The Hindi-Urdu Program at SAIS offers a sequence of four Hindi-Urdu courses at the Novice and Intermediate levels. Each level is covered in two semesters. At the Novice level, students develop speaking, reading, listening and writing skills that are vital to performing real-life communicative tasks successfully. At the Intermediate level, students develop ease and confidence in dealing with routine tasks and narrating in major time frames, along with more specialized vocabularies that are appropriate to their interests and areas of professional competence.

Curricular enrichments include uses of authentic audio, video and Internet-based materials, along with texts such as news headlines and articles, advertisements, folktales and classic short stories. Participation in intellectual and cultural events in the area’s vibrant and growing South Asian diasporic community is strongly encouraged.