"You, Your Kids Should Learn Kannada": Zoho CEO Urges Bengaluru Residents

Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho Corporation, recently emphasised the importance of learning Kannada for those who have made Bengaluru their home. Reacting to a post on social media platform X, Vembu expressed that not knowing the local language could be seen as disrespectful.

His remarks were in response to a comment about a viral post featuring two men wearing T-shirts with "Hindi National Language" written on them. The caption of the original post read, "Perfect T-shirt for a Bangalore trip."

Vembu underlined that speaking Kannada is integral for anyone living in Bengaluru, stressing its importance in preserving cultural respect and harmony. The discussion sparked a wider conversation online about the role of regional languages in fostering inclusivity.

Vembu wrote, "If you make Bengaluru your home, you should learn Kannada, and your kids should learn Kannada. Not learning Kannada after spending 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."

I agree with this sentiment. 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… https://t.co/1cIQ47FMjn

— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) November 15, 2024

The post has got variety of reaction to it.

"Sridhar Ji - I completely understand your sentiment . But there is always a list of things to learn for me - couple of tech certifications pending , a course on Sanaskrit Vedic pending , even the plan of learning my mother tongue script Sharda is in my bucket list. Taking extra time for something new is challenging - only way a person can pick a new language is if the process is organic. We should think about making the process organic, may be little Kanada here and there or small interactive sessions on weekends . Even encouraging someone who speaks broken language. I don't know the exact answer how we can encourage it - but the process should be organic as we are already loaded with 1000 things which take precedence over learning a new language," commented a user.

"Language is a means of communication. People do whatever is needed for thier survival. Isn't this a common sense? In Bengaluru, I meet more non Kannadigas than Kannadigas. 90% of them, when they speak, use English. How do you expect someone moving to Bangalore to prioritise Kannada over English? Languages are not learnt from books. They are learnt from the surroundings," commented another user.