Description
HINDI 300: CONVERSATIONAL HINDI
Offered: Every term
Our Hindi 300: Conversational Hindi course is specifically designed for adults (and children over 10 yrs) who have completed the first year Introductory Hindi 101-104 and Intermediate Hindi 201-204 courses and who wish to continue their language learning through conversational practice and learning additional advanced grammar. It is also for those who already understand basic Hindi grammar, can read and write Devanāgarī, and who simply wish to practice speaking in Hindi.
Conversational Hindi 300 meets all year during school Terms on Fridays from 6:00-7:30pm. 2022 Term 4 classes begin on Friday 21 October 2022 and run for eight successive weeks, with the last class of the Term held on Friday 9 December 2022. Our Conversational Hindi course will be held in the same time slot each Term.
Conversational Hindi 300 focuses on conversational practice but also includes reading and writing short stories and dialogues in Devanāgarī (देवनागरी) script, learning vocabulary for specific scenarios (e.g. cooking, shopping, travel, going to the bank, etc.), Hindi songs and ghazals, more advanced dialogues, and continued grammar instruction.
Note: Those who cannot make the class meeting day and time either in-person or via live Zoom sessions may consider accessing this course through the weekly recorded video sessions. Class videos are posted within 24 hours of each live class session and are available for your own personal learning session on a day and time of your choosing.
Location: EarthDiverse Centre, 401 Anglesea Street, Hamilton Central, Hamilton (see map below under Location tab), on-line via Zoom, or through video recordings of our live-streamed sessions posted 1-2 days after each class.
Distance-learning: This course has distance-learning options for those unable to attend the live class sessions in Hamilton. Students have three options for attending our courses once they have registered:
- attend in-person classes in our Hamilton classrooms at the regularly scheduled day and time,
- attend our live on-line classroom sessions via Zoom at the regular scheduled day and time,
- watch the live-recorded class sessions at your leisure, at a time, day and place more suited to your schedule.
These options can be mixed and matched throughout the course to suit your own availability and location.
Our Hindi and Urdu classes are taught by Dr Todd Nachowitz, who has studied both languages since 1978, and has lived and worked in India and Pakistan during the 1980s and 1990s. Todd studied Hindi under the tutelage of Dr Tej Bhatia of Syracuse University (1978-1980), and Pandit Virendra Singh of Varanasi (1980-1988), and studied Urdu under the direction of Dr Muhammad Umar Memon at the University of Wisconsin, Ustad Qamar Jalil of Lahore, Pakistan, and with Urdu Calligrapher Ustad Shor Sahab (also of Lahore) beginning in 1983. Todd has taught both Hindi and Urdu at Syracuse University in upstate New York, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States, as Director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College Year in India Programme in Varanasi (1985-1988), and as Field Director of the University of California-Berkeley’s Berkley Urdu Language Programme in Pakistan (BULPIP) in Lahore in 1991-1992.
Todd completed his BA degree in South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1984, and his MA degree in Development Anthropology at Syracuse University in upstate New York in 1991. Todd completed his PhD in the Department of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Waikato in 2015 with a thesis on Diversity Policy entitled Towards a Framework of Deep Diversity: Identity and Invisibility in the Indian Diaspora in New Zealand.
Todd is currently the Executive Director of EarthDiverse.
DISTANCE-LEARNING OPTIONS:
In addition to our in-person classes in Hamilton, our Hindi language courses offer distance learning options for those unable to attend classes in-person. Live-streamed Hamilton classes are available via free Zoom software for those living outside the Waikato. Live-streaming allows you to participate fully in your own learning, ask questions of the instructor and participate fully in the same way as if you were in the physical classroom.
Those unable to attend the scheduled date and time of the actual class sessions, or those who need to miss a class or two due to previous engagements or unexpected illness, can watch any or all of the live-recorded video sessions on their computers, laptops, tablets or mobile devices and study at their own pace and in their own time.
Detailed instructions on how to access our distance learning components will be sent after completing your registration. There are no additional fees for this service. However, distance learners will need access to a desktop or laptop computer with a good quality web-camera (tablet devices and mobile phones can also access our live-streamed classes), a built-in microphone (most modern laptops have built-in microphones) or a headset with a microphone. You will also need to download and install the free Zoom software on your computer or device. Those accessing the video recordings will be able to do so with a simple web browser on any device.
Prerequisites for this Course:
- Completion of the Introductory series of Hindi 101-104, and Intermediate Hindi 201-204, or
- no prerequisites if you are already familiar with the Devanāgrī script and have some familiarity with Hindi grammar or spoken Hindi.
Cost per person per Term (8 classes):
- Waged: NZ$150 (includes GST + online registration fee)
- Unwaged (unemployed, students, seniors): NZ$125 (includes GST + online registration fee)
Prices for Waged and Unwaged registrants remain the same regardless of your chosen method for accessing our courses. This means that you have the option to mix and match access between attending our regularly-scheduled live class sessions in our Hamilton classrooms, accessing our live class sessions on-line via Zoom at the regularly scheduled class meeting time (no matter where you are located), or watching the video-recorded sessions anywhere at a time and date of your choosing. This allows you to study at your own pace and in your own time.
Once registered, you have three choices for attending your course:
- attend our in-person class sessions in our Hamilton classrooms,
- Zoom in to our live classroom sessions and participate in discussions,
- access the live-recorded class sessions each week. This allows you to register for an entire course, even though the scheduled class session day/time may not be suitable to your schedule. You may also use this option to watch any recorded session for review, or in case you may miss a class session due to prior engagement, being away, or due to illness. This allows you to catch up with any “missed” sessions at a more suitable time.
Once registered, you will receive detailed instructions on how to access our courses via either of the distance-learning options, i.e. live access via Zoom, or watching the video-recorded sessions.
An “Introductory Hindi” text is included in the course fees. These are currently being distributed as PDF files as the courses progress and will eventually comprise a completed Introductory Hindi textbook.
You will only require a pen or pencil, a notebook for taking your own class notes, and a loose-leaf binder. Any notes that our instructor writes on the class whiteboard will be emailed to you as a digital PDF file so that you can print these out at home and add them to your own notebook.
LOCATION: All in-person classes are held at the EarthDiverse Centre located at 401 Anglesea Street, Hamilton Central, Hamilton (located just north of the Hamilton Central Bus Station) (entrance is located on the side of the building, see map below). Those looking for parking for our evening classes can park just in front of the building in any of the available car parks. Daytime parking can be found in our dedicated car parks, or free 2-hour on-street daytime parking can be found just in front on Anglesea Street.
DISTANCE LEARNING: You get to choose your location when you Zoom in to our live classroom sessions, or access our classes at your leisure and at a time and day of your choosing by watching the video recorded sessions from each class. This allows you to study at your own pace.
