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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 105 of 197 10 July 2012 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
My impression is that whether North Indians--or South Indians speak much Hindi depends partly on their home language environment, and school studies--English-medium or Hindi-medium, or what have you. Generally everyone likes it if you speak some Hindi. With cab drivers and street merchants it comes in very handy. With people who speak better English, though, you may find some difficulty in keeping the conversation in Hindi- -it veers swiftly back into English. (I have seen this even in Hindi-language classes). If you hesitate in speaking it will definitely go to English swiftly. On the other hand, no one will mind much if you mangle your pronunciation or grammar! As a friend of mine said (lately): "If I say 'mai Kolkata jaunga 2002 men'--hey, they'll get the idea." 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| michi Nonaglot Newbie Austria Joined 5305 days ago 33 posts - 57 votes Speaks: Dutch*, German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese Studies: Turkish, Arabic (Written), Serbo-Croatian, Indonesian, Japanese | Message 106 of 197 11 July 2012 at 9:39am | IP Logged | |||||
That reminds me a bit of my experience in Cairo, where I attended a Arabic course. I spoke Arabic with less educated people like taxi-drivers or shopkeepers, but with people who spoke English well the conversation was normally in English. Even with my teachers in their free time. I was a little bit against my principle, because when I learn a language and vistit the country I am very consequent and talk in that language only. Even if my partners could speak English or German well and our conversation would have been easier in that language. However Arabic was just too difficult and my knowledge too limited. On the other hand everybody was grateful when I tried to speak Arabic. Edited by michi on 11 July 2012 at 9:39am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| knightmare2222 Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4520 days ago 1 posts - 2 votes Speaks: Malayalam, English* Studies: Latin, Persian, Spanish | Message 107 of 197 15 July 2012 at 7:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hey, my two cents. In Kerala, where I'm from, a good deal of people know English and
Hindi has a certain stigma associated with it. Almost everyone knows Tamil and even some Kannada in some cases, so I'd say Tamil + English will serve you well enough in Kerala, although you could probably get by with just English. 2 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 108 of 197 15 July 2012 at 9:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
That's right. The usefulmess of Hindi mostly doesn't apply in South India. (Where I've never been, but have tried to speak Hindi to a number of South Indians. Generally a non-starter.) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Afgjasmine16 Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6010 days ago 29 posts - 55 votes Speaks: Pashto*, English, Hindi Studies: Bengali, Tamil, Indonesian, Turkish | Message 109 of 197 15 August 2012 at 1:33am | IP Logged | |||||
Yeah, I have tried speaking Hindi to South Indians too which really wasn't a good idea. So now I try to listen which language they are speaking first before attempting Hindi. However I have to say Indians really do love when you take an interest in their language, I have had great responses by talking to people in Hindi, Bengali and sometimes Tamil. Michi, I do think Hindi is a good language to learn, especially if you are interested in North India. If you have an interest in India in general I think it's good to learn Hindi first because with Hindi you have access to tons of Indian media and will help you understand the culture more. Also learning Hindi will be good if you want to do other Indian languages in the future, especially the ones that are very close to Hindi (Punjabi, Guajarati, Nepali, Marathi, Bengali, etc.). Also if you learn spoken Hindi, you can also speak Urdu (the only really differ in the script, Urdu uses the Arab-Perso script, and higher educated vocabulary). But Michi, I think you should learn it, it's really fun, not terribly difficult and pretty useful. I have been learning Hindi for a while and I absolutely love the language and culture. EDIT: . Also Michi, in my experience most of northern and middle India understand Hindi, I'm talking about the non-Hindi speaking states, for example I haven't yet met a Guajarati who could not speak Hindi, most Punjabi's I have met also knew conversational Hindi, and I've also met many Nepali's who spoke Hindi. I think many of them understand it or speak it, mainly because of the media and movies, most Gujarati's I know watch Hindi TV programs at home, Nepali's watch tons of Bollywood films. Even many Afghans understand Hindi/Urdu just from watching Hindi films and to serials since they were kids. In the South and West Bengal, Not a lot of people speak Hindi, although I think many Telugu speakers in the Hyderabad region actually speak some Hindi/Urdu. Tamil and the Bengali speaking regions are the only ones I know of who have a true hatred of making Hindi the national language. I'm not sure about Malayalam or Kannada speakers. Edited by Afgjasmine16 on 15 August 2012 at 1:44am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| michi Nonaglot Newbie Austria Joined 5305 days ago 33 posts - 57 votes Speaks: Dutch*, German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese Studies: Turkish, Arabic (Written), Serbo-Croatian, Indonesian, Japanese | Message 110 of 197 15 August 2012 at 11:07am | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks for your explanations! I have to say that through all your answers my view on the way how Indians react on a foreigner speaking Hindi has become more differentiated. I already had the impression that many non-Hindi-speaking Indians understand the language just by watching Hindi films and serials. A brother of my ex-brother-in-law is married to a Nepalese woman and I know she can understand Hindi. I have read often about Tamil Nadu being the state most against making Hindi the national language of India, but it is new to me that also Bengal speakers are opposed to it. However it seems logical as they have a language of their own that is not only one of the most spoken in the world but also has a rich cultural and literary tradition. In any case when I will travel to India I am sure that I will learn some Hindi beforehand and I will concentrate on North India and the Hindi speaking areas. I don't intend to learn other Indian languages, but you never what I think when I have been there. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4672 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 111 of 197 15 August 2012 at 12:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hindi is a lingua franca of Northern India, and is widely understood in parts of Central India (Maharashtra including Mumbai, and Goa). In Southern India, you can speak Hindi only in the cities of Hyderbad (where 40% of population are native speakers of Urdu) and Bangalore. In other parts of Southern India, English will suite you better, since people are more comfortable with English than with Hindi. (In Tamil Nadu, more people learn French than Hindi).
Tamil Nadu is the only Indian state in which learning a state language (Tamil) is not required. Many Tamilians opt for English medium schools since for them English is easier than formal/written Tamil. ;) So, there's a new generation of Tamils which are not able to express themselves in formal written Tamil, only in colloquial Tamil and spoken and written English (the most famous Tamil actress Trisha Krishnan comes to mind). Edited by Medulin on 15 August 2012 at 12:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Afgjasmine16 Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6010 days ago 29 posts - 55 votes Speaks: Pashto*, English, Hindi Studies: Bengali, Tamil, Indonesian, Turkish | Message 112 of 197 16 August 2012 at 1:57am | IP Logged | |||||
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Michi, recently Bengali's in India have been more open to learning Hindi, I'm not sure how it is now. Bengali has a huge literary tradition and the people of West Bengal are very proud of their language. Majority of North and Central India you will not have problem getting around with Hindi and it will make your trip easier. I've noticed some signs in India were completely wrong in English, so reading the Hindi was a huge help. In India I've never had anyone get mad because I went up to them speaking Hindi, they will just tell you nicely they don't understand, but more often than not in North India you will be understood.
Medulin, every Tamil I have met has spoken Tamil. Trisha Krishnan is only one example (and I have heard rumors she is not fully Tamil) and majority of the time, the only reason actresses are dubbed is because their voice doesn't sound "sweet" enough for movies or the actress is North Indian (example: Shriya Saran) or just doesn't have Tamil as native language. Majority of Tamils living in Tamil Nadu speak Tamil and will be very proud and impressed if you speak to them in Tamil, if people in Tamil Nadu don't understand Tamil, why are there so many Tamil movies, songs, tv shows and signs written in Tamil? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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