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More widespread & "useful" Arabic/Hindi? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| LatinoBoy84 Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5575 days ago 443 posts - 603 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Latvian | Message 1 of 14 10 April 2011 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi guys,
I've read up quite a bit on both these languages. I was just curious what the general consensus was on how widespread and "useful" one language was over the other. They seem to be relatively close in terms of number of speakers, with Hindi/Urdu having a greater overall number of speakers. Arabic covers a greater geographical area, but is far more fragmented in terms of dialect than Hindi/Urdu. Hindi/Urdu on the other hand are limited to South East Asia, but have a large diaspora or immigrants around the world. Hindi/Urdu is also easier to learn for Westerners being Indo-European, but is considered by some speakers not to be as prestigious as English; in addition English is "widely" spoken an understood by Hindi/Urdu speakers. MSA is understood but not generally spoken, though using FSA which mixes in a little colloquial speech seems to work well for communicating. Arabic is also better represented on the internet and an official language of the UN. Both the Middle East and India have growing populations, but India stands to the see the greatest development in the near future. I was curious what learners of both were actually experiencing as a result of th eir studies. Wikipedia and searching the forum is nice, but I was curious to read some actual first hand accounts. Which is more useful for communication? Which audience is more receptive? Which has speakers that will actually engage foreigners? Edited by LatinoBoy84 on 10 April 2011 at 5:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6582 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 2 of 14 10 April 2011 at 8:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Cue people yelling "You shouldn't pick a language based on how useful it is!!!!!"
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 5016 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 3 of 14 10 April 2011 at 9:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
All of us have different reasons for learning languages. I learnt Hindi not only because I like the language but also for its practical use. At present, I'm learning French and Arabic. I guess learning Urdu will be somewhat easy for me as the language shares commonalities with Hindi and its script is similar to Arabic. Why don't you start with Hindi? Then learn the Urdu script and then focus on Arabic. I think that learning an IE language like Hindi first and then learning Urdu will make your eventual transition to Arabic easier. What do you think? 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Humdereel Octoglot Groupie United States Joined 4978 days ago 90 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written), Turkish, Persian, Urdu Studies: Russian | Message 4 of 14 10 April 2011 at 10:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I agree with the first reply.
Please don't learn a language solely based on its usefulness. While it is true that you should choose a language that you'll be able to use, it isn't quite right to just base it on because of politics, economy, or number of countries/speakers. Out of the choices, (Arabic and Hindi), is there one you're particularly more interested in or more motivated about? Because that's the key factor. Without motivation, you're not going to learn a language well, and even if you do, it isn't going to be fun. Has Arabic culture ever caught your eye? Hindi? Then again, it's quite possible that you're not learning a language out of interest or that you have no preference between the two. MSA is important because it is used for literature, general media, and formal/mediation speaking, and the news. While it is true that Arabs usually speak in their dialect, most will at least understand MSA, which isn't something you can say about most of the dialects. In my experience, the dialects aren't usually drastically different from one another, nor from MSA (unless you're referring to the Maghrebi Dialect). If you have a good command of MSA and a dialect (IMO, Egyptian or Levantine), you'll be surprised by how open that massive part of the world is. I have only intermediate knowledge of Hindi, but several times I used it, the speakers were super interested in speaking English to me. On the other hand, there were a few that were great tutors. How "useful" or receptive the languages are is very multi-sided concept. That's why motivation and interest is more important, IMO. Edited by Humdereel on 10 April 2011 at 10:31pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| hjordis Senior Member United States snapshotsoftheworld. Joined 5186 days ago 209 posts - 264 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 5 of 14 10 April 2011 at 10:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'd like to point out that 1. I'm pretty sure Ari was only saying that that's what the majority of replies will be, not saying that he felt that way himself, and 2. LatinoBoy never asked for help choosing one over the other. Perhaps he is simply curious about how they compare and has no intention of learning either. Even if he does want to choose one, he probably already has an interest in both cultures, which would be why those are the ones he asked about.
LatinoBoy- While I intend to study both of these eventually, I haven't gotten to it yet, so I can't offer much. I will say that I believe English is less prevalent in Pakistan than in India, at least that has been my experience in talking to people from these countries. I even had someone from Pakistan ask me to speak Urdu with him because his English wasn't very good. I guess when I expressed an interest in learning Urdu he though I meant I already studied it. My sample size is small though, especially for Pakistan, so others may not have the same impression. (Though I'm pretty sure the language of higher eduction for most Universities in Pakistan is English, as it is in India.) Edited by hjordis on 10 April 2011 at 10:51pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| LatinoBoy84 Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5575 days ago 443 posts - 603 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Latvian | Message 6 of 14 11 April 2011 at 12:46am | IP Logged | |||||
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner :-) My plate is rather full at the moment. While I might day in the future like to study either or...my question is purely an intellectual one. I am honestly interested in how people have faired thus far with these two languages, that are among the "biggest" and "most important" Are educated Hindi/Urdu speakers (for example) really adverse to speaking their language(s) with a westerner. Same question for Arabic speakers...The purpose of language is communication (in my humble opinion), so I would like to know just how Westerners fair with these two in there respective circles (once they've reached say an intermediate level). For example Spanish speakers ;-) tend to very receptive to others. I have had nice experiences with French and Russian speakers as well (They nearly always appreciate the effort). I would like to know whether the same holds true for Arabic and Hindi/Urdu... Plus Assimil's Hindi and newer Arabic courses do look tempting sometimes. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Humdereel Octoglot Groupie United States Joined 4978 days ago 90 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written), Turkish, Persian, Urdu Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 14 11 April 2011 at 1:25am | IP Logged | |||||
Ah, I see, sorry for getting the wrong idea on your original post. I stand by with the information I already said, but will add more. I've lived in several Arabic-speaking countries in the past (ranging from 1 year to 4 years) including in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Oman and Yemen. As far as MSA goes, I would almost always get replies from the speakers, but only a few times was it a reply in MSA...often it would be a mix between MSA and their dialect, their dialect, or a dialect we'd both understand. I didn't usually get weird looks but there were some moments that I could tell it was more "natural" for them to speak in their dialect. So is MSA useful for verbal communication? To an extent, yes, but not as much as a popular dialect (like Egyptian and Levantine). It's a "universal" variant of the language certainly, and should be learned since it's understood everywhere, but you shouldn't simply leave out a dialect just because of that. When I tried using Egyptian in the countries, I found the Arabs to be very receptive, as Egyptian pop culture is renowned, and the same held true for Levantine, but for that, my sample is smaller. As for Hindi, I've only had six months in India once, so my experience is less than in the Arab world. India is a melting pot of languages, but I almost always got a reply in Hindi if I spoke in Hindi. However, once they realized I spoke English, they were more interested in using it with me than Hindi. As with Urdu, I only have a group of friends here at home that I've used it with and they feel very comfortable with it, more so than with English. But while working with a refugee company, it was very useful. But Hindi and Urdu experiences for me have been less frequent than an Arabic one, so I can't say much more. Hope this answers a bit of your questions! :) 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| LatinoBoy84 Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5575 days ago 443 posts - 603 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Latvian | Message 8 of 14 11 April 2011 at 3:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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Humdereel thank you very much for your insight. Your answer was exactly the kind of first
hand experience(s) I was curious about. One can read so much here and there, but what actually happens in the "real world" might completely different. Thank you for sharing your experiences. I hope that others will also provide some insight as well. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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