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Namaste USA! Hindi Lessons a Hit Abroad
Ryan Spencer, a Seattle-based middle school student, begins his Sunday mornings with an hour-long Skype call to India.
The agenda? Mastering the Hindi alphabet.
In April, after a family vacation to the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the 12-year-olds father Richie Spencer hired a Varanasi-based Hindi professor to teach Ryan the basics of the language via Skype.
India is an emerging powerhouse, Mr. Spencer, 51, said. Hindi lessons will come in handy when Ryan grows up, added Mr. Spencer, a surgeon.
Ryans Hindi class is a drawn out affair in the Spencer household. Preparations for his Sunday lesson begin on Friday, with the family quizzing the fifth grader on the Hindi alphabet over dinner. On Saturdays, Ryan typically takes Internet-based Hindi tests, the results of which are emailed to the Indian teacher for review.
The Spencers are among a growing group of Westerners who have, in recent years, gone to great lengths to ensure their children are keeping pace with Indias rising global influence.
A decade ago, when the U.S. Department of State named Hindi as one of the worlds must-learn languages, it was mainly aspiring government servants who were keen to pick up the Indian tongue because doing so gained them bonus points in the U.S. foreign service exam. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Investigative Agency also offered better jobs to employees who had learnt the language.
But with India poised to be a global superpower, experts say the demand for Hindi classes has shot up in recent years, particularly in the U.S.
Definitely, more and more programs and courses relating to India, specifically Hindi, have come up over the last few years, Richard Delacy, a Hindi professor at Harvard University, said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Last year, for instance, the student body of Medford-based Tufts University in the U.S. demanded Hindi be made part of their curriculum after a campus survey found at least a fifth of 1,100 students would opt for it as a foreign language.
Popular schools, including Illinois-based Northwestern University and The Ohio State University, recently opened applications for Hindi professors.
People are seeing Hindi as an opportunity to venture into emerging markets, Mr. Delacy said.
In 2010, Russell Mason, a former Hindi student at Harvard University, moved to Mumbai to work for the Mahindra Group 500520.BY -2.12%. Mr. Mason, who majored in economics at the university, said he was pushed to sit for a trial Hindi class by a South Asian friend, but decided to sign up for the year-long course after weighing long-term benefits of the language.
Ali Taqi/Zabaan
Some sensed a business opportunity in the rising popularity of Hindi among Westerners. Ali Taqi, left, founded a language institution offering Hindi classes via Skype.
Among the many perks, the 25-year-old said, Hindi was a door into developing markets. Mr. Mason, who is responsible for strategy and development at Mahindras affordable housing business, says his command over the language has helped him interact with his many Indian clients.
Some experts believe the growing fascination with Indian culture is one of the reasons why young Americans are turning to learn Hindi.
Puran Chand Tandon, an associate professor of Hindi at Delhi University, points to Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire and Avatar as recent films that have introduced Indian culture to young American audiences.
Cinema has played a major role in popularizing facets of Indian culture from yoga to Bollywood dances in the West, Mr. Tandon said. This, he believes, is among the key reasons that led to the sudden rush in young people abroad signing up for Hindi classes.
Prachi Agnihotri, who works as a part-time Hindi teacher with Verbalplanet.com, an online language portal, agrees.
Mr. Agnihotri, a software professional at Pune-based Tieto India, an information technology company, says her students most of whom are American typically sign up for Skype lessons after seeing Bollywood films dubbed in English, or after having attended yoga and spiritual workshops in the U.S.
Eight years ago, when the 30-year-old started offering Skype classes, she had only two students. Now, she has 10, seven of whom are American.
Some language experts have sensed a business opportunity in the rising popularity of Hindi among Westerners. Among them is Ali Taqi, who in 2009 founded Zabaan a New Delhi-based language institution with a fellow American.
Last year, Zabaan delivered 490 Hindi lessons over Skype, about seven times more than in 2010, when the institution began teaching over the Web. A chunk of their traffic comes from the U.S.
Toni Randall
Teri Randall, an aspiring American diplomat, began taking Hindi lessons over Skype in March.
The interest in Hindi in America is huge, Mr. Taqi, a former Hindi teacher at University of Washington, said. Job profiles of those who enroll online range from aspiring diplomats and social workers to college students and professionals reallocating to India, he adds.
I can learn at my own pace, Teri Randall, a 50-year-old Californian, said about learning Hindi over Skype. Ms. Randall, an aspiring diplomat, enrolled for Zabaans online classes in March after she was shortlisted for the final round of the U.S. foreign service exam last November.
She hopes her fluency in Hindi will help strengthen her candidacy for the foreign services. Id love to service in India one day, Ms. Randall, a filmmaker, said.
Its rich history and religious diversity is hard to give a miss, she added.
Namaste USA! Hindi Lessons a Hit Abroad - India Real Time - WSJ
Ryan Spencer, a Seattle-based middle school student, begins his Sunday mornings with an hour-long Skype call to India.
The agenda? Mastering the Hindi alphabet.
In April, after a family vacation to the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the 12-year-olds father Richie Spencer hired a Varanasi-based Hindi professor to teach Ryan the basics of the language via Skype.
India is an emerging powerhouse, Mr. Spencer, 51, said. Hindi lessons will come in handy when Ryan grows up, added Mr. Spencer, a surgeon.
Ryans Hindi class is a drawn out affair in the Spencer household. Preparations for his Sunday lesson begin on Friday, with the family quizzing the fifth grader on the Hindi alphabet over dinner. On Saturdays, Ryan typically takes Internet-based Hindi tests, the results of which are emailed to the Indian teacher for review.
The Spencers are among a growing group of Westerners who have, in recent years, gone to great lengths to ensure their children are keeping pace with Indias rising global influence.
A decade ago, when the U.S. Department of State named Hindi as one of the worlds must-learn languages, it was mainly aspiring government servants who were keen to pick up the Indian tongue because doing so gained them bonus points in the U.S. foreign service exam. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Investigative Agency also offered better jobs to employees who had learnt the language.
But with India poised to be a global superpower, experts say the demand for Hindi classes has shot up in recent years, particularly in the U.S.
Definitely, more and more programs and courses relating to India, specifically Hindi, have come up over the last few years, Richard Delacy, a Hindi professor at Harvard University, said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Last year, for instance, the student body of Medford-based Tufts University in the U.S. demanded Hindi be made part of their curriculum after a campus survey found at least a fifth of 1,100 students would opt for it as a foreign language.
Popular schools, including Illinois-based Northwestern University and The Ohio State University, recently opened applications for Hindi professors.
People are seeing Hindi as an opportunity to venture into emerging markets, Mr. Delacy said.
In 2010, Russell Mason, a former Hindi student at Harvard University, moved to Mumbai to work for the Mahindra Group 500520.BY -2.12%. Mr. Mason, who majored in economics at the university, said he was pushed to sit for a trial Hindi class by a South Asian friend, but decided to sign up for the year-long course after weighing long-term benefits of the language.
Ali Taqi/Zabaan
Some sensed a business opportunity in the rising popularity of Hindi among Westerners. Ali Taqi, left, founded a language institution offering Hindi classes via Skype.
Among the many perks, the 25-year-old said, Hindi was a door into developing markets. Mr. Mason, who is responsible for strategy and development at Mahindras affordable housing business, says his command over the language has helped him interact with his many Indian clients.
Some experts believe the growing fascination with Indian culture is one of the reasons why young Americans are turning to learn Hindi.
Puran Chand Tandon, an associate professor of Hindi at Delhi University, points to Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire and Avatar as recent films that have introduced Indian culture to young American audiences.
Cinema has played a major role in popularizing facets of Indian culture from yoga to Bollywood dances in the West, Mr. Tandon said. This, he believes, is among the key reasons that led to the sudden rush in young people abroad signing up for Hindi classes.
Prachi Agnihotri, who works as a part-time Hindi teacher with Verbalplanet.com, an online language portal, agrees.
Mr. Agnihotri, a software professional at Pune-based Tieto India, an information technology company, says her students most of whom are American typically sign up for Skype lessons after seeing Bollywood films dubbed in English, or after having attended yoga and spiritual workshops in the U.S.
Eight years ago, when the 30-year-old started offering Skype classes, she had only two students. Now, she has 10, seven of whom are American.
Some language experts have sensed a business opportunity in the rising popularity of Hindi among Westerners. Among them is Ali Taqi, who in 2009 founded Zabaan a New Delhi-based language institution with a fellow American.
Last year, Zabaan delivered 490 Hindi lessons over Skype, about seven times more than in 2010, when the institution began teaching over the Web. A chunk of their traffic comes from the U.S.
Toni Randall
Teri Randall, an aspiring American diplomat, began taking Hindi lessons over Skype in March.
The interest in Hindi in America is huge, Mr. Taqi, a former Hindi teacher at University of Washington, said. Job profiles of those who enroll online range from aspiring diplomats and social workers to college students and professionals reallocating to India, he adds.
I can learn at my own pace, Teri Randall, a 50-year-old Californian, said about learning Hindi over Skype. Ms. Randall, an aspiring diplomat, enrolled for Zabaans online classes in March after she was shortlisted for the final round of the U.S. foreign service exam last November.
She hopes her fluency in Hindi will help strengthen her candidacy for the foreign services. Id love to service in India one day, Ms. Randall, a filmmaker, said.
Its rich history and religious diversity is hard to give a miss, she added.
Namaste USA! Hindi Lessons a Hit Abroad - India Real Time - WSJ
