German school students to get a taste of Malayalam, Hindi

Remember the 2014 row over the dropping of German for Sanskrit in Kendriya Vidyalayas? Anyhow, school students in Germany are about to get a taste of Indian languages, courtesy the Goethe Zentrum, Thiruvananthapuram. Four teachers from different schools in the state w
Three of the four teachers who will be teaching Hindi and Malayalam in Germany. (From left) Devi Balan, Raji Ajith and Sobhana Panicker
Three of the four teachers who will be teaching Hindi and Malayalam in Germany. (From left) Devi Balan, Raji Ajith and Sobhana Panicker

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Remember the 2014 row over the dropping of German for Sanskrit in Kendriya Vidyalayas? Anyhow, school students in Germany are about to get a taste of Indian languages, courtesy the Goethe Zentrum, Thiruvananthapuram. Four teachers from different schools in the state will fly to Germany this week to teach Hindi and Malayalam over a three-week period in four schools there. All four are proficient in German also as they are teachers of the language. ‘’Three weeks is a short period to learn a language. But our intention is to give the German students a taste of Indian languages. It may help create a spark, an interest in India and its culture,’’ said Devi Balan, who teaches German at L’ecole Chempaka Thiruvananthapuram, and a member of the team. 

Goethe Zentrum is collaborating with the Educational Exchange Service and the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of Germany for the initiative.Devi will teach Malayalam at the Sekundarschule in Bornheim. The other teacher who will give Germans a taste of the Malayalam language is Sobhana Panicker. Sobhana teaches German at Central University, IIST and Christ Nagar School, Thiruvallam, and has been invited to teach at Berufskolleg des Kreises, Kleve.

Anitha Natarajan who teaches at St Paul’s International School, Kalamassery, and Carmel Academy ICSE, Chalakkudy, and Raji Ajith of Sarvodaya Central Vidyalaya and Christ Nagar International School, Thiruvananthapuram, are the Hindi teachers in the group. Anitha will teach at Europaschule, Koln, while Raji has been invited to teach at Auguste Viktoria Gymnasium, Trier. 

‘’Our advantage is that all four of us have learnt German as a foreign language. In Germany we would be teaching two languages that are foreign to them. But the technique will be the same,’’ Raji said.‘The Indian language programme is one way of building bridges between two cultures. Germans come here to teach their language. Now we are doing the same,’’ Sobhana said. ‘’Sanskrit is taught in Germany. There is a Herman Gundert Chair at the Tubingen University for Malayalam studies, but that’s about it. This is perhaps the first time two modern Indian languages are taught in German schools,’’ Syed Ibrahim, Honorary Consul of Germany in Kerala, said. 

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