South India offers a cyber-bridge to Hindi

Frederick Noronha

Learning Hindi via South India? The world of information technology now makes that possible, thanks to a CD offering to tutor you in the nuances of the North Indian language.

Just-released, the Vidyarambh Hindi Tutor CD (www.hindiclass.com) offers a combination of lessons, fun activities, interactive games, puzzles and songs for someone wanting to learn the language.

Using a “completely animated atmosphere,” the Kerala-based firm behind this venture, Allenpark Infotech, says this makes learning Hindi “something like a fun activity where the learner will be very much involved in every stage of the learning process.”

Instructions come in two languages—Hindi and English—and one can flip between the beginner’s mode or expert level.

Across seven lessons, the CD promises to make the learner “capable of reading a (simple) Hindi book or even a newspaper.” In its sections, the Hindi CD teaches students the basics, writing skills, speaking words and new vocabulary, numbers, riddles and proverbs, stories and songs.

“Any person who aspires to learn the Hindi language can use the CD. It teaches one how to read, write and, to a certain extent, speak Hindi. The CD is a boon for Hindi-speaking NRIs and their children who cannot read and write Hindi,” explains Allenpark Infotech director Thejus P R. The firm expects that foreigners, children needing to study Hindi as part of the curriculum and even school or college libraries could use their tutor.

“We have been receiving an excellent response for the CD-ROM. There were numerous orders for the CD during the pre-publication period itself. The number of visitors to our website has also been overwhelming,” claims Thejus.

Putting together this CD took some nine months of research followed by about six months on the development. There were 10 people working in the production team concentrating on programming and graphics with nine more on the research team. Some five months were spent on perfecting the audio.

Says Thejus: “The production of a CD like this demands a lot of effort, money, consistent teamwork and a lot of financial risk. These days, many entrepreneurs are after short-term products and short-term financial success. But if a language tutor is not good, there can be a lot of criticism from language scholars.”

The CD is currently available at an introductory price of Rs 719 in India. Payments to experts, overheads and studio charges have led the cost of production to be “very high,” but Allenpark says if its CDs sell at the present rate, it will be able to break even in one-and-a-half to two years.

Putting this product together meant building a team of experts in the fields of graphics and animation, and interactive programming. Then came the need for Hindi skills, plus “patience, money to sustain, and above all, the team spirit,” says Thejus. For audio, professionals and experts had to be brought in from Hindi-speaking areas. Almost all of them were from places like Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

Future plans of the firm include a fully animated CD of stories in Hindi and another in English. Also on the cards are a Tamil tutor and an Arabic tutor. Allenpark had earlier launched a Malayalam language tutor, for a language spoken by an estimated 30 million speakers worldwide, including a significantly large diaspora.