How Popular is Hindi in the USA

According to the 2016 American Community Survey, Hindi is the 11th most popular foreign language in the United States. The survey revealed that 810,000 people in the USA speak Hindi, the most accepted spoken Indian language in the United States. Hindi is followed by Urdu and Gujarati. All in all, a wild population of 3.6 million people in the United States speak different South Asian languages.

Irrespective of the flourishing Indian American population and the fact that with 260 million speakers, Hindi is the fifth most widespread spoken language on the globe, after Mandarin, Spanish, English and Arabic, formal practice of the language has been falling behind in the United States.

Yet many U.S. universities nurture courses and programmes in Hindi. The University of Chicago renders a comprehensive Hindi program focusing solely on language, literature and culture. The Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington furnishes a broad range of courses, including mediaeval and modern Hindi literature at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Other universities, such as University of Pennsylvania, University of California Berkeley, Harvard University, University of Texas, Princeton University, and Yale University present Hindi programs. Apart from Hindi, some offer other South Asian languages, such as  Bengali, Urdu, Punjabi, Telugu, and Tamil.

Hindi as a foreign language in U.S. universities has been accepted ever since India first appeared as a fast-growing economy. But enrollments for Hindi and other South Asian language courses remain at the ground-level in the USA, the awareness is on the rader.

“Hindi is a global language like Spanish and French. There is a lot of scope for Hindi in the U.S. The language can be used in the government as well as the private sector. It also has a big literary tradition.” Bhavya Tiwari, a professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at the University of Houston professed.

Foreign language centres enticing both amateur and professional enthusiasts, have begun holding out Hindi instruction. U.S. intelligence and security agencies also recruit Hindi translators. With a rise in international trade in South Asia, the place of Hindi creates an upward graph.

But enrollment numbers in Hindi courses are still at a loose end. As per the Modern Language Association of America, “enrollments in languages other than English between 2009 and 2016 fell 15 percent in U.S. colleges and universities. According to the association’s Language Enrollment Database, just 1,426 students enrolled in Hindi language courses in 2016, down from 1,813 in 2013 and its peak of 2,173 in 2009. By contrast, Spanish, the most popular foreign language in the United States had more than 712,000 students in 2016, followed by French (176,000), American Sign (107,000) and German (107,000).”

Another twist to the tale is Hindi lacks the same energy boost since Indian immigrants are English speakers and are not cognizant of taking up Hindi professionally. True, Hindi is taught in top-most universities and ivy league colleges, it remains withdrawn from academic curriculums at the elementary and middle school levels.

But how is Hindi rooting within the Indian American community? So far the drive has been Informal teaching with students going to community centres or temples to learn Hindi. However, something is amiss from the community, the need for formal teaching, involving the Hindi language in culture and context.

The grandiose plans have the goodwill of promoting Hindi as a foreign language in the country. But the data and instances lack support. Parents are uninclined as they do not see professional gains from studying Hindi, even though there can be many. In addition, the fact that the Indian community is further dismantled in percolated regional languages makes it challenging to promote one language cohesively.

And of course, that’s the thought process that many Indian food brands are following to secure acceptance for their products in an already littered market.