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Here in India, English pays the best and is the only way to live at least a decent lifestyle. There are a few exceptions such as government jobs where you can earn good money with Hindi or the state (provincial) language; however, most other jobs require English communication and writing skills. That's sad because according to statistics, only 20% of the population can actually speak English. Many students living in big cities have affordable access to private education where everything is taught in English. However, about 60% of India's population lives in rural areas where no one can speak or write English. Being one of the former British colonies, India's story is reflected in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Nigeria etc where English has precedence over the local language. In fact, US-centered globalization has meant that all societies, including non-English speaking European societies, deem English as more desirable/profitable than their first language.

Learning a new language has many cognitive, social and practical benefits. I'll list down some here, only to name a few. 1. You acquire a new set of knowledge. Learning a new language is acquiring new knowledge. All types of information, words, expressions constitute knowledge. Therefore, when you learn a new language, you are adding to your existing knowledge. 2. You can interact with more people. Not everyone speaks the language you do. However, when you learn a new language, you open up the possibility to speak a new group of people. If you learn Bengali, you can interact with 200 million more people than you could earlier. If you learn Hindi, you can interact with 500 million more people than you could earlier. 3. You gain cultural insight. Language and culture are closely linked to each other. When you learn a new language, you will also end up learning a lot about the culture among which this language is popular. People tend to use certain words and phrases way more often than they use others. 4. You acquire a new perspective. This is somewhat related to the previous point. When you learn about a new culture and their language, you learn how to look at things the way they do. You can then understand the reasoning behind their perspective and further apply it into your life. The list goes on. Be proud of being a language enthusiast and a linguaholic!

I've been learning French for a while now and I'd certainly say that "thinking" in French, or atleast trying to, has been quite helpful to me. Why is thinking in a foreign language a better way to learn it? Here's why: When you learn a language from another language, you create associations between words of the two languages (translations). However, when you think in that language, you create associations between words of the language you are learning and their meaning (object, expression etc). So, for example, if I am learning French through English, this is what my strategy would look like: Looks at bed --> Translates the English word 'bed' to French --> Says 'lit' (French for 'bed') However, If I begin to think in French, this is what my strategy would look like: Looks at bed --> Says 'lit' (French for 'bed') As you can notice, when thinking in the language, you create direct memory associations between words and meanings. Whereas, when you learn a language through another language, you go through the additional step of translation.

I believe that in the real world there is an underlying connection between necessity and choice. If the native language is quintessential for commercial/economic (job) purposes, then one would pursue learning that language. This argument assumes that the choice of selecting a language to improve on (native vs foreign) is based on economic intentions of the individual. Let me exemplify this by using examples of some economies: France: A French native speaks better English than French. If she continues to stay in France, chances are that she will work on improving her French since it is needed at her job. China: A Chinese native speaks better English than Mandarin. If she continues to stay in China, chances are that she will work on improving her Chinese since it is needed at her job. India (Post-colonial market): An Indian native speaks better English than Hindi. If she continues to stay in India, chances are that she will work on improving her English since it is needed at her job. Hong Kong (Post-colonial market): A Hong Kong native speaks better English than Cantonese. If she continues to stay in Hong Kong, chances are that she will work on improving her English since it is needed at her job. That being said, if in an individual's case, there is no connection between economic intention and language, the individual must choose to improve her language ability in: 1) The language they wish to improve on 2) The people she intends to communicate with.

Hi Ayesha! Welcome to the Linguaholic forum! Are you learning to effectively communicate in Urdu or are you learning how to write in Urdu as well? If you are doing the former, then it should be relatively easy given that you are already equipped with Hindi language skills. Apart from some few thousand words, most of the terms in Hindi and Urdu are the same. Do you think a Hindi speaker and an Urdu speaker can communicate successfully with each other? Personally, I'd say they would understand atleast 98% of what each other are saying. I can speak both Hindi and Urdu. I am a native Hindi speaker and learning Urdu was not exactly my intention. I picked up the language simply by watching Urdu news channels or TV shows. Here are some online resources that I have found that could be helpful to you for learning Urdu (speaking and writing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYI9linomSo (Learn Urdu through Hindi) http://www.learning-hindi.com/urdu (This website has Urdu lessons and direct Hindi-Urdu translations) http://www.surfacelanguages.com/language/Urdu/ (A fun way to practice Urdu words, through games and quizzes) Cheers and good luck learning Urdu!