UK college to expand Hinglish course offering

A UK college which piloted a language course in Hinglish last year is planning to offer it to a wider range of students from this year following an interest among students to learn the new language, which is a blend of Hindi and English.

Portsmouth College said the popularity of the course, offered as part of a wider module, reflects an interest among students for work placements with Indian companies and that having a basic grasp of Hindi would give them a head start in the market.

"The Hinglish course finished last week and there have already been enquiries from students and adult learners about taking up this course next year," said James Watters, Head of E6 Programmes at the college.

The unique course was introduced for a select group of students in November 2017 to raise student awareness of the language, get them to explore how Hinglish is used in society and business in the UK and internationally, and give them insights into specific cultural reference in headlines/texts in adverts, films and newspapers related to India.

"Movies are being watched a lot by Indian people and right from the titles to the song to the script, everything is in Hinglish," explains Hinglish teacher Viraj Shah.

An initial cohort of 18 students attended the Hinglish sessions on a regular basis, who are now being approached for their views on how the course could be further developed. It will then become a regular feature from the 2018-19 academic year as part of the Modern Business Language & Culture programme at Portsmouth College in Hampshire.

Academics at the college believe the popularity of the course is also down to a growing understanding among the youth in Britain of the need to keep their job prospects as wide as possible with Britain set to leave the European Union (EU).

"The young people are very aware we are leaving the EU and I suppose this helps prepare them for the post-Brexit world," said Simon Barrable, the deputy principal of the college.

According to their analysis, Hinglish is easier to learn than Hindi because it is taught using Roman letters rather than the traditional Devanagari script. Some of the Hinglish words that the students were made familiar with include "prepone", or to bring forward, "airdash", or going somewhere in a hurry, and "timepass" or something that is a pass time.