Staying in Rishikesh long term? Learn some Hindi!

Many people end up staying in Rishikesh for a longer period than they had planned. It is not just for the yoga classes but also the extremely tourist friendly environment of Rishikesh makes it a very comfortable stop in India. It does get crowded in high season but nothing as bad as being in big cities like Delhi or Mumbai. Even with the tourist crowd, Rishikesh is still a very peaceful and lovely spot to hang out longer. It has everything to please the tourists - somewhat in between a cosy bohemian and a very Indian feeling. You get it.

Although most people come to Rishikesh for yoga, there are plenty of other things you can do if you stay for a longer term. Learning Hindi is one, especially if you want to build a longer relationship with the Indians you meet or want to understand a little more about the community beyond what regular tourists know. Most Indians speak English and you do get by very well without Hindi, but the minute you want to explore outside the main Rishikesh areas, being able to read and speak some Hindi helps you connect to what you see and experience. Being able to speak to locals in their language brings another dimension to your travel experience too. Do you need to learn the Devanagri script? Well, there are still quite a lot of sign boards (including boards that explain about places of interest) written in scripts although you don't need to learn the script to be able to speak Hindi since the language has a Romanized form. So if you would like to be able to read the signages around you, it helps to learn the script.

Here are a few Hindi teachers in Rishikesh:

Hindi Lesson by Ravi
Lexicon Live
Pushpa Language School of Hindi

Be patient with it and have fun!

Check out here what other things you can do in Rishikesh.

Signage in front of a building in Rishikesh

Hindi signage outside an old Haveli in Rishikesh