Reviews

Hundreds of resources to help you teach yourself

Schoenhof's Website Is a Window to the World

5 Arabic, Dutch, English, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish, Websites, Bookstores/Libraries, Kids

Founded in 1856, Schoenhof’s claims to have the “largest collection of foreign books in North America.” As a student at Harvard, I used to shop at their main store in Harvard Square for my language and literature course materials. I…

I Didn't Get Through 100 Words with This

2 Hindi, Books, Flashcards, Vocabulary

Your First 100 Words in Hindi (the titles in this particular language series always make me feel about five years old, which is kind of fun), I was happy to read that there are no capital letters, but…

It's Hard to Find Good Hindi Materials, So I Am Grateful for This Book

4-5 Hindi, Books

Here’s some good news about the Hindi writing system: no capital letters, and no separate cursive forms to learn! Teach Yourself Beginner’s Hindi Script by Rupert Snell was one of my favorite products for Hindi. It…

A Lightweight, Portable Dictionary

Hindi, Books, Dictionaries

As has often been the case when I am studying languages with radically different alphabets, I tended not to use the Teach Yourself Hindi Dictionary much. It’s nothing against the dictionary itself; it’s just that…

You Can Speak the Word You Want Translated...

5 Arabic, Dutch, English, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish, Apps, Dictionaries

I have a tendency not to get around to downloading iPhone apps onto my iPhone, but fortunately I have a husband who will take my phone and do it for me. I’m very glad he stuck this app on…

Teach Yourself Hindi: This Is an Earnest Book

4 Hindi, Books

I found Teach Yourself Hindi* by Mohini Rao at Bhutala Emporium in Little India in Queens. The subtitle was enticing: “A Unique and Authentic Language Learning Kit from the Country’s Leading Publishing House” (the country being India,…

Rosetta Stone Hindi Supplies

3 Hindi, Multimedia

Rosetta Stone is a multimedia computer-based language-learning application. For Hindi, the publisher offers three levels. Among other things, you can get online coaching from a native speaker in what they refer to as “Studio sessions.”  I used Rosetta Stone…

Don't Buy This

1 Hindi, Books, Multimedia

The book part of this Teach Yourself Hindi book-CD combo package starts out: “This course is designed to enable those with no previous knowledge of Hindi to learn to read, write and converse in the language with…

Live Lingua: Keeping the Free FSI Language Courses Alive

Arabic, Dutch, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Audio Lessons, Websites

These Foreign Service Institute language courses were recommended by a reader. I haven’t tried them, but the holdings are extensive and consist of older courses that are now in the public domain. They are also free, so the main…