HINDI-URDU?

LATEST REVIEWS

I AM A HUGE FAN OF HER TEACHING STYLE. The homework is always focused on what I’m currently struggling with or my specific interests about Hindi related culture. As someone who also has learned Hindi as a second language, Maggie has insight on what’s it’s like to learn the language. She is able to have explanations and conversations about language idiosyncrasies and grammar that are tough to have with native speakers since they often take these concepts for granted. — SHAN SIKDAR

REALLY APPRECIATED HER FLEXIBILITY. I have more of an eye toward learning Urdu since my wife is Pakistani and Maggie was happy to discuss Hindi/Urdu differences & take that all in stride. I’ve learned a lot here! — CORY SMITH

SHE HAS STRONG ROOTS IN TEACHING THE STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE; rather than what I did at first, which was try to learn from a friend who was a native speaker but hadn’t taught before. Maggie encourages conversation, and assigns just enough homework to keep your practice up so you can improve. She also has really good resources you can use, which help you learn outside of lessons, and was proactive in finding another student I could share lessons with, which was helpful for both group conversation, and sharing costs. She genuinely cares about sharing knowledge and helping you reach your goals, will encourage you to keep practicing and learning, and is always available for questions. — AMANDA SHORE

SHE IS INCREDIBLY KNOWLEDGEABLE, EXTREMELY PATIENT, AND HER GOOD HUMOR GOES A LONG WAY when I am struggling with a new grammatical concept! Maggie really pushed me to dive straight into learning to read and write Devanagari (I had originally only wanted to boost my conversational ability), and I’m so grateful for her guidance. Maggie goes the extra mile to make sure that questions are answered, and is open to teaching Hindi in a variety of ways: conversation, books, movies, and even eating at Indian restaurants together! I plan on continuing to work with Maggie as long as I am a student in the Boston area.
— KATE LONG

Although about 90% of undergraduate Hindi-Urdu students these days are “heritage” learners (foreign-born children of South Asian parents), many of my private students are non-South Asians who have just married into a South Asian family. Those newlyweds often quickly realize they won’t be able to fully appreciate everything going without knowing the language, even if the family speaks Hinglish or Urdish.

Other students are working or doing research in South Asia, often in public health, economics, or religious studies, and I enjoy designing special lessons for them focussed on their work, since I learn a lot about their specialties that way.

There are as many reasons to learn Hindi-Urdu as there are students of it, but below is a revealing program on why the children of immigrants may want to learn the language of their parents, even if the parents themselves don’t think they should. When it comes to “heritage” students, convincing the parents that learning Hindi-Urdu is worth the cost of tuition is sometimes the first step.

From the show: “About two thirds of New Yorkers are from immigrant families. And when parents – who came here from other countries – raise American children, they face all kinds of choices about which cultural norms to follow. That’s the case in Radio Rookie Andrea Lee Torres’ family. Her parents came here from the Philippines in the 1990s. And she’s not sure she agrees with at least one decision they made – not to teach her their language.”