Mind Your Language: 9 ways to improve your Hindi

Reading, writing, and speaking Hindi should come naturally to most Indians; at least those living in North India. Unfortunately, the subject creates fear psychosis in the child’s mind. And the result? जैसे ही the student sits down to study Hindi, his mind wanders off someplace else or else he/she will pick up any other subject to study. And believe it or not, this is the story of 90 per cent of the students who have Hindi till class X. So, where have we gone wrong? Why does the student avoid studying हिन्दी?

According to डॉ अंजु शर्मा, a हिन्दी teacher at Apeejay School, Nerul, the language has different variants. “One is the way we speak Hindi; second what we read in literature and poems, writing Hindi is different especially when it comes to technical content, and finally the language that is used to communicate officially in government offices. Spoken words become different when we read them; it becomes a literary language that has certain rules that we must study. When we study a subject, it can’t be done in the manner that we speak,” Sharma said.

The problem arises because students are unable to accept the language शर्मा said. “The students feel that is tough to do and therefore, the acceptance of the language doesn’t come to them. There was a time when we would all read Chacha Choudhary, Champak, and Panchtantra Ki Kahaniya. There was a craze to read Hindi books and stories. Hindi newspapers would be lying around the house. The children were familiar with written words and language. Not so much today. Every few households have Hindi newspapers. Only libraries carry them,” Sharma said.

Today, the only connection that students have with Hindi is when they have to study it as a subject in the class. “The rest of the time, the student is surrounded by English; they read English books, they watch English serials. Therefore, it is not surprising that students end up making mistakes in Hindi. When they make mistakes, they don’t get good marks. When they don’t do well in the subject, they avoid studying it which in turn means that they get poor marks; it is a vicious cycle,” Sharma opined.

However, she shared that all is not lost and there are several ways in which students and parents together can improve Hindi and this can be done right from primary classes so that by the time the student is in class IX-X, he/she has mastered the language.

Students and parents together can improve Hindi and this can be done right from primary classes so that by the time the student is in class IX-X, he/she has mastered the language

–Dr Anju Sharma, Hindi Teacher, Apeejay School, Nerul