How to Learn Hindi – Why Bother?
In your journey to know how do learn Hindi, what were your reasons for why to learn Hindi? There are many reasons to learn Hindi, ranging from the crassly commercial to the philosophical and poetic. Here is an overview of reasons why you should be concerned with how to learn Hindi.
First, Hindi is one of the official languages of one of the most important players on the global scene. Whether you are dealing in business, information technology, science or digital media, India is an increasingly important presence globally. With a burgeoning middle class, it is also becoming a very hungry market for consumer goods. Now, many people point to the fact that English is spoken widely in India. Indeed, English is India’s second official language. But anyone seriously wanting to understand a culture needs to understand one of its most commonly spoken languages. So a business person with the ambition to work in India should learn Hindi in order to get her job done better.
Secondly, Indian culture is beginning to permeate Western culture. Clearly, the popularity of Bollywood Films Hindi has grown in recent years. Less often noticed, though, is that Western popular music is increasingly influenced by traditional Indian music. Sting and Madonna, for example, share more than a sufficient amount of celebrity to be able to travel the world with a single name. They both practice yoga and have incorporated elements of Indian music into their own.
Thirdly, Hindi is spoken by a very large number of people worldwide. Hindi speakers live throughout the former British Commonwealth countries, as well as in Fiji, Nepal, Yemen, Mauritius and elsewhere. Since spoken colloquial Hindi is virtually indistinguishable from spoken Urdu, a traveler acquainted with Hindi could also make her way around Pakistan. Hindi is spoken by more people than any other language than Mandarin, Spanish or English. In fact, some sources place Hindi in second place, just behind Mandarin. If you speak Hindi, you have a language in common with millions of people.
Fourthly, Hindi is beautiful. Ancient, elegant and expressive, Hindi is a language with a tremendous legacy of poetry, philosophy and song. Knowledge of Hindi opens doors to the study of poetry and sacred texts that is rare for Westerners.
Perhaps you have your own reason for trying to know how to learn Hindi. Are you of Indian descent? Or perhaps you have a significant other or friend who is? Are you a movie buff who wants to be able to enjoy Bollywood films without reading the subtitles? Or has a practice of yoga, meditation or other eastern spiritual wisdom led you to want to study Indian culture, including the Hindi language? Are you a world traveler who wants to visit that rich and diverse culture, India? If so, you know that learning Hindi is immensely important.
So there are many reasons to want to know how to learn Hindi. You may be interested because of India’s growing importance as an economic powerhouse, because of the reach of Indian popular culture, because of the sheer numbers of Hindi speakers worldwide, because of Hindi’s beauty and poetic legacy, or for your own reasons. Whatever your reason, set to it now. Determine which method is best for you for how to learn Hindi, then go do it.