Learning foreign languages can produce various benefits for language learners and most of these advantages include something for personal gain. Foreign language learning must be sweeping the world like a storm-even beggars in India are learning foreign languages too!

A recent report has stated that beggars in India are preparing for the Commonwealth Games next year by learning new languages. Thousands of homeless people in New Delhi are aspiring for better business from foreign tourists if they can speak their languages.

Majority of the citizens of the Commonwealth nations speak English yet the beggars of Delhi are teaching themselves other languages such as Spanish and French.

The thousands of beggars who go with their trade at the streets of Delhi currently read from a set script. They are taught to speak in different tongues in order to beg effectively from thousands of tourists. Some of the gangsters who control the beggars, think that those who can communicate with the tourists will be able to beg more from money from them.

In a poor slum in the west of Delhi are beggar children with dirty and bare feet, torn shirts and matted hair learn new phrases in other languages at night so that they can tell heart-melting stories to tourists who are not expecting that the children are part of the vast organized crime network of the city.

Most of the beggars have had little or no formal schooling yet they are now learning how to say “I am an orphan, I have not eaten for days, I am ill and I don’t have money for medicine, please help me in the name of God.”

One of the beggars said that the trend to ask foreign tourists for money in their own money added a more personal touch to begging. Aside from that, beggars are also given training to identify the difference between currency notes to recognize their values.

Beggars are posted in different areas of the city such as famous tourist spots, traffic lights, and shopping centers. Once a Croatian visitor has said that he was shocked when a man dressed in rags approached him and asked him in English if he was French or German and then started saying “please give him money” in different languages.

The Commonwealth Games will be held in October in India next year. If you will be part of the said event, don’t be too surprised when somebody taps your shoulder and asks for money in at least three languages!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Learn Languages. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.