Get ready for a golden opportunity to learn Hindi from scratch! Pingu Learns Hindi is designed to make learning Hindi simple, structured, and fun for complete beginners. If you’re a total beginner and have ever felt lost in other sessions, get ready to go on a fascinating journey into the Hindi language — exploring its basics and discovering its beauty in the easiest form.

• stimates to complete this run through the book by  Feb 5th, and a possible restart Week of Feb 16" BUT dates and times are to be determined

• Host:  Peter

• When: Tuesdays & Thursdays 2pm EST

We have gone through the whole Pingu Learns Hindi (PLH) book but we will use the PLH topics for our sessions and build on it. Devanagari script will be used. Believing that one of the best ways for us to learn the language is by teaching others, we take turns to collaborate and facilitate each session. We encourage those who join us to do the same.

• Hosts: Scott ji & Jes ji

• When: Saturdays at 3am UTC (11am Philippine Time)

•  A close look at one of Ashu-ji's videos - Beginner to Intermediate

• Host:  JayDee ji

• When: Friday 3pm EST

These are children's stories of up to 250 simple words, with repetition. We read from the Devanagari script, tackle complex conjuncts as and when we encounter them and listen to the audios to help with pronunciation. A great way to build up vocabulary and see grammar in action.

• Host: Himani, Marwa, and Priya

• When: Tuesdays at 3:00pm UTC 

These are children's stories of up to 250 simple words, with repetition. We read from the Devanagari script, tackle complex conjuncts as and when we encounter them and listen to the audios to help with pronunciation. A great way to build up vocabulary and see grammar in action.

• Hosts: Vena (EST)

• When:
  Mondays at 2pm UTC (7am Pacific Time, 10 am EST)

⁠⁠Devanagari not required but helpful

During the practice session you will:
•⁠  ⁠watch the short videos of a few grammar points
•⁠  ⁠⁠practice the grammar points
•⁠  ⁠⁠practice 5-10 vocabulary words
HOSTS:  Trang and Austin
When: Please note the DAY is TIME ZONE dependent
Tuesdays:
•⁠  ⁠6 pm Honduras
•⁠  ⁠⁠8 PM US Eastern
•⁠  ⁠⁠9 pm Uruguay 

Wednesdays:
•⁠  ⁠5:30 AM India
•⁠  ⁠⁠7 AM Vietnam
•⁠  ⁠⁠8 AM Philippines 

We practice Hindi with all questions, comments, in Spanish. No English. After introductions, we practice using Snell's book, "Hindi Para Principiantes". We may also use Gloria ji's book, "Libro de Frases".

• Hosts: Carmen ji (Honduras) & Maggie ji 

• When: Saturdays at 6pm UTC (11am Pacific Time)

A fun and interactive session to learn Hindi through real texts from Indian school books . In each session, we’ll pick a story, poem, article, or one-act play from a school chapter. Then we’ll listen to it read aloud by a  native Hindi speaker ,and afterwards, we’ll read it together — page by page, sentence by sentence — translating it one after another , then solve the questions at the end of the chapter if any .

Goal: to improve our listening, reading, comprehension, and pronunciation skills naturally and enjoyably 

Each session opens a small window  into Indian literature and life  — through reading, listening, and discussion.

It’s not just reading… it’s a complete language experience! 

 A light, enjoyable session — full of real Hindi and real life! 

• Hosts: Marwa

• When: Mondays at 7pm UTC
  
  

⁠⁠

An hour set aside for Intermediate learners to go over and review different topics we are struggling with. We go over any topics related to grammar, speaking, listening and reading. There is no set curriculum and a lot of material will come from topics we’ve seen in other classes.

• Host: Shan

• When: Wednesdays 11:30am EST (Note time change)

We start with brief introductions, go into breakout rooms based on approximate speaking level, then return to the big group to wrap up. To get an idea of your speaking level, see "Hindi Proficiency Guidelines". The only requirement is the spirit of Ashu ji's classes: patience, kindness, encouragement, and that it's OK to make mistakes to learn. And we love to have fun!

• Hosts: Claire ji (UK), Kelly ji (Berkeley, US), Mastram ji (Stockton, US), Anita ji (Michigan, US) , Shan

• When:
  Intermediate High/Advanced Saturday 5:30pm UTC (9:30am Pacific Time)
   

Level 2 stories are up to 600 words and introduce simple concepts. At level 1, we usually did one story per week to give us plenty of time to review and take on board but we expect some Level 2 stories will take more than 1 week. We read from the Devanagari script, tackle complex conjuncts as and when we encounter them and listen to the audios to help with pronunciation. A great way to build up vocabulary and see grammar in action.

• Host: Sheila ji (UK)

• When: Mondays at 4:30pm UTC (4:30pm BST)

• Read our welcome document

This will be an intensive refresher course for people who have already worked through the entire book and would like a good review, as well as for those whose grammatical foundation is already quite strong or who are willing to put in the necessary effort.

This is a fast-paced session as we will cover two chapters each week (there are 25, but the final two contain no exercises, thus 11-12 weeks). The introductory pages have to be read in advance, as they are best absorbed through independent, focused study. During class, we will work through a selection of chosen exercises to practice the key grammar points, address residual uncertainties, and complete the translation. 

Host: Anita-ji
When: Tuesdays at 3pm EST (8pm UTC)

Sunny-ji uses video clips from news and current affairs . The clip is posted prior to the Sunday session

• Hosts: Sunny-ji

• When: Sunday 5:30pm UTC (9:30am Pacific Time)
   

This practice group is for beginners working through Delacy's book, Elementary Hindi. Great for absolute beginners to start here.

• Host: Sharon ji (Ontario, Canada)

• When: Thursdays at 4pm UTC (12pm Eastern Time)

This group will be using The Self & the World: Autobiographical Readings in Hindi by Rupert Snell.
The format is work-intensive but deeply rewarding. Each week, we’ll read a new excerpt (between 3 and 6 pages), ideally prepared (read once) beforehand. In class, we’ll take turns reading longer paragraphs aloud (from our own sources — no screen-sharing). We won’t be translating line by line (except when something isn’t clear), but we will discuss the stories in general and explore selected vocabulary from the excellent glossary.
Bātchīt and story discussions will be conducted in Hindi. 

• Host: Anita & Maggie

• When: Thursdays 11:00am EST 

Reading on our own? Struggling with vocabulary, with comprehension, with interpretation, with translation? Sharing with other HU readers can help . Helping each other is key. If you can explain it to someone else , then you probably understand it.

The forum provides a means of collecting information and thoughts on a per story basis. We share vocabulary lists, grammar notes, our questions and thoughts on those passages we have found difficult. There is  no schedule for reading a particular story, just read at your own pace.
We dig deep into vocab, grammar and meaning.

Join in the usual with a message posted in Discord Practice-session sign up.

Once in you will to begin with see entries for three stories tagged by author.

Tagore - समाज-का-शिकार

Premchand - शतरंज के खिलाड़ी

Manto - टोबा टेकसिंह

The initial post on each provides a publicly available url to the story text in Hindi. Start a new story discussion using the story title, and providing a url to the public Hindi text, add audio url if you have found one.

No fixed Zoom sessions, at least as yet. Members of course can use adhoc Discord video calls  whenever they want to.

Questions to Sheila or Sarah_Louise