Hindi's popularity growing in Singapore: Minister

Updated on: Monday, July 26, 2010

Learning Hindi as a language is becoming popular in the country with some considering it for understanding Bollywood music and others for its importance in the backdrop of India's rise as an economic power, Singapore's Education Minister Ng Eng Hen has said.

"This is, no doubt, a testament to the burgeoning popularity of Bollywood. For some, it is simply so that they can better understand the lyrics of popular (Hindi) songs.

Beyond its cultural role, however, many recognise that Hindi is an economic asset. Especially with the rise of India," Ng said while addressing the Hindi Centres Day here yesterday.He applauded the demand for the Society's Hindi courses by non-Hindi speaking people and the growing interest towards the language.

Ng also assured the government's support to Hindi learning as well as Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi and Urdu, saying these were being promoted as mother-tongue languages in addition to Tamil.

Hindi's popularity growing in Singapore: Minister

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