Language Guide Delhi
India is a linguistically diverse country—about 22 different languages in 1500 dialects are spoken in its 28 states that are demarcated primarily on a linguistic basis.Hindi is the most widely spoken language in the North and is the national language of India. However, it is the English language that remains the primary bridge between the Hindi and non-Hindi speakers of the country. If you are fluent in English, you can easily get your needs met in Delhi. It is not unusual to hear conversations that drift through multiple languages—English and Hindi or English and Punjabi, for example.Most shop signboards, traffic signals and signage around the city are in English. English-speaking nannies, household help and assistants are somewhat easy to find, although house cleaners and other domestic staff may have limited knowledge of English.It’s always helpful to know a bit of Hindi, especially when dealing with shopkeepers and taxi drivers. Learning proper Hindi can take years to perfect, but the kind of Hindi spoken in Delhi by most people is a very casual dialect, and you can pick up basic vocabulary to get by within a few months, if you put in the effort.There are plenty of private tutors offering Hindi lessons in Delhi, many of whom advertise on the Yahoo! list-serve Yuni-Net, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Yuni-Net.
The most reputed institutes for learning Hindi in Delhi include:
East-West Language Institute
Hindi Guru
H – 4/ 13-14, Lower Ground Floor, Malviya Nagar,
New Delhi-110017.
Phone: 011-6563 5674
Web: http://www.hindiguru.org
