Simon Bolz, 52, is learning to speak in Hindi at Gujarat Vidyapith. Bolz, a passionate photographer from Germany, loves to spend time in desert of Kutch and has done extensive photography in deserts of Rajasthan too.
During her extended stay in India, she needs to communicate with various people and that need has compelled her to learn to speak in Hindi. Simon says, “I badly needed to learn a local language which connects me to the entire India, and my search of an institution where I can learn spoken Hindi in the shortest time span ended at Gujarat Vidyapith in Ahmedabad.”
Today, Simon and 15 other students from various countries, including the US, Germany, Italy, France, Denmark, Belgium, Israel and Thailand, are learning spoken Hindi at Bhartiya Bhasha Sanskriti Sansthan, Gujarat Vidyapith.
Simon’s batch mates include Pichet Neerapatk from Thailand, Anna Sidot from Italy, Bram Delombaerde from Belgium and Nicole Pechoux from France, who are in the city on a six-month student-exchange programme. A couple Dorothy and David Durling from the US, who have chosen to settle down in Ahmedabad as they like the city’s relaxed lifestyle, are learning the language at the Vidyapith. Besides them, Alfonso Hernandz from Mexico and Camilla Christensen from Denmark, who are in the city for social work projects and are working with local NGOs, are also Simon’s batch mates.
“To teach these foreigners speak Hindi, I adopt innovative ways,” says Dr Anjana Sandhir, a Punjabi, born and brought up in Gujarat and a former professor of Hindi and Indian Culture at Columbia University who has come back to raise her two daughters in the motherland. Anjana’s speciality is to teach spoken Hindi through popular Bollywood numbers. “I teach them Hindi numbers by ‘Ek Do Teen’ – a song of film ‘Tezab’, and words for common things using ‘Shree 420’ song ‘Mera Juta Hai Japani’. I have also included the new hit number ‘Sanorita’ from ‘Yeh Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ in teaching items,” she says.
These students write Hindi in their own script. “As a language learning exercise, we have translated ‘Sanorita’ song in eight languages including German, French, Hindi, Spanish and we all sing it as a chorus,” says Dr Anjana.
