ABOUT HINDI LANGUAGE
Hindi is the third most commonly used language in the world today, after Mandarin Chinese and English, with more than 600 million users spread across the globe. Hindi has had a continuous literary tradition since the 11th century, possesses a large modern literature, and is the main medium of the world's largest film industry, Bollywood. It is one of the two official languages of contemporary India.
The dialect upon which Standard Hindi is based is khadiboli, the vernacular of Delhi and the surrounding western Uttar Pradesh and southern Uttarakhand region. This dialect acquired linguistic prestige in the Mughal Empire (17th century) and became known as Urdu, "the language of the court." In the late 19th century, the Hindutva movement started to standardize Hindi as a separate language from Urdu. In 1881 Bihar accepted Hindi as its sole official language replacing Urdu and thus became the first state of India to adopt Hindi.
The Constituent Assembly adopted Hindi as the Official Language of the Union on 14 September 1949. Hence it is celebrated as Hindi Day.
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ABOUT HINDI LANGUAGE PROGRAM
Our Hindi language program provides students with a multifaceted working knowledge of modern standard Hindi.
It essentially trains students:
(a) to speak Hindi fluently;
(b) to understand spoken Hindi;
(c) to read Hindi in the Devanagari script; and
(d) to write Hindi prose.
The larger goal of our multi-year program is to enable students who have some or no exposure to Hindi to communicate effectively in the language at different levels and for a variety of purposes. In the first year of the program, students learn to participate in everyday conversations, understand Hindi films, learn popular Bollywood songs, read stories, watch Hindi movie clips and poems, and write diaries, letters, and essays.
In the II and III years students acquire more advanced speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills, whether to read Hindi newspapers, to live and travel in India, to study Hindi literature and culture, to do research and fieldwork in different disciplines, or to use the language in a range of professional contexts.
We offer three levels of Hindi at Stanford University: Hindi I year , Hindi II Year, Hindi III Year (3 Quarters, Fall, Winter, Spring)
Hindi Language Tables and Movie Screenings:
Hindi Language Program at Stanford offers regular Language Tables and Hindi movie screenings. Please contact instructors to learn more about it <samarth@stanford.edu>
Other Important Information:
1. Fulfillment of Hindi Language Requirement: Stanford students are required to complete one year of college-level study in a foreign language (or the equivalent). please learn more about it follwing the link <https://www.stanford.edu/dept/lc/language/requirement/index.html>
2. Language Placement Tests: The Language Center administers placement tests to all students who intend to continue studying a foreign language at Stanford. In order to schedule for a Placement Test Please contact Allison Kopp <amkopp@stanford.edu>
Questions Regarding Hindi Language Program:
Please contact Hindi Lecturer Dr. Brajesh Samarth <samarth@stanford.edu>, or SPECLANG Coordinator Dr. Eva Prionas <eprionas@stanford.edu>
People
Dr. Brajesh Samarth
Phone: 650-391-3597
Office: Building 240, #210
Email: samarth@stanford.edu
Dr. Brajesh Samarth is a linguistic anthropologist with a focus on the cultural ramifications of language maintenance and attrition in the Indian Diaspora. He is a scholar of Hindi, Urdu, and Sanskrit and currently teaches Hindi language at Stanford University. Originally from Jaipur Rajasthan, he earned degrees in Hindi Literature and Sociology, while his doctorate is from the University of Wisconsin.
Simran Luthra
simranl at stanford dot edu
