Recently a US diplomat, who is due for his posting in India, asked me to brief him about usage of Hindi in the local community. I live in Central New Jersey, the hub of the Indian-American community.

I wish to tell the US diplomat that I belong to a vibrant community that prides itself in hard work and education. My community has revitalized neighborhoods after neighborhoods uplifting local economies. We demonstrate our unchallenged love for our native culture. What I don’t want to tell him is: our linguistic landscape is littered with broken and incorrect English. We are shy of using our native language, Hindi, in social gatherings and community events.

For the past decade I have been promoting Hindi learning in our communities and beyond. I have successfully convinced many people about the importance of teaching Hindi to the next generation. Parents, who are engaged in diverse occupations, are sending their children to our program to learn Hindi and practice Indian culture. As the director of STARTALK programs I am collaborating with two school districts, Franklin Township in NJ and North Penn School District in Lansdale, PA, for hosting our programs. Our collaborators offer all resources because they believe in benefits of teaching the next generation a world language other than English so they could grow up as a true world citizen.

My students belong to the age groups 8 to 13 years, who attend Elementary, Middle and High schools. My instructors labor hard for more than three months prior to the start of our programs preparing their lesson plans. We facilitate students’ performance in classrooms, computer labs, and in varieties of arts and cultural activities including Yoga and Bollywood dancing. These activitiesare topic-based, supervised and aim atimproving students’ speaking, reading and writing skills in Hindi. I am very proud to announce that our students never drop outof the program. They enjoy the activities at the program and also take it home where interact with their parents in Hindi.

On of the major aspect of STARTALK programs is to prepare students practice their language in real life. In fact community is the major component of the five standards of language learning in order to meet our goals of 21st century learning. That is why we organize a field trip for students so they could see how Hindi is used in the community. But if our kids are exposed to sign boards in English, interact with shopkeepers who speak broken English, they are deprived of opportunities to practice the language we are teaching them at our programs.

I received my training at the University of Pennsylvania for teaching Hindi in our community. As I explored the theories and principles of teaching a foreign language, I learned that we can’t teach our language without providing appropriate cultural contexts. We must use our customs, traditions, mythology and history to design our lesson plans for students born and raised in the US in the 21st century.

STARTALK programs are the result of the very pragmatic education policy of the US government that promotes multilingualism and multiculturalism. The White House categorized Hindi as a critical language for business, commerce and national security. Any student graduating with credits in a foreign language, scores higher credits while applying for jobs in many sectors.

STARTALK supports about a dozen, Hindi among them, with financial and academic resources. These languages are also known as less commonly taught languages, as majority of them are not included in the curricula of local school district. Hindi is now taught in a few schools in NJ, NY and Texas.For the members of the Indian-American community Hindi is a native language and the mother tongue that also functions as the lingua franca in the width and breadth of our native land, India.

Today we need our students to opt for a teaching career. As Professor Janice Jensen, Director of Hindi-Urdu program at Kean University, NJ, says, “We really need teachers, globally competent teachers of Hindi, who could create an environment for Hindi learning. A new generation of language teachers prepared within this global context provides meaningful, relevant (and welcoming!) learning experiences for students that will assist in developing professionally useful skills in Hindi while developing the intercultural and global competencies needed in the global age.

As India achieves its ranking among major world economic powers, use of Hindi becomes even more important. America is willing to utilizing our rich cultural heritage in US classrooms. Local governments are eager to print their documents and public service announcements in our language provided we desire the same and demand for it.

Hindi is the third most spoken language in the world. It is our duty to recognize its vast reach among people around the globe. We need to let others know that we are proud of our language and our culture. A meeting with a US diplomat is an opportunity to demonstrate that Hindi is the unifying language for all people of Indian origin. It is a vehicle to showcase our identity and heritage in the United States. I am going to tell my diplomat friend that when he moves to India he can communicate with a few if he speaks English, but he could communicate with the whole of India if he spoke in Hindi.

(Ashok Ojha is director of Sangam-Franklin STARTALK and YHS STARTALK Hindi Programs. He recently coordinated the Fourth International Hindi Conference, Vishakhapatnam, India, January 6-8, 2017. He can be reached at: aojha2008@gmail.com)