I can’t remember when I actually made the decision I wanted to learn Hindi, but I sure recall how surprised and frustrated I was when I realized how to learn Hindi was a difficult task. Not the learning process itself, but finding a good Hindi language course I could actually learn from with reasonable speed and tangible results.

Click here to see the Hindi language program I finally picked

I had truly enjoyed my travels through India. I was fortunate to be able to ride on an elephant, visit the Taj Mahal, and even experience a Hindu religious ceremony in a holy temple. The picture of me with the red paint on my forehead was taken at that temple. As moving as the experience was, the Indian friend who took me through the ceremony was not able to translate very much of what the priest was saying. If only I had been able to understand spoken Hindi at that time!

I suppose it was after I had come home from India and started thinking about paying a return visit that I realized how much more rewarding the experience would be if I were fluent in being able to understand spoken Hindi as well as to speak the language with relatively accurate pronunciation.

But my search for a good program to learn Hindi proved much harder than I expected. There is no shortage of language school programs available online, but they teach French, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese and even American Sign Language, but I could not find a decent Hindi tutorial course to save my life.

I poked around free web pages that had some useful words and phrases for travelers, but they were not actually developed as a tool for learning Hindi.

And then — talk about coincidence — the Rocket Language people came out with a new Hindi language program in mid October, 2009. They had announced a few weeks earlier it was coming, but you could not actually start downloading and listening to the lessons until that time. As a matter of fact, they even offered the program at a discounted introductory price for the first few days. But even if you get the full meal deal that is retailing in the $300 range, you are still looking at a bargain.

Click here to see the Rocket Hindi site

What I really like about their Hindi tutorials is that they include not only the basics of words, phrases and grammar, but they also give you a background of the culture of India. Plus there are more than traditional schooling type lessons. They have quizzes and games that give you variety so you want to keep learning.

If I had to criticize any part of the Rocket Hindi program it would be the way they teach the Hindi script or Devanagari writing. Maybe it’s harder to teach new tricks to an old dog like me, but I wish they would come up with a more simplified way to learn the Hindi alphabet letters. The sounds of the words are one thing, but the non-Arabic written characters have been quite tough for me to wrap my brain around.

This blog maybe got a bit more long winded than I hoped it would be, but I just wanted to save other people from having to go through the same painful process of shopping around for a good language course that I wasted so much time on.

Anyway, in my humble opinion, if somebody has the desire and wants to speak and understand the Hindi language — assuming you don’t have the time or money to hire yourself a private tutor or go to a full time language school — you are not going to find a more useful or cost-effective way to learn Hindi.

Click here to see the Rocket Hindi official site

I have just received my first Hindi language lessons and I am very excited to be already able to understand and speak at least a few words and phrases in Hindi. The next time I meet someone from India they are going to be very surprised when I say hello and how are you in their native tongue.

I have to admit I was a little nervous when my first Hindi lesson was starting, but the fact that it is only me interacting with recorded voices on my computer makes it feel comfortable very quickly. The people on the lesson seemed quite real, though, and their voices sounded friendly.

As the lesson progressed, not only did I learn how to greet a man or a woman in Hindi but also there was a more advanced conversation taking place in a shop. What I appreciated was the fact that the words and phrases I was learning are completely modern and up to date. I am not learning something out of an old book that was obsolete years ago. These new, modern Hindi language classes are as modern as the 21st century.

Some people do not realize it, but although India has a very ancient history, dating back many millennia, it is also one of the most contemporary countries in the world. This is why India is often called a nation of contrasts. I remember driving along a freeway near Delhi and seeing a Japanese luxury auto dealership that was more architecturally stylish than the ones back in my home town.

Not only does India have its Bollywood motion picture headquarters in Mumbai (Bombay) that rivals Hollywood in the quantity and quality of the movies that are produced there, but the enormous south Asian sub continent also has its own version of silicon valley in the form of the city of Bangalore. This is the IT or information technology capital of India, being the computer hardware and software center.

Wherever you travel in India you are going to meet people who are very fluent in English, and I have made two trips to India before starting to learn Hindi by taking this new language course. But now that I am confident I will be able to not only speak but also to read and understand Hindi, my return trip is surely going to be much more fulfilling and useful to me.

In some of my future Hindi language lessons I will be learning about conversations concerning food and drink, traveling, asking for directions, along with the proper grammar and pronunciation sounds. I am not sure whether I will be able actually to speak Hindi like a native when all of the language lessons have been completed, but that is going to be my goal to be striving for.

Click here to see the Hindi learning system I picked

I’m not sure whether figuring out how to learn Hindi was more difficult than explaining to my friends why I wanted to learn the official language of India. Maybe a lot of people don’t realize it but Hindi is the fourth most widely spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and English (which comes in 3rd).

And just as India and China are rapidly moving forward in terms of national importance on a global scale, so is Hindi quickly gaining popularity as a foreign language that a lot of people are wishing they could speak, read and understand when it is spoken.

Whether you are a film buff who wants to watch Bollywood movies the same way they are appreciated in Mumbai (Bombay) and New Delhi, or whether you are a business person wanting to make profitable contacts in India’s computer capital of Bangalore, or if you are seeking to hire outsourcing personnel from Chennai or somewhere else in South Asia’s most important country, learning the Hindi language is a skill more and more people are desiring to acquire.

But, once you decide you want to learn the language of the Hindu people, how to you go about finding out how to learn Hindi as quickly and easily as possible? Start by searching on the Internet and you will soon realize the choices for locating a good Hindi teacher with classes or tutorial programs that suit your schedule are few and far between.

This is the reason why I was so delighted to discover the Rocket Language people were about to start offering an online program that teaches how to understand not only spoken but also written Hindi. And the company that prospective students will be dealing with has a proven track record with their highly popular Rocket Spanish, Italian and even Sign Language courses.

Of course I am going to be learning the basic phrases for getting along as a visitor to India, such as getting hotel rooms, ordering restaurant meals and obtaining train or air travel tickets. But going much deeper than those fundamentals I am eager to be able to discover more about Indian cultural customs and traditions that are such an important part of speaking the language like a native.

Also very attractive to me is the fact that with the Rocket Hindi program I am able to download mp3 audio lessons I can put onto my iPod and listen to whenever it is most convenient for my schedule. And the icing on the cake is having virtually my own Hindi instructor I can ask questions any time of the day or night, on a 24/7 basis.

So these are some of the reasons why I am so much looking forward to starting my Indian language lessons with Rocket Hindi as soon as possible. Because after doing the research into how to learn Hindi, this online course is the one that looks to me like the best way to go.