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Why isn’t Hindi a "popular" language? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Deji Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5444 days ago 116 posts - 182 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Hindi, Bengali | Message 89 of 197 01 August 2011 at 8:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Great!! Glad to be proved wrong on this one.
I searched for many, many hours for "Hairi PaaTar" (or anything like it) in Bengali. No soap. I did finally find Clinton's "মাই লাইফ" but it was in teeny-tiny print. And at the end of the day, I'd rather labor over reading Chaander Pahaar" by Bhandhopadhyay, if I have to labor over something. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| aquablue Senior Member United States Joined 6386 days ago 150 posts - 172 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 90 of 197 03 August 2011 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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So Hindi is the lingua franca of Mumbai then, or is it the language that is most used in
homes or would that be Marathi? It is a bit confusing. Basically, Hindi is not spoken in the South much or is it? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ihaveacomputer Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 6837 days ago 21 posts - 52 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi, Punjabi Studies: Urdu, Italian | Message 91 of 197 04 August 2011 at 12:53am | IP Logged | ||
My experience with Punjabis has been completely different. Check out my video and the comments people have been leaving. Since uploading, I've been invited to speak at weddings, various academic events and Sikh religious camps. My exposure was increased even more when a well-known Youtube comedian asked me to act with him in this video. I get recognised by strangers when I leave my house, and people always have the kindest things to say (and are eager to test out my abilities). The more "deshi" types tend to be even more eager to speak with me; last week, a few Punjabi foreign students asked to take pictures with me when we crossed paths in a coffee shop. I do know that you mentioned practicing beginner's level Konkani, and the reaction one has to a fluent speaker is markedly different than to someone starting out, but even in that respect I originally found Punjabis quite accommodating. I can't really comment on Konkani speakers, as all the Goans I know in the Greater Toronto Area are monolingual. Their parents certainly know the language, though they seem to have thoroughly abandoned it. Edited by ihaveacomputer on 04 August 2011 at 12:54am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Deji Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5444 days ago 116 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Hindi, Bengali | Message 92 of 197 04 August 2011 at 8:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Aapke video bilkul kamal ki baat hai! Wah! And the comic video is a riot. It's a very funny video. I love the part
where you get more and more Punjabi-hero every time the camera cuts to you. Agar mai itne accha Bengali ek din bolte parungi khubi khushi hogi. Aap kitne sal wahaapar the? Wahapar kis tara kam karte the? I can get up in public and say "Aapke nimantran ke liye bahut bahut dhonyabad" (or same in Bangla) but that's about it. You spent a year or more there, I take it? My comments have less relevance for someone who lives there and interacts daily with people --which is the ideal way of learning--than for someone learning a language in our native countries and perhaps visiting an area for a shorter length of time. But you indeed do experience the "extra points" factor. My experience is actually with Hindi and Bengali, and has more to do with people in the US, or people in the classical music scene in India and the US. (I know quite a few Konkani-speakers, but I don't speak Konkani). It's a lot easier to pick up a fluid command of the language when you spend time in India. I am also not surprised that Punjabis would be helpful in this regard. Finding conversations in Bengali is more difficult for me the more well- educated the people are. And these are the people I know! When I talk to someone and the two of us speak English so easily, it's very hard to potter along in Bengali at my speed--both for me and them. If I could spend more time in Calcutta, (say six months to a year) it would be fine, but that isn't in the cards. At any rate, I do get to make a lot of Bengali/Hindi/Urdu speaking cabdrivers very happy. It's the same conversation each time, phir bhi-- 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nakul2891 Bilingual Pentaglot Newbie India Joined 5616 days ago 7 posts - 8 votes Speaks: Hindi*, Kannada*, Marathi, English, Sanskrit | Message 93 of 197 26 August 2011 at 7:34pm | IP Logged | ||
India has 28 states,and nearly each state has its own unique language ,hindi is the national language (apart from the northern states whos state language is hindi itself),so most people know their state language,hindi and English. Language of communication depends on the level of business,i mean a local vendor speaks the local language and the language in the big companies,is English. So people in Mumbai,might speak marathi at home,hindi while they are travelling and English at their offices. However hindi isnt popular in the southern states,where the state language is dominant. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6923 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 94 of 197 26 August 2011 at 10:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would be interested in knowing is how many people are monolingual speakers of Hindi and/or bilingual speakers of just Hindi and English. In other words, how many speakers know just Hindi (and possibly English), but no other Indian language?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6249 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 95 of 197 27 August 2011 at 6:50pm | IP Logged | ||
From personal experience of living in India, I would think a lot of people in Madhya Predesh and Uttar Pradesh regions use Hindi as a native language. Another thing usually happens is when people move to different region - like Punjabi who move to Gujarat and don't know Gujarati, would use Hindi instead as a common language with the natives of that region. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Saim Pentaglot Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5087 days ago 124 posts - 215 votes Speaks: Serbo-Croatian, English*, Catalan, Spanish, Polish Studies: Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Occitan, Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic (Maghribi), French, Modern Hebrew, Ukrainian, Slovenian | Message 96 of 197 28 August 2011 at 11:15am | IP Logged | ||
Oriya, not Orima. I don't think the resources for larger Indian languages like Punjabi and Bengali are really that many orders of magnitude less than those for Hindi-Urdu. If you get yourself into an immersion situation in the country, and manage to befriend locals, then it would be better to learn the regional language (except for some small exceptions like Mumbai where Hindi-speakers dominate). Personally, I'm going for Urdu before Punjabi because my grandmother lives in Islamabad and I don't want to miss out on conversing with non-Punjabis. If she lived in Lahore it'd be a different story. Regarding your own personal experience, I've found that at a beginner's level it's always hard to keep practicing with bilingual people. You just have to be tenacious, and when you get over that beginner's hump and into conversational no Konkani will seriously have any reservations chatting with an Anglophone. I'm also certain you could find a Konkani language partner over the internet, as there are many Indians looking to improve their English. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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