hindi.  I am doing a podcast recording session at least multiple times a week.  I am trying to improve the site on an almost daily basis.  I try writing out all the Devanagari characters each day.  I am carrying flashcards again.  I listen to Hindi tapes on the way to work and back.  And I have been pretty consistent about most of this for the past 2 and a half months.  And I believe the improvements are starting to show.

So, I want to start relaying to you all this non-podcast “Nathan learning Hindi” things that are going on.

First off, I have discovered how to type a mysterious character.  I mean, I have literally not been able to type this character after hours of trying.    Take the Hindi word for “gold fish” which is स्वर्ण मछली.  You see that character above the “ण”?  I could not figure it out.  Well, it is a “half र” followed by the character.  So to type it on the Devanagari standard layout that also has an English layout, you would type    स्वर्ण by pressing the following characters:  m d b j d C

m = स

but you need a half  स so you press “d” and get: स्

b = व (Which all together means you have: स्व)

j = र (so far: स्वर)

but you need a half र so you press “d” and get: र् (which all together gets: स्वर्)

now you need the last letter.  So press “C” (caps are important!!!).  This gets you the “ण” and all together you have   स्वर्ण

Now I think I can type any Hindi words.  Hopefully, after I learn to touch type Hindi, you should see a lot more Hindi on the site.

Also, I am starting to read Hindi children’s books.  I would like to have a lot more.  I can not seem to find them online any place.  If you know of a place that has them for sale please email me at nathan@ISpeakHindi.com or leave a comment.

The children book that I have is really, really neat.  It starts out with words that do not have any vowels.  So, it introduces words like: बस, रस, यश, छत, हल, etc.  Then it introduces words that only have आ vowel such as आग, ना़व, कार, गदा, etc.  And then it has a story using just these words.

These books were meant for people that already knew how to speak Hindi and were just learning to read.  So, they do not contain the Hindi translations.  I was thinking about creating some ISpeakHindi sessions around them to bridge the gap.  I think they are an excellent way for people to expand their Hindi knowledge.  Please email me at nathan@ISpeakHindi.com or leave a comment if you think this is a good idea or not.

Well, until tomorrow….

You may have heard some of the episodes where our voices are very low and very slow when using the online player.  Let me tell you the reason.

The online player only works with a particular recording setting.  In an attempt to improve the recordings, I had tried a higher quality recording.  But this did not work with the player.  So, for those episodes that were recorded using these settings, you will need to use the “download” link to listen to them.

One of the basic skills that is required in any language is counting. You need it for telling time, buying things, directions, and more. There are several podcasts on ISpeakHindi.com to help you, but there are also other resources on the Internet that will be useful as well.

ISpeakHindi episodes:

1-31
http://www.ispeakhindi.com/2007/08/03/review-of-1-31/

1999-2010
http://www.ispeakhindi.com/2007/08/04/review-of-1999-2010/

Other resources:

Word Lists from WordChamp: http://www.wordchamp.com/lingua2/Search.do?str=hindi%20number

YouTube video that teaches counting in Hindi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPIonND5Mrw

Flashcard Exchange list: http://www.flashcardexchange.com/flashcards/view/204215

http://www.proz.com/?eid_s=41853&float=y&glossary=9715&sp=mt

Hi! Thanks for stopping by! We are off to Japan for the rest of July. Please check back in August to see additional podcasts and additional updates.

The Internet is host to such a giving culture.  I would like to point out all the free services and tools that have been used so far to make this site.

First, what you are looking at right now, is WordPress.  This is a freely available, open source tool that allows for people to manage their own blogs.  Be sure and check it out at http://www.wordpress.org

Second, I got the PodPress plug in that is used in conjunction with WordPress and is meant for people that have a PodCast.  You can check it out at http://www.podpress.org/  There are several other things around podcasting and using WordPress for podcasting there.

Third, the theme that you see cam from http://themes.wordpress.net/other/rounded-corners/3996/surprising-sunset-10/  There are many other themes that are freely available there.

Now, these tools here are built on PHP and MySql.  If you are interested in learning more about these, checkout http://www.php.net and http://www.mysql.com

 Now to record and edit the program, I am using Audacity which you can get from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/.

 Then to do the MP3 encoding, I am using the LAME MP3 Encoder http://lame.sourceforge.net/index.php

To write up the scripts and produce the PDFs, I am using Writer from Open Office http://www.openoffice.org

For stats, I am using Google’s Analytics:  http://analytics.google.com.  For Email, I’m using Google’s Gmail service:  http://www.gmail.com  Also, in the hopes of bringing in some revenue to offset the cost of hosting and eventually hopefully to pay for my time and the time of the people that help me with the site, I am using Google AdSense at http://Adsense.google.com

Also, I am using Amazon’s Honor System service to allow people to donate to the site.  (Try it out to see how it works ) http://zme.amazon.com/

Now, I need some software to organize the audio clips that I get and ideally some workflow type of software that could manage ideas for sessions, gathering the words and definitions, writing the scripts, recording the scripts, editing, and posting.

And in terms of services, I hope to use Cafe Press (http://www.cafepress.com/ ) to offer T Shirts, buttons, and CDs.  Hopefully this will help with the revenue side as well.

This is a site dedicated to learning Hindi.  The main service of this site is a daily podcast covering parts of Hindi.  The podcasts come in several levels such as Essential Hindi which are key phrases that you would be expected to know in any language.  These are the sessions you want to listen to first, and before your trip to India.  The Beginner Hindi session are for those that are serious about learning Hindi and are just getting started.  These sessions start out with the Hindi soud system and alphabet, move on to basic sentence structure, basic grammar and basic vocabulary.  The Intermediate Hindi sessons are the next level of learning Hindi.  These sessions look at more complex sentence structure, some exceptions to some rules, and more complex vocabulary.  These sessions are probably 50/50 in English and Hindi.  Then the Advanced Hindi sessions are for those that have a good understanding of Hindi.  These sessions are almost completely in Hindi.  We talk about more advance Hindi using easier Hindi.  We only revert back to English when it is not possible or pratical to discuss the Hindi subject in Hindi.

There are also “Raw Hindi” sessions.  These are generally unedited sessions where we just sit around and discuss a Hindi topic.  We can answer your questions in these sessions as well.  Post a comment or question and we can address these in a “Raw Hindi” session.

We also catagorize the sessions by the speakers and actors that are on the session.  So, if one of the voices are easier for you to understand, it allows for you to quickly find all the sessions that he or she is in.

There will be cultural lessons as well.   These could cover social practices in India, regional differences, food, history, polical system, and any other subjects that are Hindi related.

With many sessions, we will be including a script, list of words that are introduced/used, quizes, puzzles, and activities that will help you learn Hindi.

We will also be developing online language tools such as quizes, dictionary, grammar tools, etc.

Please let us know if you have found sites and tools that have helped you to learn Hindi.  Also, let us know if you would like to have any changes to the site.  We can use any type of help.  If you have some suggestions for a session, just post it as a comment to this message or if you are interested in creating a script other tools, recording, editing, etc.  Or if you can help with the maintenance of the site such as graphics, moderating comments, or programming, let me know that as well.