Whether we take a school, a company or any shopping mall, we
observe that in India, the communication is more inclined towards English. We
have English medium schools; MNC’s where English is used as a communication medium;
in shopping malls, we have showroom owners speaking to the prospective buyer in
English!
Hindi is the Indian national language and many govt offices,
parliament sessions etc work in Hindi. However, with the new age, the usage of
the language has reduced, mostly in cities and metro areas. The booming economy
has opened up different avenues – while people are travelling abroad,
interacting with foreign colleagues, clients, and turning national companies
multinational, many MNCs are also trying to try their hands in the rural / semi
urban Indian market. The latter has let to a huge rise in the demand for Hindi translation services. People staying in villages in the northern portion of
the country mostly speak Hindi and any communication with them (verbal/written)
needs to be in their mother tongue.
Coming to usage of the national language, there are many
avenues that are promoting the language as well – Bollywood – known by anybody
and everybody in the country and the world, does a lot to promote the Indian
language. Indian movies are a great impact on the society at large and are
loved by all sections of the country – rural or urban.
The central govt is also doing its bit to promote the
‘Rajbhasha’, conducting Hindi weeks, Hindi symposiums and promoting Hindi version
of reports.
Microfinance is another area wherein the usage of the native
language of the villagers is a must and irrespective of the source language of
the content (brochers/information pages etc), the content is circulated in
Hindi post translation. A translation company in India typically does the translation job.
While this topic can go on, in a nutshell - it is great that
people are learning English and other foreign languages – and this does open a
plethora of opportunities; but one should also have a good hold on one’s native
language, which in itself has a number of latent opportunities.
