Offered:

Both in-person classes in Hamilton, New Zealand or live-instruction via Zoom.

  • • This course is offered on a one-on-one basis and is subject to instructor availability. You can begin your lessons at anytime of the year. Please contact us if you are interested and we can discuss a day and time for your lessons. Please use the Contact menu bar item on our home page to send us an email.

  • • This course is offered as either an in-person course at the EarthDiverse Centre in Hamilton, New Zealand or live-streamed via Zoom if you live elsewhere.

Description:

As this is an individual tutorial, our Hindi 1-on-1 sessions are tailored to your level and we can focus on whatever you are most interested in.

  • • If you are a beginner, or already speak or read some Hindi, we can focus solely on your needs at any level. Whether you need some extra help, wish to learn to read and write in Hindi, or if you already know some Hindi we can help you get to the next level. We also can help native Hindi speakers who who do not know Devanāgarī, and Urdu speakers who wish to learn the Hindi script.

  • • For new learners, we focus on learning the Devanāgarī script and basic reading and writing capabilities. This tutorial can also introduce basic introductory grammar & vocabulary and gets students speaking with some basic conversational ability.

  • • You let us know what you need and we'll provide individually tailored sessions to your level. Once you are up-to-speed you can consider joining one of our ongoing group Hindi courses or continue with individual 1-on-1 sessions.

  • • Simply contact us about your interest and Todd will get in touch with you to set up a Zoom call to discuss your needs and to choose an appropriate time for your lessons.

  • • The prices listed below are for Individual sessions lasting 1½ hours each, but shorter 1-hour sessions are available at reduced prices. drop us an email if you're interested.

Course curriculum:

Week by week new material will be posted throughout the duration of the course. Video recordings of each weekly session will be posted here after 1-2 days after each class.

    1. EarthDiverse Course Information

    2. EarthDiverse Zoom instructions

    1. 2026 Term 2 updated EarthDiverse "Introductory Hindi" text by Todd Nachowitz, PhD (updated 8 May 2026)

    2. Link to EarthDiverse's Hindi flashcard sets at Quizlet.com

Additional course info:

  • Videos and PDF content of class presentations or whiteboard notes are uploaded weekly within 1-2 days of each live session.
  • Tailored to your schedule
  • mutually agreed upon day and time depending on instructor availability

YouTube Stars Karl Rock & Manisha Endorse EarthDiverse!

8 January 2023


Meet our Instructor:

Executive Director, Senior Lecturer Dr Todd Nachowitz, PhD

Dr Todd Nachowitz, PhD, is the Founder and Executive Director of EarthDiverse. Todd is a Hamilton-based lecturer, anthropologist, environmentalist and diversity educator. He previously taught in Religious Studies at the University of Waikato, teaching courses on Comparative Religion and Religious Fundamentalism & Extremism. Todd holds a Masters Degree in Development Anthropology from Syracuse University in upstate New York (1991) and a PhD from the University of Waikato (2015) in Political Science and Public Policy where he completed his thesis on diversity governance and the Indian diaspora in New Zealand.

Prior to settling in New Zealand in 1995, Todd lived and worked in the United States, India, Pakistan and Nepal. He spent 11 years in South Asia as the Academic Director for university study-abroad programmes in Varanasi, India (for the University of Wisconsin-Madison); Lahore, Pakistan (for the University of California-Berkeley); and Kathmandu, Nepal (for School for International Training, based in Brattleboro, Vermont, USA) focusing on language, culture and religion.

Todd speaks Hindi and Urdu, and is a specialist in comparative world religions and the history, religions, languages and cultures of South Asia. He also currently teaches our Hindi and Urdu language courses and the Religious Diversity courses at EarthDiverse.

Location:

Depending on your location, this class can consist of either in-person sessions at the EarthDiverse Centre in Hamilton, New Zealand or streamed live via Zoom.

• All in-person classes are held at the EarthDiverse classrooms in Hillcrest, Hamilton, New Zealand. There is plenty of on-street parking available.

Distance Learning:

This 1-on-1 tutorial course has distance-learning options for those unable to attend live classes in Hamilton, New Zealand. Students have three options for attending our courses once they have registered:

  • Attend in-person classes in our Hamilton classrooms at the regularly scheduled day and time.

  • Attend our live on-line classroom sessions via Zoom at the regular scheduled day and time.

  • Watch the live-recorded class sessions at your leisure, at a time, day and place more suited to your schedule.

Distance-Learning options:

Live Zoom sessions

  • • In addition to our in-person classes in Hamilton, our courses offer distance learning options for those unable to attend classes in-person. Live-streamed Hamilton classes are available via free Zoom software for those living outside the Waikato. Live-streaming allows you to participate fully in your own learning, ask questions of the instructor and participate fully in the same way as if you were in the physical classroom.

  • • Those unable to attend the scheduled date and time of the actual class sessions, or those who need to miss a class or two due to previous engagements or unexpected illness, can watch any or all of the live-recorded video sessions on their computers, laptops, tablets or mobile devices and study at their own pace and in their own time.

  • • Detailed instructions on how to access our distance learning components will be sent after completing your registration. There are no additional fees for this service. However, distance learners will need access to a desktop or laptop computer with a good quality web-camera (tablet devices and mobile phones can also access our live-streamed classes), a built-in microphone (most modern laptops have built-in microphones) or a headset with a microphone. You will also need to download and install the free Zoom software on your computer or device. Those accessing the video recordings will be able to do so with a simple web browser on any device.

Pricing options:

• All prices are in New Zealand dollars and include GST.

• Prices listed here are for Individual sessions of 1½ hours each, but 1-hour sessions are available at reduced prices. Drop us an email if you're interested!

• Prices remain the same regardless of your chosen method for accessing this course.

• Please note that If you live in the US or Canada, an additional tax may be applied as per local tax regulations.

Materials:

All materials are included in the course fees. These are developed by our instructors and distributed as PDF files on the course webpage.

  • • The course fee includes all teaching materials.

  • • An “Introductory Hindi” text, written by Dr Todd Nachowitz, is included in the course fees. This is available to you on the course webpage for downloading after completing your registration. Updates and new chapters are generally added to the textbook twice a year.

  • • Digital Flash Card sets with audio that accompany the textbook are included to help you along on your Hindi journey!

  • • You will only require a pen or pencil, a notebook for taking your own class notes, and a loose-leaf binder. Any notes that our instructor writes on the digital class notepad are uploaded to the course webpage the next day so that you can print these out at home and add them to your own notebook.

Prerequisites:

  • • There are no prerequisites for this course, except for a keen desire to learn (or continue learning) Hindi!

  • • We accept students of any level (beginner, introductory, intermediate and advanced) aged 10 years and above.

FAQ

  • How do I register and pay for one of your courses?

    Simply click on one of the payment buttons at the very top of the page, OR scroll to Pricing Options where you can choose Waged (part-time or full-time workers) or Unwaged (students, retirees, unemployed). You can also chose to pay in full when you register, or split your payment into two equal payments, the first when you register, and the second equal amount is automatically charged to your credit card a month later. We accept all major credit cards, along with Apple Pay and Google Pay. You can also pay by Direct Deposit, but you'll need to email us for our bank information. Credit cards are easiest.

  • Does this course have assignments, quizzes, tests or exams?

    Generally no, but we can add them if you'd like!

  • What happens if I miss a class?

    Simply let your instructor know if you won't be able to make a class. You’ll be able to watch the video recording on our website and download any class materials 1-2 days after each class session. That way you can stay up-to-date if you can't make a session due to a scheduling conflict or illness. Please note that if no-one shows up for a class (our classes are generally small), instructors are not obligated to reschedule, in which case they may record a session for you, or reschedule a make-up class for a later, mutually-agreeable time, usually at the end of the Term.

  • When are the PDFs from the class notes and the video recordings from each session available on the course website?

    PDFs of class presentations and video recordings of each session are usually posted 1-2 days after each session for the duration of the course. If we've been sleepy on the job, or if our video editing elves are mucking about, send us a reminder! This can happen during our Term breaks!)

  • Who has access to these materials?

    Only our registered students have access to the course materials through logging in to our website with a user name and password. Our course materials are not available to the public.

  • How do your language levels work?

    For most languages that we currently teach we have Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced courses available. Each category of learning (i.e. Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced) consists of 8 New Zealand School Terms over two years (four Terms per year). Each Term generally consists of 8 consecutive weekly sessions. As there are 4 Terms in a school year in New Zealand (equivalent to a Calendar year) the first year of study would be Language 101, followed by 102, 103 and 104. The following year you would take Introductory Language 201, 202, 203 and 204. In the third year of study you would move up to Intermediate levels 301, 302, 303 and 304, and in the 4th year, Intermediate Language 401, 402 403 and 404, and so on through Advanced levels 501-604. In some courses (e.g. Hindi, Urdu) we are teaching courses at more advanced Conversational levels or reading Literature, and these are available as needed and if students wish to continue their learning. Feel free to start and pause your learning whenever you want or need to. When you register you're only paying for the current Term and you're not committed to advancing. You can always rejoin a similar level again later. Talk with your teacher if you have any extenuating circumstances.

  • How do I know which course to register for?

    If you're a new language learner and plan to start from scratch, then register for any of our beginning Introductory Language 101 courses. If you are a continuing student register for the next class in the series. If you're unsure, or if you already have some background, drop us a line and we can have an appropriate instructor arrange to call you to help you determine the best level course for you.

  • I didn't receive a Welcome Email immediately after I registered.

    When you first register for an EarthDiverse course, you'll get an emailed receipt, followed by an automatically-generated Welcome Email that contains information about the course you've registered for, confirming class location, website log-in information, Zoom Meeting IDs and additional instructions. If you don’t receive this email within a minute or two of registering, please check your Junk mail box. It may also be possible that you've made a small typo when you first entered your email address during registration (this happens often!). If you haven't received anything. drop us a line via our Contact page and we'll be happy to resend you your Welcome email.

  • What do you do with our registration information and contact details (email addresses, city, and phone numbers)?

    Great question! The personal information we collect is ONLY so that we can stay in touch with you when we need to (e.g. a class is canceled or postponed, a teacher is ill and needs to reschedule, our quarterly newsletter with course information sent before each Term begins). We DO NOT share any of your contact info to any third parties and your information is only used when necessary or for us to contact you. When we need to cancel or postpone a course we will send both an email and a text message to your phone to make sure that you receive the information in a timely fashion, as classes can be postponed at the last minute.

Testimonials

Highly Recommended!

Amy Monsees (Hamilton, New Zealand) | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Todd understands how to teach Hindi to English speakers. As a beginner I never thought I’d get past the alphabet and cannot believe how much I have learned in such a short amount of time. Todd’s approach, which includes free-flowing conversation in combination with textbook learning, is effective and we have a good time. He is an adaptable, patient, and dedicated teacher and I highly recommend his language courses. (2021)

Amazing!

Sheralee Moore | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Beautiful teacher with an amazing spirit and love of the Hindi language. A very intelligent person who was able to intuitively recognise each individual students strengths and weaknesses. I look forward to the next few classes.

Engaging!

Sheralee Moore | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I learn something new every week. Lovely family style setting where all learners have a chance to engage with Todd Ji and each other.

Enjoy the most!

Sheralee Moore | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The method of teaching is based on social interaction for the first part, therefore the lesson is easier to remember. I like reviewing the lesson and often put on during some down time. Todd's vast experience, idioms, memories are often a feature of the learning experience which I enjoy the most!

Hindi is taught in such an interesting and enthusiastic way.

Sheralee Moore | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

After reviewing the notes along with the video, simplifying the grammar is helpful when learning a new language. Very enjoyable and informative class.