Four Reasons to study Hindi or Urdu at UH!
490 Million Speakers
1Hindi is one of the official languages of India and is the main language used in the northern states, and is spoken in much of north and central India alongside other languages. In other parts of India, as well as in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, Hindi is understood. In Fiji people of Indian origin speak Hindi, and in some areas the Fijian people also speak it.
Familiar Language
2Hindi is an Indo-European language and as such shares a large number of cognates with European languages including English. Even though both Hindi and Urdu are written in non-Roman letters, the alphabets of both Hindi and Urdu are relatively easy to learn.
Two Language at Once
3Colloquial Hindi is mutually intelligible with another register of Hindi-Urdu called Urdu. Mutual intelligibility decreases in literary and specialized contexts which rely on educated vocabulary. Due to religious nationalism and communal tensions, speakers of both Hindi and Urdu frequently assert that they are distinct languages, despite the fact that native speakers generally cannot tell the colloquial languages apart.
Prepare for the Future
4The economy of India is the third largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). India recorded the highest growth rates in the mid-2000s, and is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
