Namaste class,

This weekend was the Easter weekend, so there was no class. Attendance is usually poor, as students go on vacation with their families.

Instead of a lesson, I will post a Hindi video on YouTube:

Learn Hindi – Hindi in Three Minutes – Self Introduction

It explains how to introduce yourself in Hindi. There are many interesting videos in that video series, so you are encouraged to view them all.

See you in next class.

Regards,
Vasudev.

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer

Namaste class,

In our last Hindi class (Sunday, March 22, 2015), we did not have any written work to correct, but you had to write the Hindi sentences from lesson 3 in your books.

I read through the next lesson on the Hindi Vivek Part One book, lesson 4 on page 35 (the ‘ई’ lesson). After reading and translating it, various students read the sentences. As mentioned, some students still need to learn and know by heart the Hindi vowels and consonants, so that reading can become easier and more fluent. You can use the letters on page 18, arranged in random order, to test yourself in recalling them.

I explained a little about Hindi adjectives. You can think of Hindi adjectives as falling into two broad categories: those that end in आ (‘aa’) and those that don’t.

1. For adjectives that do not end in आ, they remain unchanged regardless of the nouns following them, for example लाल (‘laal’, which means red).
2. For adjectives that end in आ, they change depending on the number (singular or plural) and gender (masculine or feminine) of the nouns following them, for example, पीला  (‘peelaa’, which means yellow).

For adjectives ending in आ, the following rules apply:
a. For masculine single nouns, the adjective remains unchanged
b. For masculine plural nouns, the final आ changes to ए.
c. For feminine single or plural nouns, the final आ changes to ई

For example:
लाल घर – red house लाल साड़ी – red sari लाल कमरे – red rooms
Note that लाल does not change.

पीला घर – yellow house पीली साड़ी – yellow sari
पीले कमरे – yellow rooms
Note that पीला (yellow) changes to पीली because साड़ी (sari) is feminine and पीले  because कमरे (rooms) is masculine plural.

See the following link for more information:
https://www.hindivivek.com/hindi-varna-bodh/parts-of-speech/adjectives/

For homework, you had to write out the Hindi sentences in lesson 4 with translation in your books.

I gave five sentences to translate from English into Hindi:
1. Eat mango, banana, and apple.
2. Don’t eat fish.
3. Drink tomato juice.
4. Bring the umbrella.
5. Wear the blue kurta.

You may use Google Translate to translate any word you don’t know, but remember that translating entire sentences may give an incorrect result!

Note also that there will be no Hindi classes on Easter Sunday (Sunday, April 5, 2015). Classes will resume the following Sunday (Sunday, April 12).

Regards,
Vasudev.

“Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.” ― David Frost

Namaste class,

Welcome to the Hindi Varna Bodh class 2015!

This is your Hindi teacher, Vasudev. In our first class of Hindi Varna Bodh for the new year, we went through the lessons on page 22 and 23 of the Hindi Vivek Part One book. I had different students read from these lessons, so I could better gauge how well students were reading.

For homework, you had to learn the words on page 13, to take up in class next Sunday.

I also mentioned that I had put up the syllabus for this course on the Hindi Vivek website (https://www.hindivivek.com). You can go through this website and learn on your own, as it will cover most of the work for this course.

Regards,
Vasudev.

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.” – Plato

Namaste class,

In the last class, I went through lesson 12 on page 43 of the Hindi Vivek Part One. We translated the lesson, then went through some imperative sentences (commands). From that lesson we converted some imperative sentences from तुम to आप. Here are some of the sentences we covered:

शंख फूंको।
became
शंख फूंकिए।

घंटा बजाओ।
became
घंटा बजाइए।

गेंदे के फूलों से माला बनाओ।
became
गेंदे के फूलों से माला बनाइए।

For homework, you had to change the following imperative sentences from तुम to आप:

1. बालों में कंघा करो।
2. सगाई की अंगूठी संभाल कर रखो।
3. राग शंकरा का अंतरा गाओ।

Regards,
Vasudev.

Namaste class,

In our last Hindi class, we went through lesson 13 “Our School” of the Hindi Prabhaat. I went through the lesson and translated the words. I assigned lesson 6 on page 145 for homework.

I wrote the following postpositions on the board:

के सामने – in front of
के पीछे – behind
के साथ – with
के नीचे – below
के ऊपर – above
के पास – near
के लिए – for
के बाद – after
के पहले – before

Also, when certain pronouns are followed by postpositions, they are inflected or changed. That is:

यह changes to इस when followed by a postposition
वह changes to उस when followed by a postposition
ये changes to इन when followed by a postposition
वे changes to उन when followed by a postposition

For example:
यह घर (this house), but
इस घर में (in this house)

वह कलम (that pen), but
उस कलम से (with that pen)

ये आम (these mangoes), but
इन आमों के पास (near these mangoes)

वे पेड़ (those trees), but
उन पेड़ों के नीचे (below those trees)

Regards,
Vasudev.

Namaste class,

In our last Hindi class, we did not have any homework, so we went into lesson 11 (My Home). I went through the lesson again and gave the translation. We then went through exercise 1 and exercise 3. For homework, you had to write ten sentences on your home, using the lesson as a guide.

Here are some additional words you can learn and use:

दरवाज़ा (m) door pl. दरवाजे
दीवार (f) wall pl. दीवारें
खिड़की (f) window pl. खिड़कियां
छत (f) roof
अलमारी (f) cupboard pl. अलमारियाँ
फर्श (m) floor
पंखा (m) fan pl. पंखे

Regards,
Vasudev.

Namaste class,

In our last Hindi class, we corrected the sentences I gave for homework. Then I went through lesson 11 (My Home) of Hindi Prabhaat Part One. I read it quickly and began translating the difficult words. Class ended early, so we shall continue the lesson in the next class. No work was given for homework, as we ran out of time for the lesson. We will continue lesson 11 in next class.

Regards,
Vasudev.

Namaste class,

In this week’s Hindi class, I went through lesson 8 (Market) of Hindi Prabhaat Part One. We went through the dialogue and vocabulary, as well as a number of exercises (exercises 1 and 3). For homework, you had to do exercise 8, which was to convert five Hindi sentences from singular into plural:

Example:
वह घोड़ा दुबला है।
वे घोड़े दुबले हैं।

1. वह लड़की छोटी है।
2. यह सेब ताज़ा है।
3. वह हाथी बड़ा है।
4. यह मछली सस्ती है।
5. वह कुत्ता मोटा है।

For next class, I want to work on another essay, My House. For this, we will go through lesson 11 of the Hindi Prabhaat Part One, My House, so you can go through this lesson for next class.

Regards,
Vasudev.

Namaste class,

As I mentioned, I was sick on Sunday, October 26, and so was not out to Hindi class. In my place, class was taken by Shri Prakash ‘Shyam’ Sugremsingh, who went through the lesson on family again in Hindi Prabhaat. He also collected the homework, which was to write at least ten sentences on the topic ‘My Family’.

I don’t think he gave anything for homework.

Regards,
Vasudev.