Is Hindi learning an expensive thought in India?
The Hindi language is a member of the Indo-Aryan language family within the Indo-Iranian branch spoken extensively in India. It is the country’s most preferred official language, besides English and the other Scheduled languages in the Indian Constitution. In India, nearly 425M people speak Hindi as their primary language and about 120M use it as a second language. In South Africa, Mauritius, Bangladesh, Yemen and Uganda we can find a significant number of Hindi speaking communities.
Hindi is an extremely popular language in India. It is widely spoken in North India, in fact 40% of the Indian population is well versed in the Hindi language.
When we consider the cost of learning Hindi in India, then we need to consider whether the target population are Indians themselves or foreigners. This is due to a simple reason, Hindi is already spoken by the entirety of North India. Almost every single North Indian state has some variation of Hindi, therefore, it would not be expensive for North Indians to learn Hindi at all.
When we consider the South Indian states, it will definitely be a little difficult for South Indian native language speakers to learn Hindi, with that said, all Indian languages are derived from one of the mother language, known as Sanskrit. All South Indian languages, North Indian languages and Hindi technically have the same base. Hence, while South Indian language native speakers might take much longer to master Hindi than North Indian language native speakers, it definitely isn’t costly or difficult for them to master it.
Now we consider the aspect of foreigners learning Hindi in India. There is a major benefit for any foreigner to learn Hindi in India. One of the best methods of learning a language is through immersing yourself in the environment that the language is spoken in most. Similarly, when a foreigner would learn Hindi in India, he inadvertently would utilise the immersion method of mastering this language. So automatically, The classes that they would experience in India are a step ahead of what they would opt for in their home country.
Furthermore, 1 rupee in India is equal to 0.01 4USD, 0.018 SGD, 0.019 AUD and 0.012 euros. With the conversion rates this low, any course in India that any foreigner opts for is already much cheaper than what would be offered in their home country. Additionally, travelling here is automatically going to turn their course into an immersion course, which is just an added benefit at a cheaper price. Considering all these factors Hindi will definitely not be an expensive thought in India. If anything, learning Hindi is much cheaper in India than it is anywhere abroad.
Finally,
In 1950, Hindi was made the official language of the Union of India. The Indian constitution allows the use of Hindi as the Union’s official language in the Devanagari script. Hindi was to replace English in 1965 however, The Official Language Act adopted in 1963, elevated English to be the associate language of the Indian Union, allowing it to be used as an alternate official language of the Indian Union and also be used as the language in the parliament indefinitely.