Best products from r/Hindi

I am also a Hindi learner and not a native speaker, but I can try to answer your questions.

ऋ is a vowel which can be transliterated as ri or r with a dot below it. It is used in words like कृष्णा (Krishna). You can see that the word Krishna also uses ष (sh) and ण (n). These letters are somewhat uncommon but you still see them, especially in names and Sanskrit loan words. ङ and ञ are less common than ष and ण in my opinion.

ळ is not used in Hindi. It is used in Marathi though. I think it might be a retroflex L. You don't need to know this for Hindi. ऩ ऱ य़ do not exist in Hindi as far as I know. Seems like you already know that some letters do have an added dot(?) to give it a different sound ( क़ ख़ ग़ ज़ फ़ ढ़ ). न र य are not such letters from what I understand.

ॻ ॼ ॾ ॿ - I have never seen these characters with the line beneath them. Either they are old forms or something else. I wouldn't worry about them.

My suggestion is to get some other learning resources. Read and Write Hindi Script is a useful book. I also liked Elementary Hindi and the accompanying workbook.

I recently picked up this book, Hindi for Non-Hindi Speaking People, by Kavita Kumar, and have found it really helpful as a super in-depth grammar reference. The PDF is available for free online as well.

I wouldn't just read the book straight through. Rather, I've been reading children's stories and similar content, and when I encounter grammar I'm confused about, I'll then use this book to find similar examples and constructions. Good luck!

Rosetta Stone's an awful option, I agree. It's disappointing how little attention they pay to the importance of transmitting culture along with linguistic knowledge. It was kind of jarring to blurt out "वह खाना पका रहा है" while staring at a picture of Europeans in the kitchen of a Michelin-starred restaurant. It would have been more pedagogically expedient to have included pictures of people in the cultural contexts in which Hindi is used. I could go on.

Just curious, which Shapiro book are you talking about? For what it's worth, the AIIS language programs use Jain's red book for their Intermediate Hindi learners, and Shapiro's primer for their Advanced Hindi learners. (Of course, both were supplemented by reading annotated texts like Premchand, BBC, etc.)

Anyway, yeah, Jain is probably your best option since it seems you've had the equivalent of about a year of university instruction. Once you've made it through her book you should have a fairly decent working knowledge of Hindi. (My friends also go crazy about her "blue book", which is a reader, I think. I haven't read it personally.)

Did you use a mix of different resources? Currently I'm using Rupert Snell's Teach Yourself Hindi and the resources from Hindi Urdu Flagship.

I don't feel like I'm making quick progress, though. As an avid reader, I would love a good selection of children's books to pick up and read.

I would recommend the Teach Yourself books; that's what I used when I first started out learning Hindi. Here's the Get Started one:

http://www.amazon.com/Get-Started-Hindi-Teach-Yourself/dp/0071739440

There are also tons of good resources online; BBC Hindi is really great once your skills are a little better because they have videos and text, so you can practice listening and reading at the same time. I know there is a lot more out there but I just can't think of it right now. PM me if you're interested in more resources!

Consider doing it the old fashioned way with a book.

Complete Hindi is really quite good.

I really like this book. Complete Hindi Beginner to Intermediate Course: Learn to read, write, speak and understand a new language (Teach Yourself) https://www.amazon.com/dp/144410683X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_tiqTAbN3EBKG2

Rupert Snell's Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Script has been invaluable to me for learning Devanagari, as a nonnative speaker.

http://www.amazon.com/Yourself-Beginners-Script-Series-Edition/dp/0340860227

Try here
The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary

link

Devanagari Lipi Copying Book 1 by Sarasvati Mohan : http://www.amazon.com/Devanagari-Lipi-Copying-Book-1/dp/193129903X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1417461664&sr=8-2&keywords=sanskrit+copying+book