Dear Editor,
A small article in the Guyana Chronicle caught my attention today. The article referred to World Hindi Day. Previously I did not know that there was a day dedicated to celebrate this language spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world, and by a large percentage of people in Guyana − mostly words and phrases, and not complete sentences. I recall there was a time, albeit very short, when Hindi was taught in high schools in Guyana. It was open to all Guyanese and I remember how excited students were, as well as many parents. Perhaps it is time for the Ministry of Education to bring the language back into schools. After all, Hindi is a part of the language of Guyana. When someone says, come na bhai, that is Hindi (Chalo na bhai), or when someone uses words like, channa, paglee, aaloo, dahl, roti, puri, kushi, pandit, pajama, bungalow and numerous others, they are speaking Hindi. I see a potential for another linguistic connection among our disparate ethnic groups.
Yours faithfully,
Mohan Singh
And of what value will that be?
Perhaps we should have more emphasis placed on French, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese since we are surrounded by these languages. It will better benefit our young people to strengthen bonds with our neighbors hence further assuring we are counted (oh I forgot… some of us cannot stop assuring themselves we are Indians…. Wake up people and find your own identity)
I don’t know if you looked at a map lately but Guyana is in South America not East Asia.
As a matter of fact, your reference should have been South Asia …
Truth be told, the global language is English and business language is English …neither Dutch, French nor Spanish will expand much more in the future. However, Chinese will continue to dominate as the #1 spoken language.
I went to college with lots of Indians (fron India), and they all would be chit-chatting among themselves, except for one female. One day, I asked her how come she almost never speaks with them. She said that she is from northern India where hindi is spoken, and they are from the south where they speak malayalam. They don’t speak or understand hindi, and she didn’t speak or understand malayalam.
So, wait a minute, if there are people from India who can’t speak hindi and aren’t trying to learn it, then why should Guyanese?
You’ve got to be kidding me….No, No way as this would start a religious war….could you picture—-another Middle East!!!! As some of the bloggers have stated, it would be worthwhile investing time on other Languages and strengthened the basics like Math, Reading, Writing…
Everybody missed the “perhaps” in the headline and in the letter. It’s all “perhaps” and knowing how the MOE works it will remain just “perhaps.”
Taught in schools?To do what with it?
Chinese and Hindi is being taught in Canada and U.S.A to adults, WOULD BE INVESTORS. Not as some Numb-Sculls Racial-minded thinks for preference,,,,,,,,,, but to monopolise on more investment in cheap-laboured China and India.
Precisely, offered to adults on an optional basis.
Why not focus on pefecting the one language that is still the official language of Guyana?
lol I speak 3 languages not including Arabic and Portuguese which “i totally suck at” speaking. But i am wondering,What many languages do you guys speak? Don’t tell me you are not smart enough to speak another language!!
Teaching hindi in schools doesn’t make any sense as far as i am concerned.Guyanese people and children coming to America,especially people from the upper corentyne area really needed to learn proper english rather than hindi.I think english language will be of great benefit to a lot of them,they badley need to learn it.