This book provides great vocabulary on each section, and you can go through good examples of Hindi literature without having to flip through a dictionary. Good poems, articles, essays, short stories!
Good job! After weeks (or maybe years) of studying Hindi, you are no longer a “beginner”. You’ve progressed to the world of “Intermediate Hindi”. You can converse with people next to you on a bus. You can answer the questions “Are you married?” and if you answer, “Haan”, you can proceed to answer the questions about how many children you have, and if you don’t have any then you can explain why not or when you plan to have them. If you aren’t married, you can probably crack a joke or two by asking him or her to arrange a marriage for you. Sure, your grammar might not always be perfect and you may struggle to think of the right word every now and then, but you can have brief but meaningful conversations in Hindi. It’s a big accomplishment to go beyond beginner’s Hindi, so give yourself a pat on the back.
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The only problem with progressing beyond beginner’s Hindi is finding new resources to teach yourself Hindi. If you thought the number of books to learn Hindi was limited when you were a beginner, just wait until you find out how slim the pickings are at the next stage.
But fear not, Usha Jain has come to the rescue. Intermediate Hindi Reader has an academic feel about it; it’s the kind of book you would use in a university Hindi course. That may come as no surprise once you know that Jain is a lecturer at Berkeley.
"Some of the literary readings are quite difficult for an “intermediate” language learner, but luckily Jain has put together a glossary for each reading."
The book is largely a compilation of readings, some of which Jain has written and others that she’s collected from famous works of literature. There are also a few religious stories and some of Mahatma Gandhi’s writings. By far one of the most interesting readings was some poetry written by the father of esteemed actor, Amitabh Bachchan. Some of the literary readings are quite difficult for an “intermediate” language learner, but luckily Jain has put together a glossary for each reading. The words in the glossaries come in order of appearance, which makes it easier for the reader. It should be noted that words are not repeated from one section to the next. If the word has appeared in an earlier reading, you will have to go back to the glossary associated with the reading where the word first appeared in order to find out the meaning.
If you teach Hindi and have an intermediate class, this book is a good choice. It should be mentioned, however, that this book is really only suitable for students over 16 as the content can be a little dry for younger students. The biggest downfall for the book is the price. Selling at $53, Intermediate Hindi Reader sells for the price of a university textbook. Then again, maybe it’s priced like that because it is, in fact, a textbook.
