Speaking Hindi in India

Everyone i meet in India wants to speak English.. it is the international language and also widely used in India for people to communicate with each other who come from different regions of India.. a second language.

I agree.  But I have not learned Hindi so far.  We can still survive in major metropolis with English.

India is a diversified country with 22 official recognised languages (with 2 official languages English and Hindi) are used in those relatively states. A person not necessarily to know English and can survive by knowing Hindi only (but would be difficult to survive in villages or smaller towns in non-Hindi speaking states specially in Tamilnadu or few other parts of countries), similarly with knowing English only, you too can survive in most of India (other than interior part of the country). So, it's absolutely not necessary to know Hindi for your survival in India.

And learning hindi is available in most part of the country and many schools provide Hindi course for non speaking people. And, privately can be arranged to teach one to one in many cities too. So, it won't be an issue to learn Hindi if you want to learn.

Speaking Hindi will help you only north of Vindhya mountain ranges

Priscilla wrote:

It is widely agreed that speaking Hindi is essential for a successful integration in India.

Not exactly. In my personal experience: Learning Hindi will definitely help you on a great margin to mingle with people but MOSTLY in northern and north eastern part of India only. As you travel to other directions, especially down south, you can mingle and integrate with people or even settle down here by speaking only English.

Learning Hindi is definitely an added advantage but not essential.

Regards,
Ravi.

i always speak with english. because i tried with hindi, and its not help at all in south india. so i consider to speaks english in all region of india.

Speaking Hindi is an advantage sometimes, but definitely not a necessity. I learnt to read, write and speak basic Hindi in my first year in India out of passion for languages, and it has come useful a few times while asking for directions, bargaining or just "breaking the ice" with locals, but I wouldn't say one absolutely has to do it, especially if you are planning to live in a big city and work / communicate with well educated people. Of course, many disadvantaged people in this country, or people in remote villages can't speak (enough) English, which means it is important to learn the local language if you want to be understood by them.

Siberian .. your response is very good... As you know in many of the rural villages the people not only do not speak/understand english, but also do not speak Hindi.. There are many languages in India including the tribal languages..
Sign language has always been my "back up" language in these places.. ;-)