Why the shame in speaking Hindi - Page 4

Originally posted by: HearMeRoar

What's humble or otherwise about speaking a language? it's people's delusion that speaking English makes them superior.

On another note, Dhanush spoke Hindi in the movie. Otherwise, it's not his mother tongue AFAIK. If he chooses to speak in English in a Bollywood interview, he doesn't need to be castigated for it, either. I'm pretty sure if you pick any Malayalam actor, they'd be more comfortable answering questions in English any day than in Hindi. In fact, I doubt any of them would be able to string a coherent sentence together in Hindi.

I meant humble in the way they conduct themselves. Inspite of not being able to talk fluently, they make an effort to speak in hindi which is not the case with Btown stars. Dhanush has dubbed in Hindi and same is not the case with Sara or anyone for that matter for Tamil version of the film. They work in a hindi film industry and still answer in English to the questions asked in Hindi. Even Nora for that matter, speaks hindi quite fluently. Not sure if she learnt it through tutor after joining the industry but she's not hesitant to switch to hindi when questioned.

Originally posted by: -MakhanMalaai-

It's not about Ancient India or modern India.. I'm not Indian and Hindi is not my language but I have this problem with everyone having a superiority complex that they can speak in English and their native language is garbage.. This obsession with English is only in the Sub continent.. I have traveled half of the world and every country keeps their language a priority, they're not crazy about English.. I have only found this in Bollywood where actors have lived, studied, spent all their life in India but they can't speak Hindi properly and proudly say my Hindi isnt good.. Sorry but that's just pretentious behavior for me..

Also I meant in terms of acting.. Salman Khan is a superstar but he is not an actor.. Allu Arjun is miles ahead of him in terms of acting..

U r right..

Not just BW actors..this is true in many cases..new gen is not able to speak hindi or other native languages.

Like I have many couples in my neighborhood where husband wife belong to different states. So rather than teaching either of their mother tongue or hindi to their kids..they prefer to speak English at home..there r some who even speak with n accent though they haven't stepped out of India..youtube effect.

Can't do much about this except taking care of what our own kids learn

Originally posted by: Chameli_billi

This is nothing to gloat about? Am I missing something

Whose gloating?

It's just how it is, as far as the middle class goes...and why wouldn't it be....everybody has been learning English since childhood in schools. All official papers are in English, the job interviews are in English... hell even the commentary in Cricket is in English. People are just more comfortable with English in bigger cities, why judge them for it?

If the star kids don't know how to speak Hindi, in spite of living in Bombay and desiring to work and become rich by working in Bollywood the least they can do is take lessons and train like any other professional.

Like the other posters have said, these new actors/ actresses ( most of them) are born in North Indian families, and are unable to/or pretend not to speak Hindi, and still have a desire to make it big in Hindi-speaking movies in Bollywood. This is because of a superiority complex associated with speaking English for this class of people. More like a Snobbish attitude.

Deepika Padukone who's Hindi accent is always criticized speaks three other languages. Konkani ( mother tongue) English, Kannada, and now Hindi. Very easy to pick on people who are outsiders. Be it Kangana or Rakhi or Deepika....

One thing is sure, what the nepo kids can get away with, outsiders can't.

Originally posted by: Haila_tu

Whose gloating?

It's just how it is, as far as the middle class goes...and why wouldn't it be....everybody has been learning English since childhood in schools. All official papers are in English, the job interviews are in English... hell even the commentary in Cricket is in English. People are just more comfortable with English in bigger cities, why judge them for it?

Exactly! As long as the people are minding their own business and not putting anyone down, I don't understand what is there to judge about a language. If judging people who do not speak in English is wrong, judging people who cannot speak xyz language is also equally wrong! Let people choose the language they want to communicate in. Aren’t there enough issues in the world that we have to pick on such a non issue and find reason to judge people?

I belong to the UK. A country in which English is the predominantly spoken language. When I watch 'Hindi' film actors conversing in English, it make me wonder why they aren't talking in a language that is supposedly their mother tongue.

Genuinely, no matter the reason, it does come across as an action taken because of an inferiority complex. Come to think of it, it's not like they speak English perfectly.

Originally posted by: UmeraTariq

I belong to the UK. A country in which English is the predominantly spoken language. When I watch 'Hindi' film actors conversing in English, it make me wonder why they aren't talking in a language that is supposedly their mother tongue.

Genuinely, no matter the reason, it does come across as an action taken because of an inferiority complex. Come to think of it, it's not like they speak English perfectly.

I think you are making a lot of presumptions about them. Hindi is (shockingly) not the mother tongue of most Indians. Many of those celebrities might have spoken Marathi at home. Or Punjabi. Or Gujarati... So Hindi for them would be a second language. As others mentioned it is common for urban middle class Indians to have a better grasp over English than Hindi.

@bold There is no perfect way to speak English. Americans, Australians, South Africans, Indians each speak in their own way. And if you're looking down on them for grammar or sentence construction, then that's not cool at all.

Language bigotry, no matter which direction it goes in, is still bigotry.

Hindi film actors should converse in Hindi? Why? Sridevi was a Hindi film actor. Not sure if she felt comfortable conversing in Hindi. Should she have been judged for talking to Rekha in Tamil?

Asin is Malayali. I think she speaks Hindi, but if she prefers talking to her colleagues in English in her personal life, why should she be judged for it? Coming from Kerala, she's likely more comfortable in English than Hindi.

Edited to add: learning the language when you work in a film industry would be an added benefit. But a lot of actors in Bollywood are not from the Hindi belt. Judge the twits who lived all their lives in Mumbai and never bothered to learn Hindi in spite of *knowing from the womb* they wanted to work in films. Those who come from the outside have to compensate for not knowing the language or learn it from the scratch, and they should be lauded.

Judge the people who assume speaking in English is a sign of social superiority. Judge the people who think people *should* use Hindi or other native tongue in their personal lives. Language is a medium of communication. Those who treat it as a sign of class or patriotism should be harshly judged.

And yeah. Indian English is a thing. Even Word has a setting for Indian English. The most number of English speakers in the world live on the Indian subcontinent. English is now as much an Indian language (not Indian-origin) as is Tamil or any other purely Indian language.

To be honest, most actors speak with an accent and cover up their atrocious grammar while speaking in English.

What is sad is that the Hindi they speak in the movies is also very bad. Their diction and pronunciation are terrible. Except for a very few like Manoj Bajpai or Amitabh, Neena Gupta. Among the new lot only Sara can speak well though her dialogues delivery is bad, she has a good command over the language. Tapsee is good but her dialogue delivery and accent is same for every role

Deepika might be a South Indian but she has been working in the Hindi film industry and a few Hindi coaching would have certainly helped.

While south actors do speak in English, their diction in the south indian languages is amazing. Look at Rana, Dulquer, Dhanush, Surya, Ravi Teja.

Even female actors who are not from the south have learnt the language whether Tamanna or Raashi who are able to converse in Tamil and Telugu.

This shows that Bollywood has become only style with no substance.

Originally posted by: UmeraTariq

I belong to the UK. A country in which English is the predominantly spoken language. When I watch 'Hindi' film actors conversing in English, it make me wonder why they aren't talking in a language that is supposedly their mother tongue.

Genuinely, no matter the reason, it does come across as an action taken because of an inferiority complex. Come to think of it, it's not like they speak English perfectly.

I live in the UK too. I don't see any Scottish actors conversing in Gaelic, Welsh in Welsh, or Irish in the Irish language. Would you call it an inferiority complex?

As someone else pointed before me, you seem prejudiced. I am not surprised. People in the UK are largely ignorant of India. They get what they can from social media and think it's the complete picture. They like the Slumdog Millionaire version of India. Even the BBCs, the Guardians, and the Telegraphs are biased. I am yet to see a single pro-India article.