KU offers 4 semesters of Hindi. Beginning in the Fall 2010 the acronym HNDI 110 and 120 will be used for Beginning Hindi 1 and 2 and the acronym HNDI 210 and 220 for Intermediate Hindi 1 and 2.
Offered through the Department of Religious Studies starting Fall 2009.
Location: 4001 Wescoe, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 11:00-12:25.
Lecturer: Dr. Geetanjali Tiwari (gtiwari@ku.edu).
For more information please contact rstudies@ku.edu or call (785) 864-4663.
Hindi is the third most spoken language in the world, after Chinese and English. It is the major language of India, home of the Indus Valley Civilization and now one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Learning Hindi opens a vast and new horizon to one of the oldest, richest and vibrant cultures and philosophies in the world.
Born out of Sanskrit, one of the most grammatically systematic languages ever created, Hindi has distinct advantages in being one of the easiest languages to present and learn. Hindi is the vernacular language indigenous to the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and the capital State of Delhi. With the exception of the four southernmost states, where Dravidian languages are spoken, a person with background in Hindi can barely manage in all other reaches of India. This is because languages such as Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi and Bengali also bear relations to Sanskrit and share similarities with the Devanagari script, the script for Sanskrit and Hindi. India has an ancient and rich literary tradition, and most literary works authored in regional Indian languages are translated into Hindi. Outside of India, Hindi is spoken in Nepal and Pakistan, as well as in diaspora communities of Fiji, Mauritius, Surinam, Trinidad, Tobago, and Guyana.
Left: Colors on sale on a roadside for 'Holi' - the festival of colors in spring. Right: Lecturer's mother preparing "samosas," a traditional spicy and crispy snack very popular in India.
India is a land of diversity in terms of geography, people, cultures, cuisines and languages. Twenty nine languages are spoken by several million native speakers each in India, yet most of these speakers also speak Hindi, the official language of India.
Although in big Indian cities one can manage with English alone, the true gateway to India can only come through knowledge of the local languages, most of which are closely related to Hindi. Hindi is the best path for gaining an in-depth understanding of Indian history, culture, politics, spirituality, art, music and psyche. Through knowledge of Hindi a reader can reach the original sources of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, all of which were born in India.
Career opportunities
As one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with a global dominance of software professionals, India is now attracting numerous international businesses from all over the globe.
T.N. Ninan, the editor of Business Standard, a financial daily that sells 184,000 copies daily, says, "The last few years have seen a rapid growth of Hindi newspaper readership." India is also becoming a magnet for international research centers and universities for research focused on India. Both these influxes are expected to generate job opportunities for bilingual and bicultural people capable of understanding and working within Indian conditions.
Objectives of Teaching Hindi, and Introduction of India through pictures and personal stories by the lecturer
The objectives of our course sequence on Elementary Hindi are to:
In addition to developing basic language skills, Elementary Hindi will be a very interactive class that seeks to instill, through use of personal stories by the lecturer, visuals and other related media, an understanding of Indian culture, geography, peoples, family life, wildlife, philosophy, music, and yoga.
About the Lecturer
"Geetanjali Tiwari has a Ph.D. in anthropology and a master's degree in wildlife ecology. She was born and raised mostly in India and has worked on various research projects in India, including ecotourism, wildlife filming, illegal trade in wildlife, herpetology, and large mammal conservation. Her current research focus is on social and economic explanations for polyandry [when a woman has multiple husbands] in Kinnaur, a high-altitude Himalayan community in India. Although she is also a full-time mother of two, she remains in continuous contact with Kinnaur and returns regularly to conduct field research."
-- as quoted in: Intimacies: love and sex across cultures. Edited by W.R. Jankowiak, Columbia University Press, 2008.
Other Resources
The Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center at KU will also house materials related to Hindi and India in general. Resources include books and media for learning Hindi (outside of the Hindi course textbooks), Hindi – English Dictionaries, Sanskrit English Dictionaries, other culturally important literary works by Indian scholars, including the great Indian epics and modern writers in Indian Languages and in English, DVDs such as "The Story of India" etc. These resources will be available for reference or for checking out by students.
Study Abroad Program
In addition a study abroad program will be developed at KU to take a group of senior Hindi students to India for a first hand experience of the country and its cultures. This guided trip will be planned to cover diverse regions of the Hindi speaking belt of India over a 6-8 week period.
