Can You Teach Me To Speak Hindu?

If I had a penny for every time someone’s asked me something like that, then I’d be well on my way to a Ferrari by now.

As a Hindi tutor I get a flurry of enquiries on a daily basis from a number of people who just don’t seem to know the difference between two simple words. It's a common mistake and easy to make for those not familiar with India.

Therefore, as a good citizen, I think I owe it to society to clear this up once and for. To clarify HINDU is a person of the Hindu faith also known as Hinduism. It’s a religion. HINDI is a language, one of the most spoken in India and among Indian people around the world.

Asking someone if they speak HINDU is like asking someone if they speak Christian, or if they’re fluent in Buddhist or how proficient their Muslim speaking skills are.

HINDI is the language, so yes it would be equally wrong to ask someone if they are Hindi. You’re asking someone if they’re an entire language.

So good people, kindly understand the distinction and think twice before going around asking someone if they speak a religion or if they are a language. There is literally no non-weird suitable answer to that. That said, for anyone looking to learn Hindi feel free to get in touch and I'd be happy to help and gladly teach few fascinating facts along the way about being Hindu.