North India Vs South India

I am working with Notionpress these days.

Their head office is situated in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Their mother tounge is Tamil. Mine is Hindi.

However, we converse in English.

But do you think they don't know Hindi?

They absolutely do.

But I definitely do not know Tamil.

But still neither of us has a problem talking in English.

But the main point is, here we're talking on phone.

Now lets reverse the scenario a little.

My cousin visited their office in Delhi. There she met this guy who was appointed from Chennai. Now he had a conversation with her in Hindi.

That is quite understandable. As he was in Delhi, we expected him to speak Hindi.

But.

When we visit Tamil Nadu, still we expect them to speak Hindi.

So as Hindi speaking people, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, and from Assam to Gujarat, we want everyone to speak hindi for us.

And it's not like these people do not know Hindi. 90% of Indian or more knows Hindi, they really do, in a way Hindi is our official connecting language, and there is no doubt about it.

But the problem starts when someone wants to impose a language onto someone.

For example, if you go to South, and you're having a conversation with a Tamilian, you have three options :

1. Speak Hindi
2. Speak Tamil
3. Speak English

They might not be too comfortable in Hindi because of it's real low usuage there. You might not be aware of even fifty words of Tamil. So that leaves you only with English.

So use English.

Same is with Bengalis, Gujaratis, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Odiya or upmteen languages of India.

Do not force Hindi on them.

Hindi belongs as much to them, as Tamil belongs to us. These are “our” languages.

Also, it's not a bad thing to learn few words of a language of the place you're visiting. For example if tomorrow I would have to go to Chennai for my book, I don't find any harm in learning a few sentences in Tamil. If you're visiting Bengal, again I don't see why you can't learn five common sentences in Bengali.

When they'll see me trying to speak in Tamil/Bengali and giving respect to it, they will also speak few sentences in Hindi and give respect to it, not forcefully, but out of pride for this culture.

And their hindi > my Tamil/Bengali.

So this is for the people who come from hindi speaking states.

They're already learning three languages minimum. Their mother tounge, Hindi and English.

The least we can do is if we visit a new state with a new language, we can at least learn 5–6 sentences from internet in their language.

I don't think people from South has any problem with Hindi.

They have a problem when Hindi is “forced” upon them in their own state.

When south people move to other places, especially Hindi speaking states, they do speak good Hindi happily.

But it is rather unfair to expect them to do the same when you visit their state.

Don't expect them to change both ways.

Hindi speakers need to change a little bit too, not just for South, but for any new state you visit with a new language.

Always remember, 5–6 sentences in their language and a humble smile always work anywhere in India, or in the world.