Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu has left the internet divided with this latest post. Vembu's comments, urging people who make Bengaluru their home to learn Kannada, have garnered both support and criticism.
Read the post here
Sridhar Vembu shared a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) urging people to learn Kannada. Vembu emphasised that anyone who considers Bengaluru their home should learn Kannada, calling it "disrespectful" not to do so.
Vembu's comments were prompted by a social media post featuring two individuals wearing T-shirts with the slogan "Hindi National Language." The post, captioned "Perfect T-shirt for Bangalore trip”.
Commenting on another X user post, Vembu wrote, “If you make Bengaluru your home, you should learn Kannada and your kids should learn Kannada. Not doing so after living many years in Bengaluru is disrespectful. I often request our employees in Chennai coming from other states to make an effort to learn Tamil after they come here."
User reactions
Vembu's post garnered over a million views and sparked a wave of reactions on social media. Vembu's statement, which emphasized the importance of learning Kannada for residents who build their lives in Bengaluru, resonated with some users. However, others expressed concerns that such expectations could be perceived as exclusionary or impose an additional burden on non-Kannada speakers. Here are some user reactions:
“I have many Kannada friends in Mumbai, living here for decades. No one can speak Marathi. Not one word. Fair?”
“Disrespectful? The problem is that a IT professional working in Chennai for 3 years could move to Bengaluru to work there for next 5 years and then to Hyderabad for next 2 years. So, by the OP logic they should be learning Tamil , Kannada and Telugu in these years and then finally settle to their hometown somewhere in Maharashtra and not use these languages ever again .
Though it is good to learn different languages but it cannot be shoved down their throat just to satisfy the misplaced regional pride? Also the work most IT professionals do is with European, American or other international clients in English - there also these languages will not help professionally .
Now, if you have noticed the Marwadi businessmen that you would find everywhere in Chennai running kirana shops or small businesses - they can speak fluent Tamil because their clientele is local. Try visiting Abids or Koti in Hyderabad , you will find the same thing with Telugu speaking Gujaratis and Marwadis .
The problem is not learning the language, the problem is regional ego attached with it . Which unfortunately the post like yours promote . That is what is disrespectful.”
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