Video’

• Hindi Urdu Talkies
• Learning and Teaching
• Resources

The first installment of a new HUF series that uses short scenes from significant Indian films as the setting for some close listening exercises.
HUF Director, Rupert Snell provides a series of language-related questions to accompany a poignant scene from Deepa Mehta’s controversial 2005 film “Water”. The point of this exercise is to listen out closely to discover exactly how things are said and expressed; and then to recycle parts of these expressions in usage of your own.

• Faculty Awards

The President of India, Pratibha Patil, has awarded the Hindi Urdu Flagship’s former (and founding) director Herman van Olphen the extremely prestigious Sir George Grierson award for a lifetime of service towards teaching and promoting the Hindi language. Van Olphen received the award in a special ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan (the Presidential House) on June 20, 2012.

• Lectures and Performances

India’s leading Urdu literary critic, Shamim Hanfi, provides a tour of some key moments in the history of modern Hindi and Urdu.

• Events
• Learning and Teaching
• Teaching Workshops

The Hindi Urdu Flagship recently convened a workshop for university and K-12 teachers of Hindi and Urdu. The workshop featured some informal lectures on pedagogical strategies from HUF’s teaching faculty, a roundtable discussion on pressing issues in the Hindi-Urdu classroom, and a wonderful guest lecture by Prof. Shamim Hanfi on some highlights in the tangled modern history of Hindi and Urdu.

• Events
• Resources
• The Language Flagship

Friends and supporters of HUF nationwide gathered in Austin this week to celebrate the launch of a major new website focused on documenting and teaching the specialized language of healthcare in South Asia. Language for Health (hindiurduhealth.org) is the product of three years of substantial collaboration between HUF, The University of Texas at Austin, Columbia University, and New York University.

• Lectures and Performances

HUF hosts a fascinating exploration of Quranic Exegesis and the development of Urdu by the renowned historian, Mehr Farooqi.

• Lectures and Performances

Renowned Urdu satirist, Mujtaba Hussain, reads selections from his extensive catalog of Urdu journalism and humor to an audience composed of Hindi Urdu Flagship students and the wider South Asian studies community at UT Austin.

• Interviews

HUF’s Senior Hindi Lecturer Jishnu Shankar recently sat down with well-known Hindi writer and actress Susham Bedi to discuss her journey into a life of Hindi letters. In the interview, Bedi describes her childhood and adolescence in India, her acting career, and some sources of inspiration for her most famous stories.

• Interviews

HUF director Rupert Snell recently interviewed Rajesh Kumar, an experienced Hindi teacher who has taught in a wide variety of settings. Topics discussed include Kumar’s childhood and education, his work in India, and his experience teaching Hindi in Russia. The interview should provide excellent listening comprehension practice for intermediate Hindi students.

• Interviews

As part of the Hindi Urdu Flagship’s Kabir festival, renowned folk-singer Prahlad Singh Tipanya sat down with HUF Director Rupert Snell and HUF Senior Lecturer Jishnu Shankar to discuss the life of a modern-day Kabir performer.