Singapore: Increasing numbers of students in Singapore are learning Hindi as opportunities in India expand, the Hindi Society, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the teaching of Hindi said on Monday.
The organisation is currently holding classes for 2,000 students from pre-primary to junior college levels at four Hindi centres and 32 other schools, said head of the language department, K K Pandey.
Including the students from two Indian international schools, the number could be closer to 4,500, he added.
The Singapore Government added Hindi to the list of second languages that students could choose to learn in 1990.
A year later, the society had only 92 students.
Singapore's predominantly Chinese population includes 14 per cent Malays and six per cent Indians.
As it is the mother tongue of many people in the city-state, it is also important culturally and enables Singaporeans to plug into the global Indian network, Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo said on Sunday.
"Hindi speakers, who come here to visit or to work or to settle find a congenial multi-ethnic, multi-lingual environment," Yeo said.
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