Why do some South Indians can speak Hindi fluently while many can't?

[Franco Vazquez]

I will give the example of Murali Karthik who can speak Hindi really good but then people like Ashwin or most of the South Indian actors cant speak it

[coffee_rules]

Exposure to Hindi for SIs is mainly

- Watching Hindi movies

- talking to many NI/UP/Bihari bhaiyyajis in colleges (Engg esp)

- Out of own interest - learn and there are board level exams - Prathama, Madhyama etc that one can take

- Watching DD/TV 

 

A lot of SIs are brought up in NI, like Actor Madhavan had his schooling in Bihar, I think. People move about in India, SIs working in PSector have been transferred all over India, kids growing there pickup the language very well. Ashwin might have spent all his life in Madras, while Murali Kartik might have moved around places in NI to speak it well.

 

[Book_Worm]

Except Tamil Nadu majority of south indians learn hindi as second or third langauge as these states follow 3  language policy. Fluency improves because of exposure to north indians who have migrated to south and  hindi movies  which are screened in south theatres. City people will definately speak decent passable hindi but smaller towns the quality of hindi teachers etc is very bad so even if someone has learned hindi it is almost like not learning. Even in cities depends on the schools good schools will hire qualified teachers or even some hindi housewives who live there whereas smaller schools with poorer students/lower middle class etc will not invest in a hindi teacher. plus south indians who migrate to other places in india will speak very good hindi.

[Gollum]

Murali Karthik was brought up in Delhi, Ashwin spent his childhood in Madras...kya comparison hai bhai? One must have learnt Hindi as 3rd language in school, the other would have had it as his 2nd language plus every day use with friends, teachers, shopkeepers, transport wallahs etc.

 

As someone said place of growing up matters. Madhavan, Vidya Balan, Raghu Ram (roadies wallah chewtiya ), Mani Shankar Aiyer etc are some prominent Southies who speak Hindi as good as Northies while people like Ashwin, Kumble, Laxman, Srikanth, Hema Malini, Rekha, Sridevi, etc must have had it as 2nd language...they can speak ok but with an unusual accent. There is a 3rd type, who won't even make an attempt to speak in Hindi .  

Edited April 17, 2018 by Gollum

[beetle]

Samson is a delhi boy too. He speaks good hindi.

[Franco Vazquez]

I think I should have written only TN in thread as I know other SI can speak decent Hindi but TN people are not interested in learning it. I didn't know Rekha was South Indian because her Hindi is really good but many SI actors cant speak it

[velu]

i studied hindi till 8th as my third language , i can read hindi , understand a bit but cant talk ..

if we dont have people around to practice speaking  , these classes and exams are of no use..

 

anyway considering the current scenario of bihar/up migration , people in tamilnadu will speak bihari within another 20 years

 

[Stradlater]

45 minutes ago, velu said:

i studied hindi till 8th as my third language , i can read hindi , understand a bit but cant talk ..

if we dont have people around to practice speaking  , these classes and exams are of no use..

 

anyway considering the current scenario of bihar/up migration , people in tamilnadu will speak bihari within another 20 years

 

Imagine Murali Vijay speaking Tamil in Bihari accent 

[Gollum]

2 hours ago, Franco Vazquez said:

I think I should have written only TN in thread as I know other SI can speak decent Hindi but TN people are not interested in learning it. I didn't know Rekha was South Indian because her Hindi is really good but many SI actors cant speak it

Even Mallus struggle big time with Hindi which is kinda surprising because most of them will definitely have family members working in the Gulf countries. If you leave aside cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Vizag etc most of the rural and small town areas of Karnataka and Telugu states also struggle with Hindi. In fact in my college  I can confidently say that a greater % of Tamils understand and speak Hindi well compared to Mallus, Kannadigas and Andhra folk. Even in Bollywood you'll have more Tamils (Sridevi, Rekha, Vidya Balan, Hema Malini, Vyjayanthimala, Waheeda Rahman, AR Rahman, Prabhudeva, Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, Dhanush, Mani Ratnam, Madhavan, Trisha, Shruti, Siddharth....)  than rest of the 4 Southern states combined. 

 

In TN the anti Hindi sentiment is blown out of proportion mainly because of a few very noisy and disruptive pro Tamil outfits, more of political drama tbh. In my personal experience it is an incorrect assertion that other Southies speak Hindi well but not Tamils, very few South Indians speak Tamil. In Hyderabad and Bengaluru you may have the feeling that Hindi is more common but that is entirely to do with the demographics of the 2 cities. Both these IT cities have huge workforce of outsiders, besides Hyderabad has a massive population of Urdu speaking Muslims. When 20 years from now Biharis and UP people flood Chennai even it will be forced to become like modern day Bengaluru. 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Gollum

[Muloghonto]

i don't think its due to flooding of N.Indians. 

For eg, there is not a 'flood' of non-Bengali northies in Kolkata, for eg. Yet, almost all Bengalis, except rural farmers, understand Hindi and can speak it brokenly. Sure, there are lots of Punjabis, biharis & marwaris in Kolkata, but realistically speaking, its not over 10-15%. 

[coffee_rules]

Not so in the case of Hyderabad/Marathi area of AP/Karnataka, but coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, South Karnataka,  TN and Kerala have hindi influence only because of influx of NIs.

[cowboysfan]

I find its a must if you are from a big city like Bangalore,the northies still cant speak kannada so its easier for us to speak Hindi  with them.

[riya]

speaking fluently, u need to be in that kind of surroundings...When i was in Mumbai i was struggling to speak,even though i know the language and after one month i started speaking decently well and  got the fluency..It depends on where do we live,how long we live ,how often u interact with North people etc etc...U can't speak a language fluently on a one fine morning other than your mother toungue...even if u know it.

[velu]

 

one of the classic comedies in tamil .. i think they remade this movie in alsmot allt he languages

hero and other 2 comedians will be eyeing the same girl .. girls father is a hindi pandit and one guy will join his tution to learn hindi  

one of our hindi teacher was a north indian ( meera bhai ) and even she liked this movie and make fun about the guys/girls who fail in hindi language 

 

 

@Gollum

 

 

 

[surajmal]

Those that can have Aryan genes. 

[Gollum]

@velu the clips from the movie you posted, there is a similar Hindi movie called Nayee Padosan. Just like he is learning Hindi here, there the actor had to learn singing. Here yoga, there fitness etc. Check it out, it's comedy and has Tamil characters. 

 

Full movie:

 

[velu]

4 minutes ago, Gollum said:

@velu the clips from the movie you posted, there is a similar Hindi movie called Nayee Padosan. Just like he is learning Hindi here, there the actor had to learn singing. Here yoga, there fitness etc. Check it out, it's comedy and has Tamil characters. 

same movie .. they remade the original version in hindi in 1981 itself ..

movie got released even before i was born , but this is one of my favorite comedy movies in tamil 

[coffee_rules]

2 hours ago, surajmal said:

Those that can have Aryan genes. 

Aryans allegedly brought Sanskrit. Not inferior Hindi.

[Mariyam]

Forget about speaking, but SP Balasubramiam even sang very well in Hindi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6EsfBrPCfo

[Muloghonto]

18 minutes ago, Green Monster said:

brother please provide proof that almost all Bengalis, except rural farmers, speak Hindi

Again, right after you provide proof of what has been asked of you first.