Just learning random words and their meanings does not mean one has mastered a language. The current trend with respect to most IT professionals who keep visiting foreign countries, use Google translate apps on mobiles to translate English to respective languages and then claim that they have learnt that particular language.

@anil, that is indeed a great thing that you not just learned to speak Punjabi but also write it. Because my personal experience is , we tend to learn to speak other Indian languages but never take efforts to learn to write the respective script, because learning to write the script of any language is the basic and important step towards learning that l;anguage.

usha manohar wrote:It is good to learn languages - I can speak 7 languages - Thulu, Kannada, Konkani,Tamil, Hindi and English and Malyalam ..Other than Thulu and Konkani both of which have no scripts I can read and write Kannada, English, Hindi and Tamil

Wow, amazing that you can speak and write so many languages!

Indians whose mother tongue is not Hindi have a great chance to learn three languages at ease. Still, there are people who cannot speak and write their mother tongue properly because either they have studied in English or Hindi medium school and there's no option to learn mother tongue in school unless they reside in their native place. At home no one tries to take extra pain. Nowadays various school boards offer foreign languages from class sixth so one can learn if interested but one must keep it in practice even after schooling whenever possible. It will be definitely helpful and not a loss. 

usha manohar wrote:It is good to learn languages - I can speak 7 languages - Thulu, Kannada, Konkani,Tamil, Hindi and English and Malyalam ..Other than Thulu and Konkani both of which have no scripts I can read and write Kannada, English, Hindi and Tamil

Great achievement I must admit. In my case I can read and write in English, Telugu and Hindi. In this respect, I'd like to say by virtue of my Job, I stayed in different states. This helped me in learning these three language.

I have learnt Bengali at home and now my son is also learning it at home while in school he studies Hindi, English and German. Using English in between any other language is quite acceptable but speaking Bengali with Hindi words continuously used in between or vice-versa sounds very awkward. It seems we are not good at any of our own language. Minimum use is fine but constant mixing is truly uncalled for. When we learn Hindi or any regional language then we must properly learn it but side by side we must give equal importance to English also so that we may remain globally accepted.

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

usha manohar wrote:It is good to learn languages - I can speak 7 languages - Thulu, Kannada, Konkani,Tamil, Hindi and English and Malyalam ..Other than Thulu and Konkani both of which have no scripts I can read and write Kannada, English, Hindi and Tamil

Wow, amazing that you can speak and write so many languages!

 

That's really amazing. Speaking or understanding a language is possible when you have stayed in a particular state for a few years but to read and write as well is quite an achievement. I can read , write and speak English, Hindi and Bengali. I can understand and Punjabi, Tamil, Assamese, Gorkhali reasonably well. 

Everyone wants to learn a new language beside his/her mother tongue and the above link provide a very useful tips

Besides Indian languages it is useful to learn foreign languages as well, they come in handy when you are travelling or need to work abroad , like for example in Germany and Switzerland unless you know German you are not allowed to work, similarly in Italy, you have to known Italian and the same in France..

We should be able to read, write and speak a language to make the learning process complete. Other than my favorite Malayalam, I have studied Hindi and English in school and college, but I could speak those languages and remove my fear of expression only because I stayed in the northern states as part of my job.