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Why isn’t Hindi a "popular" language? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Duke Groupie United States Joined 6813 days ago 76 posts - 79 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 197 12 February 2006 at 7:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hindi is spoken by nearly 500 million people. So why isn't this language a popular choice for language learners (at least here in the U.S.)?
Why are there such limited resources available for the student? Major language producers, such as Assimil, Pimsleur, and Linguaphone, have produced only first level programs for this language. The Foreign Service Institute, to my knowledge, has not produced an audio course for teaching Hindi and few universities in the United States offer classes teaching the language. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Darobat Diglot Senior Member Joined 6982 days ago 754 posts - 770 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin | Message 2 of 197 12 February 2006 at 8:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'd love to know this too. In the future, I would like to leran Hindi, but there are so few resources for the language. It's even Indo-European, so I really don't see why it's so uncommon.
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| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6684 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 3 of 197 12 February 2006 at 8:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Either a lack of resources or a lack of interest (from an economical point of view). Languages come into vogue when they are perceived as being of some economic benefit. The sudden rush of people wanting to learn Mandarin is one example of this. And while India's economy is picking up some speed, there are also many Indians who speak fluent English and thus, in some people's minds, there is no incentive for English speakers to learn Hindi. A silly assumption but that's life.
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| That_Guy Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6892 days ago 74 posts - 87 votes Studies: Hindi, English*, Spanish | Message 4 of 197 13 February 2006 at 12:37am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, I think it's mainly a lack of incentive, whereas a young entrepreneurial business man or woman may learn Mandarin for the economical bonuses, but that really doesn't exist for Hindi. I think this is for a couple of reasons, for one, Hindi is not spoken by every Indian citizen, and many Indians have no desire whatsoever to speak Hindi. In addition, those that speak Hindi as a primary language, actually, almost all Indians, speak English to some degree of fluency.
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| Linas Octoglot Senior Member Lithuania Joined 6706 days ago 253 posts - 279 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Lithuanian*, Russian, Latvian, French, English, German, Spanish, Polish Studies: Slovenian, Greek, Hungarian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese | Message 5 of 197 13 February 2006 at 1:23am | IP Logged | |||||
In fact, structurally Hindi is very unlike IE languages. It has postpositions, not prepositions, it is also S-O-V language with the verb usually closing the sentence 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Linas Octoglot Senior Member Lithuania Joined 6706 days ago 253 posts - 279 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Lithuanian*, Russian, Latvian, French, English, German, Spanish, Polish Studies: Slovenian, Greek, Hungarian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese | Message 6 of 197 13 February 2006 at 1:30am | IP Logged | |||||
In India serious business is usually done in English, which is used even in those places(as Tamilnadu) where no Hindi is ever heard. Hindi is the official language of the most backward states(Bihar, UP, Rajasthan, MP) with the biggest number of illiterates, while more advanced states(Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra, Tamilnadu) are not Hindi speaking. In some of these states(as Maharashtra) even if some Hindi is spoken, it is associated more with street vendors and servants and also with Bollywood movies, but not with business. Of course if you are after Bollywood production or Indian songs then Hindi is a must for you. 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| That_Guy Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6892 days ago 74 posts - 87 votes Studies: Hindi, English*, Spanish | Message 7 of 197 13 February 2006 at 2:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
True, it may not be very similar to other IE languages but there are some obvious similarities. From my study I've noticed quite a few similarities between the Romance languages and Hindi. For example, the Hindi and Latin words for king, (Hindi) Raja, (Latin) Rex, the word for tooth, (Hindi) Dant, (Spanish) Diente (like the English, dental). I've noticed a few verbs are similar, like the Hindi verb "to kill", "marna" and the Spanish verb, "matar". But the most obvious similarity is probably the second person pronouns, two of which are very similar to some of the Romance languages, "Tu" and "Tum". For lack of a better example, Hindi is somewhat of the "second cousin" to most of the other IE languages, in that you can sorta tell it's related but there are some huge differences. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6737 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 8 of 197 13 February 2006 at 5:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well, there are 30 Pimsleur lessons for Vietnamese, and only 10 for Hindi, so it is probably not so much the economic as the cultural factors that play into the relative paucity of Hindi-learning materials. However, these factors may have subtle aspects to them. I think one factor not to overlook is Indians' own attitudes towards Hindi and languages in general. One guy I knew whose father was Indian, told me that when he once asked his dad about learning Hindi, he was told to go learn something useful instead. I recently proudly showed off my newly acquired Devanagary typing skills under Windows XP to an Indian friend, who said, basically, good boy, but you understand, of course, that whoever wants to be a player in today's world must switch their writing system to the Latin Alphabet, in addition to learning English well. I was a bit taken aback, so to make sure I did not miss anything, he added that the Russians will never really be part of The Club until they get rid of Cyrillic. Basically, Hindi speakers are very agnostic about their languages, with the result that they do not seem to define their culture through their language as much as most nations or ethnic groups do. Hindi is very much alive and well and is one of the largest world's languages, and yet it is not perceived as the kind of key to India the way Chinese is to China, or French to France, or Russian to Russia, etc. I suspect this is a major factor in there being so few Hindi language materials in the West, because otherwise there seems to be a reasonable level of interest in India and its culture. Edited by frenkeld on 13 February 2006 at 5:35pm 15 persons have voted this message useful |
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