Manorama has a great post about her experience taking Hindi at her university. She is a Bangladeshi-American graduate student, and is studying the language mainly for scholarly/ academic purposes, as I understand it. Her post dovetails nicely with one of the issues raised in my post yesterday — how and whether South Asians in the diaspora end up learning Hindi — and gives me the chance to research and reflect on the status of Hindi and other South Asian languages at American universities in general.
Manorama’s university decided it needed to separate the ‘Heritage’ Hindi students from the ‘non-Heritage’ (i.e., white, in this case) students. Students who grew up in households where Punjabi, Hindi, Gujurati, etc. were spoken generally go in the Heritage section, where less effort is spent on pronunciation and some basic vocabulary, while more effort is spent on grammar and so on. It’s arguably a good idea, though it results in de facto segregation.Here is Manorama:
My current Hindi instructor, from what I gathered, disagrees vehemently with this division between heritage and non-heritage students. The fact that people disagree on this issue is not as troubling to me as the ways in which people in our group were defending their views. A few of my classmates scoffed at the idea of setting up a system which would almost inevitably result in “the brown kids” being put in the heritage class, and how novel of an idea this was, particularly as something the university might support with a rhetoric of ability and non-ability. While it is true that the likelihood of non-South Asian students being in the heritage course is quite slim, it is also true that there are South Asian students who join the non-heritage section. This is what happened in my case; while Bangla is spoken in my home, and while I speak it daily with my parents, Bangla and Hindi are not the same.
Manorama puts herself in the non-heritage class, only to find the teacher (and later, even the students) harshly deriding the approach to learning and overall work ethic of the heritage students in the other section:
My instructor noted that having “heritage students” can be very irritating because the inconsistencies or variations of a language which they learn at home are things which they insist on clinging to in his course. No matter how much he tries to correct them, they persist. Things are done differently regionally in Hindi, and people who have a background in other South Asian languages are reluctant to learn Hindi properly. [. . . snip] However, my instructor went on to say that American students work the hardest, and heritage students don’t. They don’t keep studying, they don’t devote enough time to it, they don’t care. At this point my voice seemed to have completely disappeared from the conversation, and it was as if my physical presence was just an illusion. The fact that I was standing right next to my instructor seemed to not matter–nor the fact that I worked my tail off in first year Hindi and that is why I am a good Hindi student now. And guess what? Skin check: Brown. South Asian. Not American in the sense of culture or lacking exposure to a South Asian language. And in this conversation, apparently, invisible.
As I see it, there are two issues here. One is, many ABCDs have a very odd and inconsistent knowledge of the Indian mother-tongues they (sort of) grew up with. Their knowledge of grammar is poor or non-existent, often regionalized or permuted through another Indian language (in my case, my exposure to Punjabi made some aspects of Hindi, when I studied it at Cornell in the early 1990s, seem off — or ‘wrong’). And yet the same Desi students are often flip about the course, thinking of it as an ‘easy A’ or worse, a social event.
But the instructor seems to be forgetting the main reason this discrepancy may (in some cases) exist, and that is that most of the American students are studying Hindi for academic or (at the graduate level) professional reasons. Most of the South Asian students, on the other hand, are taking it for a vaguer, less focused reason, so it’s no great surprise they slack. The instructor here seemed to forget an obvious surface reason for the discrepancy, and turned it into a quasi-racial distinction.
(I’m going to leave Manorama’s post now to go into some general statistics and issues about learning South Asian languages in U.S. universities, but I encourage people to read the rest of her post at some point)
Foreign Language Study in the U.S.: Systemic Problems
Here’s the thing: this is a tempest in a teapot. The number of universities where Hindi is available is still quite small, and the number of total students taking Hindi in the U.S. every year — Heritage and non-Heritage — is close to miniscule.
A recent study from the Modern Language Association found that the total number of students taking Hindi in the United States in 2002-2003 was 1,430. The number of students studying Urdu was 152. And Bengali, a language spoken by some 200 million people worldwide, was only studied by 54 students in the entire United States!
(Some statistics for background: during the same school year, there were about 1.4 million students in U.S. universities taking foreign languages. 74% of them took either Spanish, French, or German, with Spanish being the most popular by a wide margin.)
Why is the study of South Asian languages so rare here? And is there anything that can be done about it?
One possible factor is the absence of LCTLs in primary and secondary schools (K-12), where only about 38 languages are taught anywhere in the country (and in most schools, only two — French and Spanish — are in fact available). I know some high schools in ethnic enclaves like Yuba City, California and some districts in Queens (PDF) have experimented with offering languages like Punjabi and Bengali. But the overwhelming majority of American students will have never even conceived of a South Asian language as an interesting or worthwhile thing to learn before getting to college. If they take any foreign languages in college, they are likely to continue with what they were doing in high school — French or Spanish.
I don’t know how to solve this problem, but I wonder if it might be possible to make Hindi, for instance, available to more high schools via metropolitan consortium programs?
Secondly, the professional advantages for an ordinary American student to learn a South Asian language were quite low in the past. I wonder if that might be changing as a result of the Indian high tech boom? People who want to do business with India generally prefer English-speaking Indians, but if you want to go to India, you still need to be able to talk to people on the street. Since students do tend to get more interested in a language if they think it might help them in a business or professional context later (hence the recent boom in interest in Chinese), this could potentially be a major advantage. (Do readers out there have experience with this?)
Third is a practicality issue — many colleges and universities are simply too small or can’t afford to hire full-time faculty to teach South Asian languages. In principle, it is the big research universities and ‘flagship’ state universities that have decent South Asian language programs (the best of which is still the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where you can take Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Nepali, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Tibetan, and Urdu!).
My own university has about 4,500 undergraduates, of which about 80-100 are likely to be of South Asian descent at a given time. Since only a fraction of them are likely to take Hindi, and only a tiny number of non-desi students are likely to enroll, it would be very difficult here (as at other, comparable places) to justify hiring a full-time professor to teach Hindi-Urdu. Still, Lehigh does have enough desi students to have its own competitive Bhangra team (“LU Bhangra”), so why not have Hindi?
One option for smaller schools might be a program called FLTA, the Foreign Language Teaching Assistant program. Here native speakers come in on a Fulbright (J-1 visa) to teach LCTLs (including South Asian languages), while pursuing their own studies in a non-degree program at the same university where they teach. It might be a good way for Indian post-grads to get some experience in the U.S. (If you know of anyone in the subcontinent who might be interested — and who fits the qualifications for the program — pass it on.)
(Incidentally, I went way beyond the ‘Blogging Call of Duty’ and actually called up the IIE office. They said this year the program has 250 people going to various U.S. universities on the FLTA program, which is a pretty impressive number if you think of the numbers of people those 250 people could potentially be teaching.)
But despite improvements like the FLTA program, the options for South Asian language study in the U.S. remain rather limited at present. And as Manorama’s story indicates, even when you have the chance to do it, the whole experience can be a little twisted.
I will add to Manish’s list two
Shahid : Shahid Shukriya : Shukran
In India these days, is Hindi considered a Sanskritized version of Khari Bol (Delhi area language), with wirds like Kitab eliminated and repalced with Pustak?
Or is it widely accepted that Hindi contains arabic, persian and even some turkish terminology? Are words like Dunya and Hava part of standard Hindi?
I know that I could probably carry on a everday conversation with a Hindi-speaker without a problem. But I could barely make out any of the Air India flight attendents Hindi. Or any of the News on Doordarshan.
(Which may just be my own stupidity, I can’T understand any of PTV’s deSanskritized Urdu either.)
Ikram, in India Hindi is considered to be a Sanskrit derivative. However the language varies in metros due to influence of other languages prevalent there eg punjabi in Delhi, marathi in Mumbai.
So while day to day use in metros is easy to understand as you find it to be, the news on Doordarshan and the Air India announcements are made in the proper hindi. Hindi instruction in Indian schools will not accept kitab (pustak) and hava ( vayu) .
So while, conversing in day-to-day hindi in delhi may not be a problem, you may find it trickier to do so in northern parts where Hindi is the native language as their usage is more accurate ( closer to formal hindi).
It would be challenging to find Delhites who say pustak in place of kitab though ( outside of hindi classes)
To clarify further on rejection of kitab and hava in hindi classes in India : You are usually not penalised but are encouraged to learn/ use hindi words verbally in class. when it comes to written work, you can be penalised for not using hindi words esp when it comes to 10th boards CBSE.
I’m a punjabi speaker (non-native, limited but better than average oral fluency, virtually no reading/writing), and I find it funny when people assume that I should naturally be able to understand Hindi.
In Delhi, I can understand a lot of Hindustani. But outside of Delhi, it’s hard. It’s hard to understand movies as well. Why? Until I read this post, I had no idea that there were words like pustak or vayu. Heck, I still remember when I found out that salt wasn’t “loon” in Hindi it was “nimack.”
Maybe to a fluent Punjabi speaker with a lot of exposure to Hindi, these are minor things. But these are the things which cause me to lose the thread of the conversation quite quickly.
In my experience of mainly urban India, people laugh at you if you use the word ‘Pustak’ in a conversation in Hindi.
(And I mean that literally — I’ve been laughed at for that kind of faux pas.)
Hindustani — meaning, the mix of Urdu vocabulary with Hindi grammar — is Hindi as it is really spoken in most of (urban?) northern India. The Hindi that is taught and that is reflected in Doordarshan and BBCHindi, however, is very Sanskritized.
The Indian government has been trying and failing for 50 years to standardize things to a more Sanskritized Hindi. It’s not likely to happen anytime soon.
I strongly feel that people learning conversational Hindi abroad are much better off on the street in India if they learn the words people ordinarily use.
Someone asked about Bombaiya (or “Bambaiya” as it’s sometimes spelled) words. One example might be in the poem I linked to earlier in this thread:
“Yeh kaisa bada sankatam, Bhejemein fikr aur kuch na clear…”
(translates roughly as: What a huge problem/ Worry in the mind and nothing is clear)
“Bheja” is Bombaiya for mind/brain, similar to Hindi “Dimaag”. (I had to ask my Bombayite wife…)
I found another example of Bambaiya on this website:
“Abe sale, kyon time ki khoti kar rela hai? Cut to cut baat karne ka, apne ko faltu bakbak karne ka aadat nahin hai. Jo kuch kehna hai, jaldi kar aur phoot le.”
Here I suspect “khoti” and “phoot le” are Marathi. “Cut to cut” is coming from English…
Though I could be wrong.
My experience with speaking hindi in UP/uttaranchal has been bad. My hindi was barely upto the mark and I failed to be helpful to my younger grade school cousins when it came to their Hindi homework. So yes urban areas are easier but Kanpur,lucknow, varanasi et al can throw you back. Ennis: on the other hand, most non south asians in Toronto areas assume everyone Indian IS Punjabi. btw its namak 🙂
More Bombaiya vocabulary (ripped from this website):
THE ONLINE BHINDI (bambaiya hindi) DICTIONARY
Bus kya : The meaning of it is that com’on don’t take me for granted.
Apun : It’s actual meaning is WE but in Bhindi it means I or me…usage like : apun ko kya samjha tu ne, apne haath ka ek padega..
Chava / Chavi – Actual meaning of a chava is a lion’s cub.However, in Bhindi it would mean a Boyfriend/GirlFriend (normally the one that’s steady). Chava, is also used to describe to a good looking chap or the normal stud in the locality. No, Chavi would still mean the steady one.
Chikna – Stands for any good looking fellow. Chikna actually means smooth. Chikni is the female version of the same word.
Saala : literal meaning wife’s brother….but in Mumbai it is used in every context…when friends meet and greet then it is kya saala kaisa hai…..when angry “abey saale….phoot na”… in fact this is the most common used word in mumbai…. and can be used when you are happy / sad / depressed / angry / shy / vulgar / teasing / and when there is nothing else to say then use a saala….
Dhapnya / Battery / double battery – Refers to a person wearing prescription glasses. Dhapnya is a marathi word. The Ghati way of saying this would be “bya-tree”.
Chaayla – The original meaning is quite demeaning. The contemporary meaning is so flexible that “Chaayla” can be used anywhere in a casual conversation.
Keeda /SulemaniKeeda / RehmaniKeeda – An absolute pest.
Jhakaas – Superb. Excellent.
Mandvali / Mandavli – Compromise /Negotiation usage : bhai apun ko Mandvali karne ka hai.
Atrangi – One meaning of this word is similar to Hajaam. Atrangi also mean something extraordinary.
Punter / Tapori – Roadside loafer. Taporiis among the most commonly used words in Bhindi.
Shana :literal meaning in marathi means wise..but mostly used in sarcastic way like “tu kya shana hai kya ??”
dhid shana : The word dhid means 1 and half times the original one. that means 1 and half times shana.
Dum : Actual meaning is cigarette with marijuana for kick. but nowdays commonly used to refer ordinary cigarette..
chota : when you ask a paanwala in mumbai he will give you a small Goldflake cigarette.
Charsi / Fookya / Soootya – A smoker. Charas is exactly marijuana. Charasi would mean any guy who smokes though.
Tapri – A road side shop.
Chotay – For any kid working in a Tapri. If the shop has more than one kid…. all would have to be Chotays.
Ramu – see “chotay” above
Chinese Gaadi – No this is not a Chinese make of anautomobile Its the “Tapri” selling chinese food on the side of the road. You find one after every 10 meters. The best part is that all these Chinese Gaadis are red in color, have names like “Red Sun”, “Red Dragon”, “Fong’s”, or anything that sounds vaguely Chinese. The cook is normally a Nepali gurkha working as a night watchman in some nearby apartment complex.
Cutting – A little_more_than_half cup of Tea is a cutting. The Cutting concept would have been started by people who used to split a cup of tea between 2 people… and finally the tea vendor started selling half cup of tea and called it “cutting”. A little_more_than_half is given to increase the patrons.
AndhaDhuni / Aadva-Patta – These are a cricketing terms. AadvaPatta comes from Pune, means “Cross batted shot”. AndhaDhuni means”Blind shot”. But nowadays these refer to any guy who doesn’t bat well.
Mama / Maushi – Mama and Maushi translate to the maternal uncle and aunt. These words are thoroughly misused to get some work done. Normally used while speaking Marathi. Every other Marathi speaking street vendor would be a Mama or a Maushi.
Paapay / Papajee – A Sikh.
oh, like NY-ers do with the F word
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I’m a little confused. I had thought that official Hindi was a deUrdu-ized version of the language that was spoken around the Delhi area (Khari Bol).
You seem to suggest that in areas of North India other than the Doab there is a pure, sankritized Hindi spoken in everday language (pustak, not kitab).
In my own experience, I could get by fine in areas like Kanpur, Lucknow, and Allahbad — the language spoken there (Hindustani, whatever) has a significant arab and farsi component.
Is there actually some part of India where Doordarshan Hindi is the spoken, everyday language?
I think it depends on what portions of the city you visited. In the more muslim dominated areas of the same cities, Urdu/ Hindi+ Urdu is more widely spoken and in other parts you will find more sanskrit in Hindi. Also, unless you are referring to Bihar, Urdu is not completely isolated from hindi in terms of conversational usage. But I come from a huge family where Sanskritized hindi is used in a day to day language. My interaction with the neighbours and friends from these cities has also resulted in the same Sanskrit-hindi experience. So it isnt unusual for me to hear people use words such as vatavaran( environment), prakriti, aari(saw), sambhavna (possibility), kathin ( difficult). I do not think this is unusual as media – exposure to places where hindi is spoken in this form is minimal. If you were to pick a hindi newspaper in India, you would see the same Doordarshan type sanskrit hindi being used. So while some people say it may be on a decline, it is still widely spoken, read and understood just maybe not as often in the metros ( and bollywood ) 🙂
I hear very little Hindustani in the Hindi spoken by people from rural UP, even when they’re living in Delhi. When I observe it, it’s an obrupt shift to opacity.
Hindi and Urdu are derivatives of Hindustani. Hindi was the common speech ‘khari boli’ as Sanskrit, a scholarly language, was more difficult. Hindi slants towards Sanskrit and yes this is the official Hindi. However, since Urdu and hindi are very closely related, it is not uncommon to find a mixture of both being used.
Modern day hindi, derives its name from the term ‘hindavi’: the language of Hind, the term used by farsi -speaking Turks who went onto establish the Sultanate in Delhi.
So when you refer to formal hindi, it is sanskrit-based hindi that is recognised and used in literary and formal media ( newspapers, television news). But if hindi was purely snaskrit based, it would be more sanskrit. My point here is formal hindi has a heavy influence from sanskrit but this does not mean urdu/farsi/english/portuguese terms will not crop up in formal hindi, as hindi was a break from hindustani. hindustani was influenced by sanskrit, farsi et al. If hindi broke off from hindustani, then a part of latter’s variety would also be included and it is. It would not be incorrect for those who use hindi, with more farsi/urdu words in it, to call it hindi. If it helps, think of English and use of slang in it. would it be incorrect for those who use slang while conversing in English to call it english and to say they speak english? Yet official English is really one without slang.
This is a rather simplistic example. I do not mean to suggest that farsi/arabic/urdu are equivalent to slangs, far from it , but I could not think of a better example. So please, do not jump at me for the comparison. No offense intended.
SailGirl and Amardeep,
I too have spent much time with the professor you mention, and have also heard the Cafe Au Lait remark from her mouth; however, I certainly didn’t find it offensive. Of course, when we were discussing it, it came up in the context of the fair/dark skin debate. She was just expressing her opinion that Indians have nothing to be ashamed of, as they have a fantastic skin color. Nothing wrong with that, imo.
Jhaan,
i’m not saying i was all that offended. she’s really awesome and clearly has a passion for all things Urdu and Indian. but sitting in a lecture class of 150 [where the racial make up the class is at least 60% desi…] you can see how it some what shocking.
-sailgurl
I totally understand, sailgurl. She can be a tad bit eccentric at times, and throughout my first exposures to her I was often taken aback. I just wanted to put this particular comment somewhat into a context, to maybe help soften the blow for others.
Ikram:
What do you mean by pure? If you mean languages having foreign words in them, tell me one modern, living, in-use language that can be called that.
From my (a native speaker’s) experience I can tell you that the spoken form of Hindi almost all over where it is spoken has a very limited and common base set of words and uses the same grammar.
Hindi and Sanskrit are two different languages. At the same time, the largest chunk of Hindi’s (and Urdu’s for that matter) base (as opposed to specialized or technical) vocabulary is formed from words of Sanskrit origin. In Hindi’s case it is either direct (tatsam) or derived (tadbhav – thru Prakrit/Apbhransha); in Urdu’s case it’s mostly tadbhav.
One should also consider that there’s a marked difference in the written and spoken forms of Hindi. Written form of the language, mostly due to need of a complex vocabulary than the one used for general communication but also often for effect, tends to use more formal-looking words. This formal vocabulary, which is also used in official, technical and other formal communication mediums, comes mainly from Sanskrit. In other words, if one wants to present a thought or idea for which there is no appropriate word in tadbhav (derived from Sanskrit words) or deshaj (indigenous) set of words, a general Hindi user instinctively looks towards Sanskrit. Pretty much in the same way as an Urdu user looks toward Arabic/Persian.
At the same time, several videshii (mostly Arabic/Persian, but increasingly English) words have become so ingrained in Hindi that it’s often difficult to even recognize that they come from a foreign langauge. I think this phenomenon is similar to many English words having their origin in French or other languages. kitaab is one such word. kitaab is so much Hindi that both formal and spoken forms use it as the primary word for book. And as suggested earlier by someone, ‘pustak’ is a total no-go in the spoken form, although it can be seen in formal written communication. Hindi’s current vocabulary has a lot of foreign words and of those a large amount comes from Arabic/Persian (got assimilated in the language since Moguls) and English (since British). Many of these foreign words entered in Hindi thru administration, judiciary, business/trade, or poetry channels and understandably so.
The point is that once the foreign loan words get assimilated into Hindi, they become Hindi words and they form “pure” Hindi, if you will. You will find ‘kitaab’ in all comprehensive Hindi dictionaries.
AFA everyday dialogue or communication is concerned, I don’t know of any such place. But in formal or literary situations/occasions (speeches, plays, etc.) it would not be uncommon to hear that variety. It will be understood in almost all Hindi speaking regions though. In addition, it is more accessible than an Urdu-laden Hindi to speakers of other Indian langauges, because of the very reason that it uses predominantly Sanskrit or Sanskrit-derived vocabulary.
Spot Hindi test:
I received this wristband yesterday, on one side it says MakePovertyHistory, who can read what the other side says? (No prizes, I already know) I think it’s rather cool.
‘Behenon aur bhaiyon ka milan,’ sisters and brothers united.
Good lad. I can’t read any Hindi. Or Bengali. I’m a disgrace.
i’ve always wanted to study hindi, but the fact that I am not of south asian heritage kind of makes me not want to. In my experience whenever I have met a south asian I was looked at as a retard, like I had no business getting in on the club. Is there really a strong dislike by South Asians to other people of colour who are not south asian?
no. there’s just a dislike for ignorance and generalization, but it’s not color-exclusive…
Rushdie refers to ‘Bombaiya Hindi’ in his novel ‘Ground Beneath her Feet’. He calls Mumbai’s unique language H-U-G-M-E for its mish-mosh of Hindi/Urdu/Gujarati/Marathi/English.
An interesting trend amongst Bombay’s youth these days is the use of H-U-G-M-E when speaking casually with friends/peers. At home they may speak Gujarati, Marathi or whatever regional language, at work it may be English…but in social settings with peers (never with elders), it is increasingly this hybrid of different languages.
How can a small immigrant population keep speaking their original native language after generations? Harold Schiffman has written an article, using Tamil as the language, and Singapore as the place of immigration. The URL is: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/public/tongueti.htm
Hi there, can anyone translate ‘believe’ into Hindi for me?
Hi there, can anyone translate ‘believe’ into Hindi for me?
‘believe’ – yaqeen
Hay Can Anyone traslate this to me in english “Tu nay zindagi aa kay zindagi hoo zindagi badl dee. Bara samjayata noo samaj naaai kanoon kerna ain didarian. teray tay gilla hay sanoon pagla dilla way kannon la lain tu yarian. Thanks
Hi,
Strictly speaking “yaqeen” is Urdu. It is not Hindi.
In hindi there is no 100% perfect translation of the word “believe”. But the dictionary gives it as “vishvaas karna”. “vishvaas” means “trust”
For e.g. “i believed him” = “maine uska vishvaas kiya” e.g. “i trusted him” = “maine uspe vishvaas kiya”
-veer
I think it would depend a lot on the context of use. You can use yaqeen (more urdu), or vishwas or bharosa.
It was an interesting discussion. Too late to jump in the bandwagon. But my mom is a Hindi and Sanskrit teacher with graduate degree in hindi. But I never learnt from her. I was natural ;).
Also I noticed above Manish said “Jai Mata Di”. I think it was right the way he wrote it (in Hindi) as it is punjabi. Hindi would have bee Jai Mata Ki.
I politely disagree. What about the word “manta” ?
(eg. “Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin”)
It means “agree” or “listens”. Like heart doesn’t agrees or listens.
hi Guys Not impose any Language on others ( even on the person who have mother tongue as hindi )
do u want more such in India ?
Raj
Raj, Rishi, Veer Et al
English has become a rich language coz it imbibed a lot of foreign words from all over the world, even from sanskrit and Hindi. Hindi, I agree has a lot of urdu words, I think it is a good sign that the language is getting richer. Words are like animals, the stronger and more userfriendly the word, the more likely it is to survive. If you are worried about our culture being threatened, think about it again, we and our language are casting powerful influence nearby and accross the ocean.
It’s not only Hindi and English that are absorbing foreign words. When I studied German and Dutch, 30 years ago, there were almost no English words in German, but many people in the Netherlands were quite fluent in English. Now, I find that young German and Dutch speakers regularly sprinkle their conversation with English words, totally unaware that they have done so. Those are just the words they use, that now belong to those languages, too.
This has always happened, which is why English has both houses (Germanic root) and mansions (French root) and thousands of other such pairs. But I think it happens much, much faster these days because, for example, you can get 70 channels of English language satellite TV in Pune. The kids grow up watching Marathi soap operas, Hindi films and American cartoons. Which language do they understand/speak? All of them!
okay, well i think this controversy between using urdu and arabic words in hindi and using pure hindi is largely a factor of how much pride hindi speakers have in their language. From what I’ve read so far about hindi speakers using words like ‘kitab’ and ‘yaqeen’ and all of these other arabic/urdu/english words it’s obvious that these people hardly care about the condition that their language is in and what their language is going through.
As it is commonly known, not only pakistan but bangladesh was also involved in the partition from india. But unlike pakistanis, we bangladeshis do not claim to be speaking an entirely different language from our indian bengali counterparts. In fact, some of us even encourage ourselves to try to speak the form of bengali that is spoken in indian bengal, regardless of who is hindu or who is muslim. This is because the bengali that is spoken in Kolkata is the standard form of bengali, and there is a certain beauty to every standardized language that cannot be replaced by any other means.
Pakistanis on the other hand, as well as many muslims from india, are so occupied with their religion that they began to de-sanskritize their language (the hindustani language) and began to arabize/persianize it to form urdu. To me this makes no sense, why would you want to arabize your language to the extent that it becomes incomprehensible to its hindu speakers just because of your religion?? Urdu is a sanskrit derived language, therefore it should be borrowing from sanskrit like every other indo-aryan language and not from arabic or persian. This situation is comparable to english speaking hindus creating their own version of english by replacing all of the latin and greek terms with sanskrit terms instead.
The point I’m trying to make here is that everyone should be proud of the language that they speak, and should make every effort to speak its standardized form correctly. There is definitely beauty in standardized hindi and hindi speakers should work hard to speak it correctly.
The reason i brought pakistan and urdu up is because i cant help comparing them to us bangladeshis. Although we are muslim, we would never imagine de-sanskritizing our language and using arabic and persian words instead. As muslims we could easily use the word “kitab” for book when we speak, but we will always prefer the standard bengali word “boi” every time. This is because we are proud of our language and culture, we fought the pakistanis once to save it and if we have to we’ll fight again and again and again.
To us bengalis, being able to speak the pure form of the language is a sign of prestige and high education. My parents always try speaking to me in pure bengali, so i naturally know words like shombhob (possibility) and kothin (difficult), as well as more complex ones such as prathomik (primary), beejgonit (algebra), and obhishshap (curse). I’m from Canada by the way so i never went to school in bangladesh.
sorry about my long last post guys but its just that i wanted to get my point across…
i wanted to learn hindhi threw on line so please send it i understand i speak but some times i did not know what is my mistake so please send hindhi grammar
I am a hindi teacher. Teaching hindi as a second language in Mauritius. I want to teach in the uk with your help and if you feel that you need me.i am an Indo Mauritian
What universities in NY teach Hindi and fulfill the foreign language requirement?
in response to what bengali guy said… i totally agree. but my family was from the bangladesh side of the border before partition, and i have to mention that the bangla that we speak at home and the bangla i hear around kolkata versus the bangla of the rest of west bengal is very very different. the accent is totally different. “standard” bangla is also not really standardized. “baba” (father) is acutally a turkish word, “chini” (sugar) is chinese and kharap (bad) is farsi. also, dont bangladeshi bengalis have some different words? like noon and lobon for salt… there are others, im sure, i just cant remember.
I tried to start learning Hindi about 10 or so years ago. It is easy to pick up a few words, and to have the same “My name is Nathan. What is your name?” “How are you?” “I’m fine” type of conversation. But it takes a lot to move beyond that and actually carry out a conversation. What happens is that people learn a little and then do not progress further. This is what kept happening with me. I would study intensely for a week, then leave it for a few months only to have to pickup where I started again. So you have to find something that makes you learn a little everyday.
Well a few years ago, I was preparing for a trip to Japan and ran across a daily learn Japanese podcast at http://www.JapanesePod101.com. I looked around and did not find anything for Hindi. Since my in laws live with me and they both know Hindi. And my mother-in-law even taught Hindi for 33 years at the Indian High School in Bahrain. Also my wife knows Hindi. I thought this would be something good to do. So we started recording http://www.ISpeakHindi.com about 2 years ago. And it has helped me practice everyday. I still can not carry out a really useful conversation, but it has helped learn the grammar, some words, and I think if I keep going I will learn.
Anyway, if you are looking for a way to learn Hindi you might check it out at http://www.ISpeakHindi.com but if you are really interested in learning Hindi, maybe you would be interested in making some shows with us?
namaste to all of you,
does anyone know about an international hindi school in Mussoree, Uttaranchal? i went there once and heard some people speaking about this school afterwards, but at that time i was happy with the hindi basics i knew. but now i want to express myself better in hindi, also i need to read and write properly. i need a good school, with an intensive one month course would be great.. thank you so much for any advice!
irena.
Hi
I am Suresh from Chennai,
Irene and others, , if you are keen on online Hindi classes, I am willing to take. I was brought up in Ranchi for 30 years. I served a US NGO for 29 years in India,Russia and South Africa. I also do Hindi to English and vice versa translation job. I am a B.Com. graduate.
I have google talk facility/internet at home
Regards,
Suresh sskay56@gmail.com 9840643690