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Why isn’t Hindi a "popular" language? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 3891 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes  Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 161 of 197 04 March 2014 at 1:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
Your statement 1 contradicts statement 2. I agree with statement 1. Our school's English was taught in the "wrong" way you mention. That did not stop us. If there is English around (even if only in the form of science/math texts), kids will learn it. They will not be fluent in it, but they will learn it enough not to be hampered in Universities. PS: I have found that those of use who like books, we were reading English novels if English literature was lying around. It started with Amar Chitra Katha comics. Continued onto Tintin. Then Enid Blyton. And ended with Arthur Conan Doyle. It did not matter that we hated English grammer that was being taught at school. Edited by Gemuse on 04 March 2014 at 1:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 4825 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 162 of 197 04 March 2014 at 2:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Just got off the phone with a classmate who is from Bihar.
He says that there are indeed certain schools, as described by Gemueuse, which use English textbooks for the sciences. He estimates their number at 10%. And so I must apologise to Gemeuse. I have done the very thing I had accused him of doing in an earlier post. "I have over-generalised" LOL :-) Edited by napoleon on 04 March 2014 at 3:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 4825 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 163 of 197 04 March 2014 at 2:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think we are saying the same thing, only from opposite aisles. A public school education will not doom you to a life devoid of English. Neither does an English medium school turn you into a near native speaker of the language.
Totally agree. My English medium school did not turn all my classmates into "sahibs" who quote Shakespeare at every opportunity. :-) An English medium school does not guarantee English proficiency. But it does offer more opportunities for the few who want to learn. Edited by napoleon on 04 March 2014 at 3:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 3891 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 164 of 197 04 March 2014 at 3:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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^^ That I agree with.
I have just been arguing here against the implication that the acquisition of basic English in India requires an expensive English medium school education which is out of reach of the non-elite. My thesis is that having science/math texts in school (and perhaps some English comics/novels in the library) is enough to ensure that students will not be at a serious disadvantage in Universities. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| horshod Pentaglot Groupie India Joined 5579 days ago 74 posts - 107 votes Speaks: Hindi, Marathi*, Bengali, Gujarati, English Studies: German, Spanish, Turkish | Message 165 of 197 04 March 2014 at 4:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I was fortunate enough to receive that kind of
English medium education and was still really bad at conversing in English by the time I graduated because I never read English books outside of school or watched English movies or listened to English language songs. Although I have seen many of my friends who went to English medium schools turn into anglicized "sahibs" and be greatly alienated from the local culture - especially those friends that went to "Saint X" schools (And I had lots of such friends, so I am less likely to be over generalizing.). In fact I have never met a person who went to a "Saint X" convent school and still spoke Marathi properly, or even spoke Marathi at all. It took me months to find out that most of them came from Marathi- speaking families. In my opinion, there is no denying the fact that a lot of English medium educated people come to regard English (and anything "Western") as superior to most things Indian/local, probably more so in the non-Hindi- speaking states. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4718 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 166 of 197 04 March 2014 at 4:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
This is one of the things I found very interesting in India. Many of the popular things to read in English aren't very well known anymore in England. This is going to be an over-generalisation, but very few young people in England read Enid Blyton, Tintin or Arthur Conan Doyle, but they remain very popular in India. Another series which seems to be in every English bookstore in India are the books by PG Woodhouse (but that might be more popular with the older generation). All of these are still known in England, but they are quite marginal. As for America, they are virtually unknown (except in film version). Of course everything is changing, even with regard to the books you mention. Amar Chitra Katha comics used to be the mainstay of W H Wheeler bookstands in railway stations. Now I don't think you see them there anymore. Another change I've noticed over the years about W H Wheeler is that comics available in Hindi at W H Wheeler seem to be either translated English comics like Batman (which used to be available in English only), or kiddie stuff like Tinkle. Maybe some other stuff too, but no Amar Chitra Katha in Hindi. Back to the point of the thread, the fact that you can get DC comics in Hindi is a sign that the profile of Hindi has improved over the years. Edited by Jeffers on 04 March 2014 at 4:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 3891 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 167 of 197 04 March 2014 at 4:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
I am glad, then, that I did NOT go to a private English medium school. The snobbish attitude of these kids probably also has to do with the attitude of their parents. In our plain ol' Hindi medium public school, we had kids from different communities. For many of us Hindi was L2. So we spoke perfect L1 at home, perfect L2 at school and outside, and had passive knowledge of English(L3) obtained mostly from the science/math texts, comics/novels, and TV news. Edited by Gemuse on 04 March 2014 at 4:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| linguaholic_ch Triglot Groupie IndiaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4857 days ago 69 posts - 96 votes Speaks: English, Hindi, Bengali Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, French | Message 168 of 197 04 March 2014 at 4:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I agree with Gemuse that reading science and maths in English is important for not facing problems. And I would like to thank Gemuse for letting me know that public schools do offer materials in English unlike many of those in Calcutta.
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