Living Language Hindi, Complete Edition: Beginner through advanced course, including 3 coursebooks, 9 audio CDs, Hindi reading & writing guide, and free online learning Unabridged Edition

I have tried many teach-yourself books, they mainly teach reading and writing. So I'm searching books focusing on speaking, then I found LL edition which fulfil what I need. Perfect product.I have bought 11 different language books from LLLudwig.N

Great.

I am finding this to be a very good Hindi text series. Having worked through the Intermediate text, I have noticed some mistakes but not significantly more than other texts (I have used five others as well as two online courses). The texts are particularly strong on practice exercises (including answers) which are very helpful in learning to read/write Devanagari as well as driving home the grammar points. The texts seem to cover at least as many grammar points as any other text (and unlike Snell's book, the bindings are good enough so that they don't fall apart). The audio is generally clear (and more than two speakers are used). This is not a source for memorizing the 100 most important phrases for a quick trip to India, which seems to be the object of one reviewer. If you want to learn vocabulary and grammar to construct your own sentences, however, this is definitely one of the best options. Two weaknesses of the texts, 1) there is no index, and 2) there is no vocabulary/dictionary list in the back. No one text is likely to be completely sufficient for anyone to learn a language, but I put this series in the top category of those I have used.

This is agift for my son. He says it is great.

This package of learning tapes belongs to the days of grammar-based foreign language instruction! As a veteran foreign language teacher, I was constantly frustrated, sometimes amused, but certainly annoyed by how the author chose to present Hindi for the learner.You will be pulled through long verb conjugations, a process which turns out to be not only tedious but a waste of recording time. Then, after being treated like an imbecile, you encounter a "conversation" in which completely new vocabulary is mercilessly inserted. These extremes of hand-holding and bewildering you with brand new words, characterize the course of the recordings.The beginner section offers romanized texts, but intermediate and advanced are exclusively in Devanagari. Of course, the learner needs at some point to be weaned from transliteration, but for purposes of simple survival Hindi, which is more or less the level presented, the abrupt transition to Devanagari may be unnecessary.Sounding suspiciously like Indian English, the English used is quite often laughable. Present continuous is repeatedly screwed up, English past perfect shamelessly corrupted, and future tense comes across stilted and unnatural. Example: "What will you do this weekend (i.e., What are your plans)?" "I will play tennis at the club." Who really talks this way? The "conversations" sound as if the speakers are reading from scripts. Who says, "Uncle lives here." and not "My uncle lives here." ?I can live with the peculiar English, but, all in all, I didn't get the interactive, communicative style I'd hoped for. You'll come out of these lessons with lots of new vocabulary, with conjugations galore, and full of grammar detail no end. I doubt you'll be helped much in terms of practical speaking. The Rupert Snell and Pimsleur series, both of which I highly recommend, put this Living Language program to shame.

This book is riddled with so many errors, I honestly can't believe it was published in it's current position. It's an okay review book for someone who is knowledgeable of Hindi grammar rules, vocabulary, etc. but it is not a good starting point for beginners. For example, some vocabulary words were listed as the wrong gender, some translations were far off from the original text, etc. There was even a section where it said "Translate from French to English" and this is a Hindi book. Clearly the editor didn't do her due diligence when looking over this book. I'm only giving it 3 stars because I'm using it for review.

Living Language blatantly screwed up this course. There is no organization to this course like in other courses. No dictionary, no insight. This needs to be redone in a way that a total beginner than learn. Once a beginner gets into the second book, you will notice the lack of organization and clumsiness of the lessons. If you want to learn Hindi, use another course. A major problem with the Hindi language is the lack of courses out there for a language spoken by more than 700,000 people. I hear the older Living Language program is better and will most likely borrow it from the local library. Don't throw good money away on this.

Good

I used the former version of living language hindi which was much better structured. This reconstructed version is really hard to follow, and even for first read it is full of really annoying and serious faults. I would only recommend it for 2nd hindi book. Rather go with the Rupert Snell book, which is sorter but fun and clear.

Very nice book.After 1 month a can read and write even if i can't understand all i'm reading

I have tried other language learning methods but Living Language, Complete Edition is the best for the following 3 reasons: 1. it includes 3 volumes (intro., intermediate, Advanced) which advances progressively; 2. all of the linguistic targets are cared for: namely, vocabulary building, grammar, listening and speaking; 3. the language (here Hindi) is transliterated in the 1st volume and into 7 chapters in the intermediate volume. Best of all the price for the 3 volumes, the 3 cds and the alphabet volume is below $40.00. Buy it and try it, you've tried the rest now try the best!

Apart from the very expensive Rosetta Stone this is the best course I've found so far though there are a lot of typos in the text and sometimes the way vocabulary is ordered seems illogical. Often the exercises introduce new phrases or idioms which are not explained so I think the course is in need of a thorough review but I would still recommend it and I am glad I bought it.

Il faut biensur parler aussi anglais, mais Living language est bien plus agréable que la méthode assimil. Lancez vous !