Pingu Learns Hindi: A beginner's guide to Hindi

I have wanted Hindi to learn for years but never had the opportunity or time to do it. I tried on my own and have many books. I did one to one tutoring online but it was fast paced and left me in the dust. Not until I stumbled on “Pingu Learns Hindi” and learned about Hindi University that I ‘ve had success. The book and online free university created by Ashu Agarwal has created a stress free supported environment for learning one of the most complex languages in the world. The book is easy to follow with lots of exercises . The classes are likewise . With students from around the world participating , there is lots of practice time for conversation. Grammar is presented in a novel way. It was much less daunting than other formats . If you want to learn Hindi , give this a try .

My goal is to be able to speak basic conversational Hindi and this book is just what I was looking for. The author shares his years of teaching experience with warmth, humor, and clarity. He does not bog down the learner with unnecessary vocabulary and complex constructions. Instead, he gives us the “bones”, the key structures, and helpful vocabulary so we can begin practicing the language right away. There is plenty of white space on the page so it is easy on the eyes. I appreciate the tables and formulas to clarify grammar. I do not have a kindle, but with the kindle app I was able to download the book to all my devices. I’m using the highlighting, notes, and especially the flashcards features. We have a practice group of Hindi learners and this book is very helpful in giving us ideas for conversational practice. I am confident that I will be able to reach my goal by working through the chapters of this book.

Awesome read for people who want to learn conversational Hindi and not the literature Hindi .

I have purchased and used several introductory Hindi books. I found this one to be the easiest to follow. The progression of topics is logical, the mixture of roman and devanagari script is balanced, and the vocabulary is relevant for beginner students. I also loved the large format of the book, with lots of white space where notes and answers can be written.

Pingu makes Hindi simplified so that anyone without knowledge of the language or Devanagari script can learn. It is a good book to start one’s Hindi learning journey.

This book starts with simple personal introductions and gradually progresses to longer sentences, then to conversations. What I like most about this book is that it has practical discussions that apply to today's real practical life situations. At the beginning of each chapter, the author explains the topic he is attempting to teach. Then to make it easier, he has lots of tables. Can't say enough about the tables. The tables simplify the learning process so that you do not have to go back and forth from page to page to compare words. As he introduces a new concept, he color codes the new subject matter that he wants us to focus on. In addition, instead of overloading the reader with a lot of concepts, he gradually introduces a little at a time. I think he probably did that so that we can grasp a little at a time and really master it. To make it more interesting and inspiring, the book has real life conversations of students from different countries. I really like this book - mainly because it is practical and focused. The author simplified the whole learning process

I really like this book. It quickly teaches a new reader to read and pronounce words accurately. My biggest problem is that there are quite a few urdu words. I have no problems with urdu as a language but this is a hindi learning book. While the modern hindi has many borrowed words from urdu, proper hindi comes from sanskrit and it is important to stick to it.

Purchased this book alongside attending the author’s fantastic Hindi University classes online. It’s a great way to supplement introductory learning - the book is well-organized and structured in a way that makes sense for new speakers (as opposed to ramping up too quickly or getting bogged down in the intricacies of grammar). You already begin to pick up concrete, useful vocabulary and sentences in the first few pages and then are able to build from there. Highly recommended!

TLDR: The book claims to be aimed at complete beginners, with a focus on the written language. Instead it is focused on dry grammar and it lacks structure and videos for pronounciation. Page 62 you first learn how to use all the personal pronouns. Before this, you learn random nouns and their gender. That is not useful at all, because you can't form any sentences with those alone. You do learn how to introduce yourself in the beginning... if you are a male, conservative, middle class, married engineer that is. You learn words like brother and sister, mother and father on completely different pages. Each chapter also ends with texts written by students that you can't decipher with the information in the chapter itself. There is no systematic approach to word groups like countries, numbers, food, traffic, doctor appointments at all. All info is scattered throughout the book. I've read many language books, this is the worst by a long shot.

Very good for begginers, simple and inclusive!

This book is very well organized, takes readers step by step and does not miss important details

Got this for my partner who was travelling to India for first time, he could pick up couple words and form a sentence. It’s very basic tho

This book is simple but thanks to that you can finally understand the structure not to collect informations which are not useful.