Out of all the countries that we have travelled to India has the most diverse and complicated language system. There are twenty one languages recognized by the government but over eight hundred exist within the country. Each region or state has their own official language. For example, the port city where the MV Explorer docked, Kochi, is in the state of Kerala where they speak Malayalam. However, the neighboring state, Tamil Nadu, has a completely different language which is Tamil. These languages share a couple words but for the languages are not mutually intelligible which is characteristic of all of the state languages in India. English and Hindi are also widely spoken throughout India but there are also many who do not know one or both of these languages.
For the majority of my stay in India I did a home stay where I was to have extensive conversations trying to wrap my head of the nature of language in their country. For example, Gireeshan, my home stay dad, born and raised in Kerala spoke Malayalam growing up. He then moved to Chennai, in Tamil Nadu, for work and because that region speaks Tamil he was forced to learn it. He said he had difficulty picking it up at first because it is a completely different language. He could understand a couple words but for the most part is was unintelligible to him. He also grew up learning Hindi and English in school. His wife, Meena, grew up in Chennai (therefore she knows Tamil), however her mother tongue is Malayalam because her parents were from Kerala. Meena knows English from school but barely any Hindi, because Tamil Nadu does not promote the education of it. Their daughter, Mohitha’s native tongue is Malayalam which she speaks at home. She has never received any formal education in Tamil so she has trouble reading bus schedules and other signs. The Gireeshan family though is able to travel to other Indian states and internationally because of their mastery over English and (for at least two of them) Hindi.
Gireeshan stated that Hindi is the national language of India. But there are some provinces or states where they actually discourage the use of the Hindi language. For example, the state “Tamil Nadu”, which literally means the “land of Tamil” , has pride for their language and does not want the government to force them to learn Hindi when they have their own. For that reason, many of the people in this region cannot understand or speak Hindi. Also, English is spoken by a large portion of the population, but the level of fluency is very diverse depending on the social level of the individual in India.
I found that many of the taxi drivers, maids, drivers and beggars spoke very little or no English. However, the business men and managers had grown up learning English and use it in their international travels. I was able to discuss politics, cultural difference or any other topic with these individuals.
I attended a rotary meeting with my family that was entirely conducted in English. This shows that the English language is alive in upper social status while in other regions in the North the speakers may not be as proficient. They explained that when they travel to other states in India where they may speak another language they are usually able to communicate through English to other Indians. Meena actually made a comment to me about how the Chinese stated it was very difficult for them to learn English and she was frustrated about how difficult it made their holiday when they went there.
At this kindergarten class the kids knew barely any English. All I heard them say was “maam”, “crying”, “snake” and “running race”. The children sang “Old McDonald” and “Bingo” for me but I only knew it was that song because of the beat. It was hard to understand their words. The teachers knew limited English as well, which was hopefully why they were in the younger classrooms. Some of the older children were farther along in their studies and we were able to have conversations with them. The best part was that the language barrier did not stop these kids from chasing me and playing!
Words in Tamil
- Tara: star
- vannakum: greeting
- nandhri- thank you
- nadu: place
- nallairuku: very nice
- Nadu: place
Indian names for food
Appum – rice pancake
Dosa- rice and lentils pancake
Sambah- brown stew
Puri- oily fried dough
Malayalam
madayan - fool
bhosku "lie"
dustu impurity
eebhyan good-for-nothing fellow
Tree maram
Elephant āna
Human manuṣyan
Dog paṭṭi
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