Hindi, Gujerati at discount department store. Mon, Mar 26, 2007.

03/26/2007. Journal Entry. I was shopping at a *-mart type store. I didn't have any books in my car because I took them out for a trip Saturday, and hadn't put them back in yet. I saw two other shoppers who were speaking a foreign language, but I couldn't tell what language they were speaking. I was close enough so that I could strike up a conversation, so I asked where they were from, and what language they were speaking. They were speaking Gujerati, a regional language of India. They also spoke Hindi, the national language of India.

I took out a customized pass-along card from my wallet and offered it to the man I was talking to. I said my church has books in Hindi and English if he ever wanted some bilingual material. We don't have anything in Gujerati, but the International Bible Society has Bibles in Gujerati.

Most people who come here from India are very fluent in English already, so there is not much excitement about or demand for bilingual material.