|
 |
Why isn’t Hindi a "popular" language? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| GeminiMercury Diglot Newbie United States msn.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5921 days ago 1 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English, French Studies: German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 33 of 197 16 January 2009 at 11:41pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I have asked many Indians on Yahoo!Answers about speaking Hindi as a foreign language, and they all replied that it isn't necessary to learn the language, for three reasons; that most can already speak English, not all Indians speak Hindi fluently but their own local dialects, and they wouldn't expect foreigners to speak it anyway. I think it is a nice language as I have tried to learn it myself, but I have to agree that most people don't think Hindi as one of the most ideal languages to learn unlike French, German, or Japanese. In fact, it isn't really one of my favorite languages to learn, and I can hardly find much resources to learn this language from bookstores and the Internet. Even in India, the English media is well-spread and commonly used throughout the country, and some Indians speak English more than they speak their own language, especially those from the higher-class families. Edited by GeminiMercury on 18 January 2009 at 12:58am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rabyte Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 6034 days ago 44 posts - 46 votes Speaks: German*, English, French Studies: Spanish, Hindi | Message 34 of 197 17 January 2009 at 5:51am | IP Logged | ||
|
I think all that could change rapidly. India is an upcoming nation and surely will develope self-confidence for there native languages sooner or later, don't you think?
Also, people always see you in a different light when you bother learning their language. Always a big plus I think. However, I'm learning Hindi because it's an interesting and fun language. I don't care if I'd come along with English Edited by rabyte on 17 January 2009 at 5:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5842 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes  Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 35 of 197 17 January 2009 at 6:13am | IP Logged | ||
|
I work with one of the largest Indian outsourcing companies.
It hires the best and brightest IT graduates from all over India and brings them to their super-grand campus in Mysore, near Bangalore. The company helps them improve their English where needed, and even gives them tutoring in UK and US culture and habits.. Most remain in India but a few eventually travel abroad to be 'on-site' and work with the customer. There seems to be some rotation going on, whereby the junior guys get to spend a few months in the UK and are then sent back to give somebody else the opportunity. I have got to know many of these guys quite well. In most cases they speak 3 languages: Their own 'dialect' usually something like Gujurati or Bengali; then Hindi and lastly English (but not always "as we know it, Scotty... ") English as a common means of communication between Indians and Europeans is not a water-proof method though - different cultural patterns of speaking, expressions and strong accents cause a lot of problems. From what I understand, they strongly prefer speaking Hindi between themselves over English. They only speak English with eachother if a non-Indian person is present. Isn't it surprising that there is NO Indian person on this forum to give a native perspective on this issue? After all, the rest of us are only speculating..! But the track-record of English speaking people (erm, the UK) in India says it all: You can do really well there without speaking any of the languages. Nice & cool if you do, but not an essential. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| skeeterses Senior Member United States angelfire.com/games5Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6622 days ago 302 posts - 356 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Spanish | Message 36 of 197 18 January 2009 at 9:33pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I think there's a simpler answer than all the explanations about chic factor or economics. A language learner can
only learn 1 language at a time. Sure it would be fun to learn something different like Hindi or Urdu, but then how would a person choose one of these languages when there's plenty of other exotic languages like Mongolian or Turkish to choose from? I think the problem here is not whether Hindi has any practical benefits for a language learner, but rather that wanderlust prevents people from putting in the necessary effort to master a language, that is a person masters the script but gets bored after spending a year or so tackling vocabulary and grammar. This isn't to say that there aren't people learning Hindi. But just on this bulletin board alone, most of the people learning a foreign language are learning it mainly for practical purposes, like traveling to a nearby country, or to get an easy language down. Some people like myself, are learning a hard or obscure language to set ourselves apart from the pack so to speak, but people like us are in the minority. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lerner Groupie Germany Joined 5822 days ago 51 posts - 79 votes Speaks: Hindi* Studies: EnglishC2, GermanC1, Spanish, Dutch | Message 37 of 197 18 January 2009 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | ||
|
cordelia0507 seems to be right, i too was expecting a native hindi speaker to have given his/her opinion on the issue by now.
well, i believe most users are right in pointing out the sheer number of languages and dialects in india (even within hindi) which means that by learning "standard" hindi, you would not be able to communicate with even half the indian population. secondly, most people are bilingual. although the level of proficiency in the second language, which happens to be English in most cases, does leave a lot to be desired; i think you can still get by with English in most places... unless of course you have to bail yourself out of a crashing aeroplane and you land in some obscure place in india which even indians don't know about. if you intend conducting business in india and you know English, communication will never be a problem. though recently government offices have started laying an emphasis on hindi, the papers (forms, etc.) are mostly bilingual which again obviates the need to know hindi. and though i might be wrong, but some groups of people in india believe that their social status is somehow "elevated" when they speak English (this remains a mystery to me till date). maybe it's an effect of our colonial past. this point of view, however, is gradually losing ground and i for one believe that the people belonging to most of these groups probably speak some of the "worstEST" (yes, i do know that's not a word, but using "worst" simply won't explain the plethora of grammatical mistakes these people make while speaking) English that you might hear in india. regarding the issue of language learning material available for hindi, i don't think it would be right on my part to comment on that, since i've never had to "learn" hindi. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6947 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 38 of 197 18 January 2009 at 11:06pm | IP Logged | ||
Hindi speakers would also be speculating, since the topic is about why Hindi isn't more widely studied outside of India. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Karakorum Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6573 days ago 201 posts - 232 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written)* Studies: French, German | Message 39 of 197 20 January 2009 at 6:09pm | IP Logged | ||
How proficient would a university graduate in India be in reading and writing English? I am asking because I asked a guy once to write something in Devanagari for me, and it took him like 5 minutes to write a couple of sentences. Given he speaks, reads, and writes English better than most native speakers I know. I wonder if this was an exception, or if a lot of highly educated Indians just don't get exposed to written Hindi that often. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MäcØSŸ Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5813 days ago 259 posts - 392 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2 Studies: German | Message 40 of 197 21 January 2009 at 12:35am | IP Logged | ||
Maybe he was from an indian state where Hindi is not spoken. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
