Learning Hindi - Preparing to Meet My In-laws

I have yet to meet my in-laws. They disapproved of our marriage and wouldn't talk to my husband for quite some time, before our son was born. The birth of our son has changed everything, but they worry about how their community will react and have my husband's younger brother yet to be married off...so I sit waiting until this occurs, and my husband's parents sit pining away for their grandson, who they dearly want to hold in their arms (but feel they have no choice but to wait to meet for now)...

In the meanwhile, I am preparing for the day I will travel to India to stay with my husband's parents for a while and give them precious time to get to know their grandson. I am learning Hindi.

I tried the "cheap" way, buying a book and CD's at the local bookstore and using the internet. The book failed horribly to meet my expectations...It listed the Devangari script "alphabet" which one is to memorize by listening the CD which goes too fast and doesn't repeat before launching into a "conversation" which one is to read and follow. The internet website I found, Livemocha, was great, and free, but I found it did not provide the breadth and depth of language learning I needed. I tried talking my husband into buying the Rosetta Stone Hindi program, but at $400 for the 3 CD's needed to learn conversational language, he refused...until his mom interveined - months later (after much delay) he gave in and bought the program.

I study every day for about an hour - the program covers listening, speaking (including pronunciation), reading, and even writing. I love it! It is nicely broken down with lots of repetition, visuals, matching tasks, testing (in all areas, including pronunciation of sounds/words), and internet support (for 3 months). I began learning not only letters and sounds, but words and sentences within two days of starting on the program. I am on lesson 4, (first CD) and can hold a conversation with a three year old at present about how many black dogs there are or who is reading the newspaper :) It's a start, but a promising one.

I am chatting online with my sister-in-law and reinforcing what I'm learning...and hope to one day have a real conversation with my wonderful, loving, caring mother-in-law (but not about how many black dogs are in the room :) I am also teaching our 8 month old some basic words in Hindi. In my opinion, the program was well worth the money...