Introduction
Hindi-Urdu is one of the largest spoken languages in the world and it is used as a lingua franca in the multilingual regions of South Asia. The Hindi-Urdu Program at MESAAS is one of the largest and leading programs in the country. The program offers courses at four levels. In addition, it has developed accelerated courses for students of South Asian background who already possess limited speaking and listening skills in Hindi and Urdu. The program has also introduced intensive summer Hindi-Urdu courses.
The program is designed for students to achieve proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Hindi and Urdu for personal, academic, and professional needs. The curriculum integrates Standards for Foreign Language Learning and proficiency guidelines by ACTFL.
Students wishing to study above the introductory level must take a placement test before registration. Those seeking to waive a language requirement must take a proficiency test. The placement test is usually given during the week before classes begin.
For placement exam times and locations, click here.
Objectives of the Program
Elementary Level: MDES UN1610 (Fall) and UN1611 (spring)
This is the first year (fall and spring semesters) course. Students begin with an introduction to the Devanagari script in the fall semester. It stresses vocabulary enrichment by exposing students to a variety of cultural topics and focus on developing knowledge in Hindi.
Students learn to:
• Provide basic information in Hindi about themselves, family, interests, likes, dislikes, daily activities.
• Understand and participate in a simple conversation on everyday topics (weather, meeting people, school, shopping, etc.)
• Read edited texts on familiar topics, understand the main ideas and pick out important information from authentic texts (for example, menus, signs, timetables, etc.).
• Fill in forms requesting information, write letters, notes, postcards or messages providing simple information.
• Use and understand a range of essential vocabulary related to everyday life.
• Pronounce Hindi well enough and produce it with sufficient grammatical accuracy to be comprehensible to a Hindi speaker accustomed to conversing with non-native speakers. This prepares students for the Intermediate Hindi Course.
To achieve these goals, students are introduced to a variety of materials, including literature, newspapers, folk tales, jokes, magazine articles, films, songs, commercials, and other kinds of audio-visual materials. These texts are related with language functions in daily personal and social life situations.
Intermediate Level: MDES UN1612 (Fall) and UN1613 (Spring)
This is the second year (fall and spring semesters) course. Students practice reading and writing in Devanagari and learn to improve their proficiency in Hindi and to:
• Successfully handle most uncomplicated communicative tasks and social situations.
• Initiate, sustain and close a general conversation.
• Write letters and short compositions and read consistently with full understanding simple connected texts dealing with personal and social needs.
• Get the main ideas and information from texts featuring description and narration.
To achieve these goals, students are introduced to a variety of materials, including literature, newspapers, folk tales, jokes, magazine articles, films, songs, commercials, and other kinds of audio-visual materials. These texts are related with language functions in daily personal and social life situations.
Advanced Level: MDES I GU4624 (Fall) and MDES II GU4625 (Spring)
This is the third year (fall and spring semesters) course. Students continue to practice reading and writing in Devanagari and Nastalique. They continue building upon the existing skills in Hindi and Urdu.
The objective of the course is to read and comprehend authentic materials like literature and newspapers/magazines articles and discuss them in the class. Students will watch movies. TV shows, interviews and debates to gather the main issues/thoughts to discuss in the class. Students should be able to recognize and use formal and informal registers of Hindi and Urdu in appropriate situations. There will be written assignments for all the topics discussed in the class.
Hindi for Heritage Speakers: MDES UN1608 (Fall) and UN1609 (Spring)
This is a fast-paced course in which two years worth of Hindi is being compressed into a one year course. This course is for those students of South Asian background who already possess limited speaking and listening skills in Hindi or Urdu. Those non-heritage students who have some exposure of Hindi or Urdu and South Asian cultures may also take this course.
It begins with an introduction to the Devanagari Script which enables students to acquire basic reading and writing skills. They build on their listening and speaking skills. To achieve these goals, students are introduced to a variety of materials, including literature, newspapers, folk tales, jokes, magazine articles, films, songs, commercials, and other kinds of audio-visual materials. These texts are related with language functions in daily personal and social life situations.
It focuses on vocabulary enrichment by exposing students to a variety of cultural topics and focus on developing knowledge of the basic grammar of Hindi. By the end of the semester, students will develop productive skills in reading, writing and speaking and will be able to:
• speak about themselves and their environment, and initiate conversations on topics of general interest.
• understand most of the basic sentence structures of Hindi in formal and informal registers.
• write correspondence related to daily life, letters, short essays and compositions a variety of topics.
• learn some basic vocabulary related to aspects of Indian life, such as family life, social traditions and education.
• initiate and sustain conversations on a range of topics related to different aspects of Indian culture, social and family life.
There will be an interview/placemat test on the first day of classes in order to establish the proficiency level. Please come directly to class. If accepted, you will be registered internally by the department.
Urdu for Heritage Speakers: MDES UN1614 (Fall) and UN1615 (Spring)
This is a fast-paced course in which two years worth of Urdu is being compressed into a one year course. This course is for those students of South Asian background who already possess limited speaking and listening skills in Urdu or Hindi. Those non-heritage students who have some exposure of Urdu or Hindi and South Asian cultures may also take this course.
It begins with an introduction to the Urdu Script which enables students to acquire basic reading and writing skills. They build on their listening and speaking skills. To achieve these goals, students are introduced to a variety of materials, including literature, newspapers, folk tales, jokes, magazine articles, films, songs, commercials, and other kinds of audio-visual materials. These texts are related with language functions in daily personal and social life situations.
It focuses on vocabulary enrichment by exposing students to a variety of cultural topics and focus on developing knowledge of the basic grammar of Urdu. By the end of first semester, students will develop productive skills in reading, writing and speaking and will be able to:
• speak about themselves and their environment, and initiate conversations on topics of general interest.
• understand most of the basic sentence structures of Urdu in formal and informal registers.
• write correspondence related to daily life, letters, short essays and compositions a variety of topics.
• learn some basic vocabulary related to aspects of South Asian life, such as family life, social traditions and education.
• initiate and sustain conversations on a range of topics related to different aspects of South Asian culture, social and family life.
There will be an interview/placemat test on the first day of classes in order to establish the proficiency level. Please come directly to class. If accepted, you will be registered internally by the department.
Readings in Hindi-Urdu Literature (various course numbers)
This is a third/fourth year course which focuses to strengthen students’ literary skills at the higher level. Writing in the target language is emphasized throughout the semester to enable students to use their diverse vocabulary and grammatical structures. Materials for reading and discussion are selected from literature, magazines, historical documents and/ or journalistic texts. Students who have completed Hindi or Urdu for Heritage Speakers or Advanced Hindi-Urdu may take this course.
Since the content changes each term, the course may be repeated for credit.