Questions for indians

Code_Red · September 29, 2007, 9:15am

What different scripts for reading and writing languages do you learn in indian school ?

Does the requirement vary from province to province ?

Also Muslims of India, do you people learn to read arabic script in school ?

ssingh · September 30, 2007, 4:58am

Re: Questions for indians

I learned 3 languages in school. Hindi, kannada and english. i am from karnataka. Most learn science and maths in english medium. some learn them in hindi or regional languages. But all undergraduate, graduate etc studies will be taught in english in areas like engineering, medicine and science. and yes, the requirement will vary from province to province.

indopak · September 30, 2007, 5:34am

Re: Questions for indians

I always wondered why people of the deep deep south of India don't know Hindi. How come they don't teach it in schools there? I guess it's not a requirement to learn the national language in all parts of India. It's great that english is taught but why not Hindi along with the state languages down there?

malhot · September 30, 2007, 7:57am

Re: Questions for indians

I learnt Hindi, English and Sanskrit at school.
We thought Sanskrit was a waste of time - and most of us barely passed that subject.
Hindi was'nt too bad - especially when I started reading Munshi Prem Chands short stories and Tulsi Das etc - it was such an eye opener for the vast knowledge available by Hindi writers of yore.

vineshvk · September 30, 2007, 9:14am

Re: Questions for indians

I learnt english, malayalam, hindi and telugu in schools. Of which I retained to speak English and malayalam, and can understand and speak a little hindi and telugu.
Hindi is not our only national language and there was a major movement in south India to remove Hindi from school curriculum in that state. Even now govt schools there are not taught Hindi.

indopak · September 30, 2007, 4:09pm

Re: Questions for indians

wow a movement to remove Hindi from the school curriculum? Why do they hate Hindi so much down there and what's the history behind the dislike. Personally, I think Hindi sounds so pleasing to the ear and it's not even my mother tongue.

ssingh · September 30, 2007, 5:01pm

Re: Questions for indians

...nobody hates hindi. it is just about giving/getting regional languages their share of importance. and hindi was taught in our state as a 3rd language.

indopak · September 30, 2007, 5:20pm

Re: Questions for indians

one of my friends speaks telegu or malayam and she said that she preferred to teach her daughter only their native language and english and she makes sure that her daughter isn’t exposed to Hindi much and keeps her away from anything Hindi. She seemed to really dislike the language and I was a bit puzzled and sad about her attitude but I decided not to ask her the reason.

I don’t know maybe it’s a personal thing with her but anyways it just got me wondering about the issue. Is it the same with all other parts of India too where the regional languages are stressed more and Hindi takes a back seat or is not taught in some cases in the schools?

ssingh · September 30, 2007, 6:03pm

Re: Questions for indians

yes...it is the same in all parts whether it is north east, punjab, maharashtra, gujrat, orissa or anywhere else. just like other languages take a back seat in hindi speaking states.

sweet_taboo · September 30, 2007, 7:14pm

Re: Questions for indians

It's very good that you guys have so many national languages in your country, not just one like us :O( , I really admire you for that.

I think we in Pakistan should follow our neighbour's way. Urdu is a beautiful language but we should give national status to Balochi, Pashto, Punjabi etc. as well because Urdu is only the language of about 10% of Pakis, it shouldn't be forced on other ethnic groups.

Most Urdu people live in Karachi so Urdu should be taught there as a compulsory subject but we need Sindhi in the rest of Sindh, Punjabi in Punjab, Pashto in NWFP... Languages of other provinces should be optional extras (e.g. Punjab should have a choice between Urdu, Pashto, Sindhi etc. whilst Punjabi being compulsory).

sweet_taboo · September 30, 2007, 7:20pm

Re: Questions for indians

It's not a question of hate.

I don't like the idea of a "constitutional language", if Hindi is the constutional langauge why not Tamil or Gujarati? Is Hindi anymore Indian than Gujarati?

...I suppose it's not as bad as in Pak where Urdu is the sole national language.

I love Urdu, most my friends are Urdu-speaking, the language is music to my ears but it is not the language of all us Pakistanis. It's not my language, my maternal family speaks Punjabi and my paternal side Pashto.

It's great that you guys have so many national langauges, in our country being Pakistani means speaking Urdu which is wrong, whilst in your country to someone from Madras being Indian is about speaking Tamil or to somebody from Amristar being Indian is about speaking Punjabi, that's beautiful. I wish our country did the same.

Pakistan and India are multi-national states.

Trying to create this homogeneous Indian or Paki identity is daft, both Pak and India have so many different heritages/histories that often clash, it's daft to impose one identity on the entire country.

Pan-Paki, Pan-Indian or Pan-Desi culture is a farce. A Tamil or Pathan have nothing to do with Urdu/Hindi.

_Namkeen · September 30, 2007, 8:29pm

Re: Questions for indians

i studied in pune, english was the primary language of instruction, secondary languages were hindi, and marathi - the local language. since hindi and marathi share the same script, it was rather easy. when we got to 8th grade we had to choose a third language and the choices were Sanskrit, French and German.

My cousins who studied in Bangalore took English and Kannada as primary languages, they didn't learn Hindi at all at school but picked it up later at college or work.

indopak · September 30, 2007, 8:50pm

Re: Questions for indians

I guess it's great that the one way that indians can communicate with each other is English since there are 100s of languages in all and then there are also the countless dialects but it's some times nice to speak an indian language that all indians can use and understand when speaking with each other which isn't forced on anybody but just a language to bring all indians together other than english.

In America, with my american accent, some times I feel a bit strange speaking in English with other Indians and wish I could speak in an Indian language so I could feel closer to them just so they don't feel like outsiders around me since after all they are Indians just like me.

ok I'm thinking i'm not making any sense to anybody so anyway i'm done:D

glamorous · September 30, 2007, 8:52pm

Re: Questions for indians

there are indians here

indopak · September 30, 2007, 8:56pm

Re: Questions for indians

scary isn't it:p.....just kidding:D

vineshvk · September 30, 2007, 9:58pm

Re: Questions for indians

Many politicians in Tamil Nadu made a career out of it.
Even I dont think it is good to have just one national language. India is a vast country and varied people with different culture and languages, each very unique and diverse. Hence to bind them together into a single language will cause an inherent explosion. Its better the way it is.

indopak · September 30, 2007, 10:07pm

Re: Questions for indians

I think you're misunderstanding me....I never said that people in India should stop speaking and writing in their own native languages. That's what makes India great the fact that there is that diversity in language and subculture, I was just saying.....i guess i'm in the minority in this but anyway read my post 13 and i'm outta here:).

YVER · October 1, 2007, 2:55am

Re: Questions for indians

^Indopak,
What you say is true (having one language would have lot of benefits), but you have to consider the fact that at the time of independence the country was begining to take roots after centuries of subjugation. All these states were independent and every state has their unique culture dating back to centuries. Imposing hindi would have been not good for the unity of the country, because everybody was very rpoud of their language. And its funny that hindi is the youngest of all languages.

Regarding the number of languages, I think most of the states (except where hindi is the official language) students learn atleast 3 languages upto high school (English, Hindi and their state language).

I'm from Andhra and I studied English, Hindi and Telugu. In our state we can also take one more language in Intermediate(11th and 12th). And most people even though they study hindi they would find it hard to speak because of lack of exposure except for big metropolitan cities. Thats why lot people cuss about learning Hindi.

The movement to remove Hindi has taken place only in Tamil nadu state which is due to the politics that date back to pre independence.
And I think as the literacy rate increases, every body in India would be conversing in Hindi and English. And the factor contributing to this would be bollywood.

shriek11 · October 1, 2007, 4:10am

Re: Questions for indians

sweet taboo, punjab never use punjabi but instead persian before in the mughal period. Then, urdu replaced persian in the shift from around the end of mughal era to british. The current punjabi in pakistan is a loose slang which is based around the urdu script. How do you plan on making that a language?

PS Btw, we had to learn sindh in karachi but the way it was taught, I really didn't learn much about sindh except the family names of kalhora and talpur :D

denada · October 1, 2007, 2:42pm

Re: Questions for indians

I learned English, Marathi and Hindi. In Mumbai and Maharashtra Marathi is compulsory and is taught from Grade 4th to 10th.

If you go to Urdu medium schools, Marathi is taught for few years. Marathi medium students have the option of learning Hindi or Hindi/Sanskrit.