Don't hide - learn hindi!!
Even though Hindi is India's national language, learning Hindi has always been a herculean task for South Indians. I have fond memories from my childhood of learning (or not learning) Hindi. When I was in Class VI, Hindi was our "third" language. So, I could not escape from not learning! Since I could not follow a thing of what was taught in class, folks at home thought it fit to send me to a private tutor. They thought this would enable me to learn the language. The tutor happened to be a good-natured "grandma", extremely passionate about teaching Hindi. She used to tutor quite a few school-going kids in the area. She charged Rs. 25/- a month (about 1/2 dollar), a princely sum of money those days.
Even though she was a great teacher, yours truly wasn't one bit interested. Surprise of surprise - the grandma would come to our house and ask for me - "Where is Vasanth? He did not come for Hindi classes for the last 2 days". Obviously, I was hiding inside the house. A mother won't let the cat out, and she would usually respond, "Vasanth is not feeling well". This continued for some days, and finally my teacher was able to see through the trick :-( . She would say, "Don't hide - learn hindi!". After sometime, I realized I was being coached to appear for "Prathmik" (first of 5 or 6 levels before you are considered a Hindi Pundit). I decided it was time for me to say "bye" to my teacher.
I did meet my teacher a few times after that, but I had to move out of the area. I never met her. You will never find someone like her these days. She took special interest and care that each of her "students" should learn the language well.
Posted by manjula on July 11, 2007 at 12:36 PM IST #
Posted by Vasanth Vaidyanathan on July 11, 2007 at 01:24 PM IST #
india does NOT have any national language
http://vetri-vel.blogspot.com/2006/12/india-does-not-have-national-language.html
Part XVII of the constitution:
This part 17, defines an OFFICIAL language, NOT a national language.
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~sk4zw/india-const/p17.html
Article 345: This gives the State govt., power to decide its own "OFFICIAL LANGUAGE"
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~sk4zw/india-const/p17345.html
Article 343: This defines Hindi in devangari script and English to be the "OFFICIAL LANGUAGES" of union govt.
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~sk4zw/india-const/p17343.html
DIFFERENCE between National and Official Language:
NATIONAL LANGUAGE: Defines the people of the nation, culture, history.
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: A language that is used for official communication
While a National language by default can become the Official language, an Official language has to be APPROVED legally to become the National language.
All languages spoken in India, starting from the most populous to the least are our national languages, because all of them define the people of this nation, culture and their history collectively.
India has NO LEGALLY DEFINED NATIONAL LANGUAGES ONLY 23 OFFICIAL languages as per the constitution.
Posted by vijay on August 11, 2007 at 09:23 AM IST #
hi guys,
its good to find a site like this where in we can easily learn hindi
but if you guys like to write in hindi use this site.this is really interesting quillpad.in/hindi
Posted by mishra on August 17, 2007 at 10:03 PM IST #
Hindi is NOT the national language of India.Central goverment tried to impose hindi on non hindi states by cleverly manipulating the text books saying that 'hindi is a national language'.This was also mentioned in NCERT books and it was corrected after protest by some teachers.
There are lot things about india even most indian citizens won't be aware.Just google and find how manipur was annexed to India..
Posted by raj on August 20, 2007 at 05:28 AM IST #
Hindi is NOT the national language of India.Central goverment tried to impose hindi on non hindi states by cleverly manipulating the text books saying that 'hindi is a national language'.This was also mentioned in NCERT books and it was corrected after protest by some teachers.
There are lot things about india even most indian citizens won't be aware.Just google and find how manipur was annexed to India..
Posted by raj on August 20, 2007 at 05:29 AM IST #
If you are interested in learning Hindi, then you might be interested in my daily learn Hindi podcast at http://www.ISpeakHindi.com I also have a directory of other online resources that can help people learn Hindi.
Posted by Nathan on September 30, 2007 at 11:29 PM IST #
who wants to learn hindi???...pointless!!! for me being a south indian would prefer learning south indian languages- kannada, telugu , tamil, malaylam and even tulu.
Posted by ben on November 10, 2007 at 10:36 AM IST #
The central govt in Delhi has plans to wantonly ignore other languages and pave the way for their decline by sole use of Hindi and by the portrial of India to the outside world as Hindia.
Except for some sentiments raised by Tamils, other language speakers are simply taking it for granted to accept Hindi as their officated mother tongue.
Some examples of Hindian propoganda by both the Hindian central government and large MNCs:
1>Gas books across India printed only in Hindi and English
2>Air Hindia, Hindian Airlines, S(J)et(h) Airway etc having announcements only in English and Hindi.
3>Hindi being compulsory in CBSE schools while Hindian can choose to skip the state language in favour of Sanskrit
4>Lack of opportunity of native Tamils in the north leave alone North Indians to learn Tamil and other southern languages in their areas
5>Tamil being portrayed with lude ‘comical’ roles in Hindian films
6>Hindian railways train tickets skipping the state language
7>Airports (like in Madras) hiring Hindians who cant speak Tamil/state language
8>Hindian Railway and other Hindian institution websites restricted to only Hindi and English
9>Hindian movies only being sent to the Oscars and other cultural events ignoring other languages
10>Hindian bank passbooks skipping the state language
11>ATMs of most banks (Citibank, Hindian Bank etc restricting to Hindi and English)
12>Looking down on states of Tamil Nadu because of refusal to prescribe to “accept-Hindi-as-your-language” attitude
13. The very use of the term “Regional language” to non-Hindi languages
14. The use of Hindian stickers in trains and else portaying “speaking Hindi is nationalism” and other propoganda messages stating use of English or non-Hindi as not being nationalistic.
15. The very absence of languages other than Hindi on the symbol of citizenship of the country– the passport
The above is a part of a sinister policy create to transform India to simply Hindia or Hindistan.
These remarks are taken as fascist…but you need to ask yourself whether the National Language policy of India itself isnt fascist.
If you trace the history since independence regarding the use of language apart from Hindi, you can foretell the future plan for this fascist policy.
This Hindian fascism should not make it a big mistake for India to be a lingual union. The last thing for the country is encouragement a colonial attitude by speakers of the “elevated” lingo.
DMK, PMK and other Tamil traitors are happy with this scenario as they are in business with their Hindian masters who safeguarding the TN reservation policy, where several Hindi OBCs get reservation in TN while Tamil FCs are thrown out. Their vote bank has been assured by their Hindian masters.
Posted by siv on March 21, 2008 at 06:57 PM IST #
I have been trying to learn Hindi as well. Another resource you might consider is the daily learn Hindi podcast that my family and I produce. You can see it at http://www.ISpeakHindi.com
You might also want to subscribe to get daily emails... This can encourage you to learn a little each and every day:
http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=1132953&loc=en_US
Posted by Nathan on April 26, 2008 at 06:19 PM IST #
We have made freely available ten online lessons to learn Hindi with native audio pronunciation.
You can have a look here:
http://free.lessons.l-ceps.com/learn-hindi-free-lesson-1.html
Enjoy and good success
Max
Posted by Max on September 02, 2008 at 08:35 AM IST #
Natioanl language means, language which has its root in
India. It means originated in India. Bit Hindi is
originated outside india and spreaded in India. Hindi
is a Indo-Iraninan language which has branches in India,
root in other country. But south indian languages are having
root in India and its culture has its root in india. Why cant we make the
the language originated in india as National Language.
One thing i want to stress on those Hindians,
dont think a person who doesnt speak is not
Indians. IT exportes are non-Hindians, they are
Indias(Bangalore-1st IT exporter, Chennai-2nd Exporter).
Hyundai , Ford ,TVS,Ashokleyland in Chennai, Volvo in Bangalore,
Integral coach factory in Chennai. We dont pull train chains for
getting down wherever we require, whereas, some Hindians do in
North India. We care about traffic signal, we care about avoiding
terrorism, we care about oppurtunities for Hindians in south
india,we care about keeping environment clean,we dont spit pan,
we care about growth of employee, not like suppressing south
indians in North India.We care about Indian business guest,when
they visit india, not like speaking in Hinglish.
We use father's name with our name, but Hindians use surname with their name.These people wanted to unite India,What a clear answer, they dont want to hide their religion in workplace which will show low caste, high caste surname, but they say they want to unite India with Hindi.Nice Comedy
Posted by sathish on December 08, 2008 at 05:19 PM IST #