Can I master Hindi in a year?

Hindi is a direct descendant of Sanskrit through Prakrit and Apabhramsha. It has been influenced and enriched by Dravidian, Turkish, Farsi, Arabic, Portuguese and English. It is a very expressive language. In poetry and songs, it can convey emotions using simple and gentle words. It can also be used for exact and rational reasoning. More than 180 million people in India regard Hindi as their mother tongue. Another 300 million use it as a second language. Hindi started to emerge as Apabhramsha in the 7th century and by the 10 century became stable. Several dialects of Hindi have been used in literature. Braj was the popular literary dialect until it was replaced by khari boli in the 19th century.

Hindi was the language that was adopted by Indian leaders as a symbol of national identity during the struggle for freedom.  Hindi has been used as a literary language since the twelfth century.  The development of prose, however, began only in the eighteenth century, which marks the emergence of Hindi as a full-fledged literary language.

1. Timeline: According to FSI findings, Hindi is in Language Group IV and it will take you around 1,100 hours to learn it. Hindi may be one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn, but that makes it all the more rewarding! Keep in mind, however, that the quality of your study is more important than the quantity. Immersion experiences or daily practice can significantly limit how long it takes for you to learn Hindi.
2. Master the Hindi Pronunciation: Learning a new language means not only learning grammar and vocabulary but also being understood. This means that you need to pronounce Hindi common words properly. No one expects you to have a perfect accent, but the better you can approximate the correct way to pronounce Hindi words, the better you will be able to communicate.
3. Your Motivation: Reminding yourself why you want to learn Hindi, how it will improve your life, and everything good that can come from learning it can help you to stay motivated and, therefore, speed up the time necessary to learn it. It’s no secret that Hindi can be hard, Indians really appreciate it when foreigners take even just some small efforts in trying to communicate with locals in Hindi.
4. Your way of learning: Your learning methods also play an important role in how fast you learn Hindi. If your language learning is limited to a classroom setting, then it will probably take you a little longer to learn. We would recommend taking advantage of today’s technology to spice your daily life up with some Hindi elements! For example, switch some of your mobile apps to Hindi; sing along to a Hindi Bollywood song on YouTube, or catch up on a Hindi TV series or movie on Netflix!

Now that you know how much time it takes to learn Hindi and which factors can help you achieve your goals faster, it’s also important to keep in mind that language learning is synonymous with practice. That means that reaching a certain level doesn’t guarantee that you will keep it for the rest of your life.

Don’t be discouraged and keep going!