Originally posted by hindu4lyf
Wouldn't that depend on person to person? I have to learn English as i'm in UK but doesn't mean i prefer to speak the language does it? (although i do but that's another matter lol)
I think what your talking about is different. Ig I live in Bengal where Bengali is obviously my state language where Hindi too should be learnt then wouldn't I rather communicate with my Bengali friends in Bengali rather than Hindi? :S Most Bengali Indians I know can speak both fluently but they prefer speaking their mother tongue. But learning Hindi actually makes you communicate with all Indians (in hindsight) as if I go to North India and i'm marathi then how would we communicate? Hindi is what joins the two together. People will argue english can be used but an average Indian doesn't know even half the english language. Majority of Mumbaikars I know e.g. relatives actually do speak fluent english but an average Indian wouldn't.
Out of everyone in this topic, I should probably be the most anti-hindi cos our communal language is actually becoming rare in India but I feel a sense of community if everyone could speak Hindi.
My basic point being it gets rid of all language barriers so no Indian will hesitate while speaking to another Indian cos they're speaking another language.
Even though Hindi is taught in Maharashtra for all these years, that hasn't stopped the useage of Marathi has it? :S So why would it stop others from speaking their local language?
In china there is only one official language yep but one of my closest friends is chinese and her parents were brought up in a region in china where cantonese is widely used. End result: my friend can just about understand mandarin, can't speak a word of it but can understand cantonese fluently. Like I said, the issue about languages ceasing to exist depends on individuals and their preferences.
I did say I don't think they should be forced to learn the language but it should just be part of the ciriculum like any other language. Now shall british students go on strike to say that why is french compulsory in all schools just because a wide variety of people speak it? We learn an extra language for a reason and Hindi will only help communication between all Indians.
well since you said you are from the uk and your friend who is chinese were brought up in region in china where cantonese is widely used, then i assume that he/she must have come from hongkong or macao. correct me if i am wrong. macao and hongkong are what they called the SAR or special administrative region. even though both of these regions are under chinese subordinance, they have their own government. it is part of the chinese one state two systems program. therefore, in these two regions especially in hongkong they use cantonese widely. they even teach mandarin as the third language and use both cantonese and english as a medium for the education. mandarin is compulsory to be learnt only in elementary schools and many people do not continue to study mandarin in secondary schools as it is no longer compulsory for them to learn and too difficult for them to learn it. therefore, many hongkongnese cannot speak mandarin fluently, they also use cantonese in daily usage and in public. unlike the other mainland china, hongkong and macao use cantonese widely and learning mandarin to speak mandarin is not as important and compulsory than in the mainland china. it is also in my knowledge that many of the hongkongnese migrated to the UK when the UK returned hongkong back to China in 1997. this was due to China as a communism government, and they were afraid hongkong will not be able to have the freedom it once have when under the UK administration. they were also afraid that the Chinese government will not let them continue to practice the capitalism form of market.
since you are living in the UK it is only natural for you to speak english as it is easier for you to speak english rather than other languages. in the example of bengali that you are telling, they are still prefering to speak bengali rather than hindi because the majority of the people still speak bengali and hindi is not the compulsory language in every state of india. there are also anti-hindi movements in southern india, tamils is a very strong evident for this one. however, if hindi were to be truly nationalized in india, and the government will be imposing each one of indians to study hindi then everybody will start using hindi instead of their own regional languages and slowly but surely they will start to abandon their own regional languages in favor to hindi. you are saying that hindi is what joins the different people from different states together, but you are also forgetting that people in the southern india especially the tamils are really anti-hindi. they would prefer to speak in english rather than in hindi if one were to speak hindi with them. and i do think that english needs to continue to be taught in schools in india, not for the domestic usage but for the international usage as english is very important nowadays, this is not only to india but to other countries as well. it will be almost impossible nowadays to conduct business at least in the international levels without the usage of english and many indians cannot speak english. and even though we are saying today that many indians like your relatives speak in english, it is undeniable that the indian english are something that is considered to be bad according to international standard due to the thick accent, and this is sometimes that is often laughed by people all around the world.