Photo by Ryan Distaso (CAS ’18)
Have questions about Hindi courses, placement tests, or study abroad? Email Hindi Language Coordinator, Shilpa Parnami (sparnami@bu.edu), to set up a Zoom meeting with a faculty member in the program.
Hindi is one of the official languages of the Republic of India (projected to overtake China as the world’s most populous nation by 2030) and the most widely spoken language in South Asia. It is also the language of a long literary tradition, both in modern prose and poetry, as well as pre-modern secular and devotional poetry. In more recent times Hindi has become a dominant language of modern media, such as cinema in India and much of the content on television.
Urdu is the national language of Pakistan (as well as being one of the official languages of India) and the language of a rich literary tradition, both in the form of poetry stretching back to the 17th century and prose from the 19th century. It is also a tremendously important language strategically in South Asia.
In their basic form Hindi and Urdu are generally considered to be the same language written in two different scripts. They share a common vocabulary and grammar, so that with little effort you will learn both forms very easily.
Hindi and India are rapidly growing in importance in our contemporary world with more and more content on the web, and with a growing consumer market in South Asia.
The grammar of Hindi-Urdu is very easy and similar to English grammar. There are virtually no grammatical concepts that do not exist in English, and students have no difficulty in learning the same concepts in Hindi-Urdu.
The US Government has recognized Hindi-Urdu to be of critical importance for Americans. Hence, your knowledge of Hindi-Urdu can be a unique professional asset.
A complete list of Hindi-Urdu language, literature and culture courses is available on the CAS Bulletin or on our all courses webpage.