Learning and retaining Hindi

Many people in India take their mother tongue Hindi for granted. They don’t consider the fact that those who live in a foreign environment are at risk of losing some of their language skills and fluency if they aren’t looked after. Expatriates tend to retain their first language better, unconsciously “clinging on” to it, if they see their cultural make-up as central to their identity.

The fortunes of languages can rise and fall and are intimately linked to the fortunes of their speakers. Relatively few languages are becoming increasingly widely-spoken in the world today and it is becoming more and more difficult for smaller languages to survive.

Nowadays at the beginning of 21st century, in media and computer era, being a native English speaker presents a bunch of obvious advantages. Those who grow up speaking English can be understood almost everywhere in the world among scholars and educated people. English is world media language, the speech of cinema, TV shows, pop music and computers. It is also the most important language for politics, sports, science and newspapers.

To use computers, to connect to internet addresses, to send email, one needs to know the Latin alphabet. Latin characters are always present, even together with other alphabets, in most computer and cell phone keyboards around the world. All internet sites and email addresses currently use only the Latin alphabet. This forces educated people who use computers to have at least a little knowledge of the Latin alphabet. People who must learn another alphabet go beyond the sounds of their mother tongue.

Fortunately , it is getting easier to retain one’s mother tongue. The Internet has made it very easy to access Hindi newspapers, magazines, radio programmes, films, etc.

The increasing mobility of people, goods, and information has driven a powerful trend toward cultural uniformity and the extinction of local languages. But languages like Hindi that have young people, business, and government on their side are alive and thriving.

Even if you are an Indian and don’t know Hindi, you can always learn it. Learning a new language might not be all that easy, but there are many benefits indeed.  If you know another language, you’ll be more cultured simply because this would permit you to travel more and you’ll know the world better. With your new language you may develop new friendships. When you learn a new language you need to put words and verbs together, which works your brain. You’ll be very good at associating other things as well.

Please visit to the site of Hindi Newspaper Deshbandhu, reading newspaper is the best way to learn any language.