Not much Maithili is made for learners, so the Maithili you read and hear at first comes from a handful of places. Look for comprehensible input, which is Maithili you can mostly follow, with about one new word per sentence and the meaning still clear.
Courses, tutors and exchange apps are in our full Maithili app comparison.
Bubblegum
For serious learners, Bubblegum is the best app to learn Maithili. You learn from Maithili you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
Say you want to follow what your relatives talk about at a festival. Poppy, your AI tutor, writes a Maithili lesson on it at your level, and the words you save return in new lessons.
- Pick a topic and a level, and Poppy writes the Maithili to match.
- Each lesson has AI audio to play while you read.
- Read in Maithili letters, or switch to Roman letters while you learn them.
- Tap a word to see what it means, or ask Poppy to explain a whole line.
- Regenerative Review™ brings saved words back in new lessons.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- You can't turn your own Maithili books into lessons. However, you can paste a page in the chat, and Poppy will explain it.
- Custom lessons cost us money to make, so you need Bubblegum Pro for unlimited custom lessons. Lessons Poppy wrote for other learners are free for everyone to read.
- Regenerative Review™
Mobile
StoryWeaver has 106 free Maithili books, and 18 of them are Level 1. One of them, "I Can Climb!", shows Maithili and English together, like हम चढ़ि सकैत छी (I can climb). Read a page aloud, and say who did what.
Maithili 101 is a beginner video series on the This is Mithila channel. It starts with pronunciation and everyday words. Videha has an audio section with Maithili audio, video and theatre.
I Love Mithila is an online news site written in Maithili, with poems and stories too. Pick a story you have already followed in English, and read just the headline and the first lines. When you want longer Maithili, read the prose and poems on Videha.
| What You Can Follow | Try This | You're Ready to Move On When |
|---|---|---|
| One page at a time | A StoryWeaver Level 1 picture book | You read a page aloud and can say who did what |
| Short sentences | A StoryWeaver Level 2 or 3 book | You can retell it from memory |
| Slow, clear audio | A Maithili 101 chapter | You can say a few of the words back |
| Stories and poems | A StoryWeaver Level 4 book, or prose on Videha | You can say what happened and why |
| Real news | A headline and first lines on I Love Mithila | You can say what the story is about |
Menus in your language don't always mean Maithili explained in your language, so try one lesson before you pay.
| App | Languages You Can Use It In | Full List |
|---|---|---|
| Bubblegum | 74 | Supported language pairs |
Which Maithili app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Maithili, start with Bubblegum. Poppy, your AI tutor, writes lessons at your level about things you like. If you'd rather read first, try the picture books on StoryWeaver. If you'd rather listen first, play the first chapter of Maithili 101.
Do I need the letters before I start reading?
For the books and news here, yes. Maithili is written in Devanagari, and Bubblegum's Maithili Letters course teaches the letters with a picture and a sound for each one. You can read your lessons in Roman letters while you learn them.
Is there news in easy Maithili?
We didn't find a news site written in easy Maithili. Start with the picture books and the video series, and try a news headline when those feel comfortable.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. Lessons Poppy wrote for other learners are free for everyone to read. Custom lessons cost us money to make, so you need Bubblegum Pro for unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Bubblegum: Learn Maithili
- StoryWeaver: Maithili books (106 free picture books and stories)
- StoryWeaver: books-search for Maithili (levels of each book)
- This is Mithila: Maithili 101, Chapter 1 Part 1 (YouTube)
- Videha: Maithili e-journal (since 2000, with an audio section)
- I Love Mithila: online news site in Maithili, published from Nepal's Mithila region
