Hindi Hub Articles


English is a second language for Indians. Though the sound system and the pronunciation is very difficult for them still they got a mastery over the language. Its due to the long collaboration with the British people and specially for their interest in it.

 

 The population of India passed a billion, that was thousand million a couple of years ago and it is increasing at the rate of three percent per annum. In 1997 an Indian today survey suggested that about a third of population had the ability to carry on a conversation in English and more or less that will be doubled in coming years.

 “Once before the publication of the most famous book “Kanthapura” by Raja Rao, he gives some valuable comments on the Indian English that “We in India , think quickly, we talk quickly and when we move, we move quickly. There must be something on the sun of India that makes us rush and tumble and run. We can prove our dialect which will some day prove to be distintictive and colorful as Irish or the American. Time will justify it.”

 

 Really time justified it. Now people skip their meals for a class of English for their children. It’s a passport for employment and one can say it’s a pinch of salt for  the all round personality of a person. As cross cultural exchanges happens and job requires knowledge of effective English speaking skills, the people across the world including China, Germany and the other non-speaking European nations are very conscious about their English.

The flow of globalization changed every thing. In the year1947 people were in roads to protest English medium schools but now people are donating funds for better English medium school.  Economic scenario changed the attitudes of Indians. Secured jobs and good incomes made them more comfortable and confident and the same confidence has shown in their speaking style.

Indians can not speak like the British and the American. They should not. They must look at the larger part of the world like their own part. People like to call it “Indian English” sometimes proudly and some times derisively.

   Indians have excellent control over their written English, yet when it comes to pronunciation or speaking effectively, one is not sound . the problem is while the native speakers think English, they think in their mother -tongue and translate it while speaking. There are some sounds boxes of our mother tongue which are become hurdles for improving the pronunciation  like dha sound in our mother tounge which is not present in English

 

Indian call center executives speak in native way than accented English to appeal their foreign clients. The focus here is  in making thinks clear and the problems solved rather than acceptance of the accent but its true that pronunciation plays a grate role in learning a language and it is one of the barrier in process of communication.



 

Infact, Indian English is a recognized dialect of English like BBC English or Australian English. It has lots of distinctive syntax and quite a bit of lexical variation and it can be as hard for American to understand as British especially if it is spoken in speed.

 Many believe that Indian English is very similar to British English. Every linguistic item is not used in Indian English. Like alveolar consonants replaced by retroflex consonants e.g walked- walk. Indians shorten terms, that is not pronounced as it should be, like fundamental shorten to fundas and pronounced as fundamental.

The influence of Hindi in English is always there in the land of India where its national language, the colloquialism of which has been widely accepted by the Indians and even some words like Badmash ,babu, maska and many more are introduced in English dictionaries. If you go to any office the receptionalist will ask you “ What can I do for you?” rather saying “ Can I help you?”which is Hindi influence “ Me apke liye kya kar sakti hunu?”like the Indians in habit of asking “ What is your good name?” as we are saying in hindi “ Apka subha nam kya he?” so when people speaks English they mix Hindi in context of their conversation the accent of which some how similar with the English rather than other regional languages hence the speakers of English like to use Hindi as code switching and code mixing.

 When Indians use English it’s a Dalama (a dish mixture of all vegetables and some dals ), the seven C’s of communication that is Candid, Clear, Concise, Correct, Complete and Concrete while the native speakers following the Candid, Clear and Concreteness in their speaking. We are bilingual hence we think of English as intellectual make up than emotional.

Like other English speaking countries India is going to make mark in world language, showing Indian English as a Standard English as American and Australian. The time has really come for us to prove that learning a  new language is always  like learning your mother tongue. If the population of  crores are able to express their ideas clearly which will understood by more than half of the population of world then their style of speaking is going to be accepted by others no doubt.

Lect. Mrs Sumitra Biswal

 

Srusti Academy of Manegement

 

Hindi Hub Articles


Are these online matrimonial websites useful? What the answer come in your mind? Useful or not! In my eye these are useful because we don’t have to go here and there. Just sign up on these matrimony websites and find your life partner. There are lots of reasons why we use these websites.

Firstly, without going any where we can access a heavy database of brides and grooms.

Secondly, we don’t need to go to marriage agent. Marriage agents in small city and some metropolitan cities play a very important role in marriage. They take commission from both sides and take both the parties close. Not these two only there are lots of reasons we can avoid by using these websites like:

1.#No need to go to marriage bureaus.

2.#We can save money which we spend for advertising in local newspaper.

3.#Save money which we spend in local society like gita bhavan in many cities. Etc.

This is not the end we can take more much benefits of online matrimony websites to find indian brides or grooms or any where in world. It has tremendously expanded the reach of every marriageable individual by exposing him/her to the millions of eligible Indians who visit these sites. Increasingly, many individuals and families spend their valuable time online searching for the perfect partner for themselves or their loved ones.

It is interesting to see that these sites are visited by conservative parents, relatives; who believe in the sanctity of arranged marriages and also by those for whom falling in love is the way to go. There are many wedding and wedding related sites on the net which understand the focus of the new age matrimonial net surfers and offer them several attractive services.

These kinds of sites have made it possible to find a partner, match the horoscopes, book a marriage hall and then do all the wedding shopping online. Then why we are taking so much tension for our children’s marriage. Just go to bed and take a nap.

Hindi Hub Articles


Why Translating Your Website in Hindi Makes Better Sense

Did you know that in 2002, an estimated 32% of Internet users were non-English speakers? With the phenomenal growth of computer usage and the spread of the net fever, especially in the third world countries, the figure would have multiplied manifold in the past 4 years.

In fact, the Internet is fast becoming the basic and fundamental source and dissemination of information, purchases of goods and services worldwide. In addition, those computer and Internet users are increasingly from non-English speaking countries. This figure is constantly rising. In response, businesses have quickly become aware of the benefits of making their websites relevant to the native languages of the target audience.

Marketing is all about speaking the customers’ language

There is no denying that the rest of the world outside of English-speaking countries is coming online faster than never before. What is the state of affairs, and how does that impact businesses worldwide? How serious is the impact of everyone “going global”? And, more importantly, what needs to be done with our Websites to fully take advantage of this wave of non-English-speaking people coming online?

Whether or not a person speaks English has really nothing to do with the responsibility of a Website to communicate in the language of the target markets. Indians read English just fine, and yet they feel comfortable to surf in their own language. They live their life in their own language, not in English. If you want to attract their attention, your site has to go where they are, and speak to them in their own language.

Outside the seven countries where English is native, and India too, there is no form of marketing in any country that happens in English. If someone doesn’t believe this, they should visit Europe, Asia or South America. People live their life in their own language, and your marketing better follow, whether the media is newspaper/magazine ads/articles, radio/TV, billboards… or Websites.

Enter Website Translation

Translating a Website is a viable answer because you then make an existing website accessible, usable and culturally suitable to your specific target audience. This requires both programming expertise and linguistic/cultural knowledge.

In the majority of cases it is the lack of linguistic and cultural input that lets a website localization project down. In order to give an insight into the impact culture has on website localization the following examples depict areas in which a solid understanding of the target culture is necessary.

Some very good reasons to translate your website into Hindi

• One of the official languages of India, with a population of over 1 billion. Hindi has 366 million first-language speakers; additional 121 million second-language speakers. Spoken throughout northern India: Delhi; Uttar Pradesh; Rajasthan; Punjab; Madhya Pradesh; northern Bihar; Himachal Pradesh.

• Hindi is also spoken in Bangladesh, Belize, Botswana, Germany, Kenya, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, UAE, United Kingdom, USA, Yemen, and Zambia.

• With the growing numbers of Indans buying PC’s and Internet access available from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, English speakers will soon be in the minority when it comes to Internet use.

• Results of research carried out by Nielsen-Net ratings in March 2005 described foreign internet markets as “low hanging fruit,” i.e. if you have the will and foresight there are massive revenues to be found for relatively little effort.

• As Kaizad Gotla, senior analyst at Nielsen-Netratings states, “The easiest opportunities are in countries where Internet usage patterns and user/site relationships are less established. Acquiring users in markets that are currently in their growth stages will lead to a loyal user base that will pay dividends for Internet companies in the future.”

• The ability to communicate to a whole new audience in their own language will undoubtedly yield results not only in a financial sense (cost efficiency) but also in terms of marketing and creating awareness of your brand, service or product.

• For non-English speaking users looking for your product or service, you automatically capture their attention.

• A Hindi website shows you are thinking about the customer. That little extra effort shows you have thought and cared enough about them to offer the website in their language.

• For many cultures, more so in India, there is an issue of trust when it comes to buying over the Internet, especially if they feel it is in a language they are not fully proficient in. Offering them a language alternative allows the customers to feel secure

• Search engines lead people to your site. In countries such as China, Japan and France, Google, Yahoo and MSN are not the default search engines. Homegrown search engines are emerging and they are proving successful because they work in native languages and are focused on the habits and needs of their users. In addition, many of the key search engines, especially Google, are developing the capacity to run searches in Hindi. Having pages of your site available in Hindi ensures maximum potential for your site being picked up in searches.

Making a website in Hindi or translating the existing website does not complete the task. There are a lot of important, cultural, ethnic issues which form an essential part of the contents of the website in Hindi. Some examples, which need to be decided upon, in greater details, are mentioned below:

• Images and pictures – as they carry subtle cultural intonations in them.

• Symbols – as with pictures, symbols can cause problems. Icons using fingers such as an OK sign or V-sign may mean different things to different cultures. Western symbols do not always mean the same abroad.

• Colors – they are also loaded with cultural meanings.

• Ease of navigation – Access to certain pages is also a factor that can be considered as relevant.

Culture affects everything we do, say, read, hear and think and even websites cannot escape the influence of culture.

The impact of culture on the translation of a website is huge. The above few examples are literally the tip of the iceberg.