Miguel Cruz wrote:

(David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)) wrote:
DaveM wrote:

On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 16:28:09 +0100, (David Horne, _the_
chancellor (*)) wrote:

Mandarin, Spanish and Hindi are far more important than French.

Hindi? One of the current strengths of Indian workers is that the
Lingua Franca of India is English. Hindi may be the major language,
but I'm told by Indian colleagues that English is the language of
education (or at the very least, in the schools and universities those
colleagues attended).

Yes, you're absolutely right that the lingua franca of business in India
is English, but Hindi is still an important language in terms of actual
numbers- I shouldn't perhaps have included it in the list- except to say
that, given the growing importance of the Indian economy, I think that
Hindi will gain groun too.

Many Indians would prefer to speak English over Hindi, a language which
they feel was imposed on them as a product of northern Indian chauvenism.

I think the main linguistic consequence of India's economic growth will
be an improvement in the standard of English throughout India.

Fair enough- but India still has over 3 times as many people speaking
Hindi as a native language than the number speaking English as a
secondary one.

--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"Abominable, loyal, blind, apparently subservient."
Pres. Carter on Pres. Blair- May, 2007