What language must you learn?

Question

when becoming a Buddhist. Ive asked people and searched Yahoo and Google etc and the only thing ive seen about languages is that Sanskrit and Pali were the ancient languages and Buddhism is a Dharmic religion like Hinduism and Hindi is spoken through buddhism. im confused. :S hehe

I'd love to lean Hindi. My friends trying to learn it atm from her boyfriend (who is fluent in Hindi).

Not sure where to learn it but there ya go. ^^

Answer 1

My best friend is a Buddhist roshi and he mostly just giggles.

Answer 2

If you want to be able to speak to people from all over the world on an equal basis, then you really have to learn Esperanto. I have learned the language and have had an amazing experience speaking to people in Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Hungary. It is really different from when you speak English, because someone always has a natural advantage with national languages. Esperanto is so much more neutral as well as EXTREMELY easy to learn. I learned it with hardly any effort compared to other languages. I would also recommend learning Modern Standard Arabic (not local Arabic dialects, which are incomprehensible outside their country of origin). Modern Standard Arabic is an official UN language and is extremely beautiful, eloquent and has an amazing literature. Persian is a great language to learn as well, and much easier to learn than Arabic, since it is an Indo-European tongue. Persian has a great wealth of literature, especially mystic poetry.

Answer 3

Buddhists speak the local language of the place they live in. They are normal humans who live under normal conditions and speak the language of common people. If you are talking about the Buddhist Monks, they also speak local dialect to reach out to the common folks. However, for reading their manuscripts knowledge of Sanskrit and Pali will come in handy, though Buddhist literature is available in almost all languages.

Answer 4

What language must you learn when becoming a Buddhist? NONE (you just need to know the language you are speaking now)

You are NOT required to learn any other language to become a buddhist. I used to live in Thailand where nearly everyone is a buddhist but no one speak any other language but Thai. My ex-boss here in Australia is buddist but she doesn't speak any other langauge but English.

There are a lot of buddist monks in Australia too and they all speak english.

Answer 5

most Buddhists are in S.E. Asia, Japan, Tibet or China. it depends what type of Buddhism you follow. if you were into zen, then Japanese would be the best language to learn. and to get the full meaning of any text you do have to intimately know the language it was originally written in.

Answer 6

i m a Hindu, but sanskrit and pali were traditional languages.Now adays there will b very few people knowing them.

I guess Hindi is getting more popular now a days, so u must learn Hindi.

Its easy, come to me to learn...lol

Answer 7

Learning language is not a prequisite to become a Buddhist

Answer 8

Buddhism adapts itself to the country and language as it moves. So, I don't believe that you need a language to study it. And, if you are learning a language then you are studying it as it is (or was) when and where that language is/ was spoken.

Answer 9

it depends...

the original sutras are all written in Sanskrit or Pali.
But as the religion moved to s/e-Asia, China, Korea and Japan there are also sutras written in Chinese (or Japanese, although the Japanese sutras are that old, they're still written with Chinese characters)

but there are a number of (good) translations into various languages...

Answer 10

Why Buddhist? If you have spare time on your hands, do some useful charity work instead, better than sitting around contemplating the In's and outs of the universe!!!

Answer 11

Well I am a Sri Lankan and the country itself is bhuddhist!
The whole of popualation are bhuddhist!
They speak SINHALESE...but to understand the books u need to know Sanskrit and paali.