Life always gives you a second chance when you are feeling lost and hopeless. It is important that you recognize that moment and grab the opportunity with all your might. A friend from my community and I were toying with the idea of teaching kids some basic things from our mother-tongue, Marathi. We both think that is very important to keep the children abreast with the mother-tongue as we are in a foreign country. The communication with grandparents doesn't suffer and there is such a vast literature available in Marathi that being able to read it will through open many frontiers of positive thinking and help to become a better and sensitive human being. I conducted the initial talk with Volkshochschule (adult education center) here, which conducts many courses on different aspects of professional and personal life. Their positive response charged me up completely.
I then thought, why not familiarize the kids with the basic Sanskrit Shlokas like Ramraksha, Maruti Stotra? They not only stimulate the brain and help to remember better, but they also help to improve the quality of speech and pronunciation. Those mantras drive away fear and help in concentration and sound sleep. I offered to teach it to the kids as I am well versed with it. The friend had that in mind already and she also talked about the various folk tales available in Marathi that could be also told to the kids during the course. I know many Marathi families in Karlsruhe who don't talk to their kids in Marathi. I find that very strange. Living in a foreign country compels you to learn the foreign language spoken in that country but at the cost of not speaking your own mother-tongue at all? Is it justified? My friend and I want to change this mentality. It will take time and a lot of efforts, but we are ready to give it a go.
Similarly, I was asked many times at the Volkshochschule about conducting classes in Hindi. And I was refusing all this while as I didn't know where to begin. But when I thought more on it and my mother in law also gave me the idea of just doing conversational classes for the Europeans and teaching reading and writing to the Indians (Marathi and Hindi have a similar script), I also thought it's not a bad idea. Staying in Germany and being able to teach Hindi, Marathi, English and German here would be a really cool idea and it would give me time to do what I love the most. Meeting and talking to people, communicating, sharing and getting enriched by other peoples experiences!
Next week, we will go and meet the person in charge of the language course for kids (for us in Marathi) and then see how it goes further. Keeping fingers crossed.
I then thought, why not familiarize the kids with the basic Sanskrit Shlokas like Ramraksha, Maruti Stotra? They not only stimulate the brain and help to remember better, but they also help to improve the quality of speech and pronunciation. Those mantras drive away fear and help in concentration and sound sleep. I offered to teach it to the kids as I am well versed with it. The friend had that in mind already and she also talked about the various folk tales available in Marathi that could be also told to the kids during the course. I know many Marathi families in Karlsruhe who don't talk to their kids in Marathi. I find that very strange. Living in a foreign country compels you to learn the foreign language spoken in that country but at the cost of not speaking your own mother-tongue at all? Is it justified? My friend and I want to change this mentality. It will take time and a lot of efforts, but we are ready to give it a go.
Similarly, I was asked many times at the Volkshochschule about conducting classes in Hindi. And I was refusing all this while as I didn't know where to begin. But when I thought more on it and my mother in law also gave me the idea of just doing conversational classes for the Europeans and teaching reading and writing to the Indians (Marathi and Hindi have a similar script), I also thought it's not a bad idea. Staying in Germany and being able to teach Hindi, Marathi, English and German here would be a really cool idea and it would give me time to do what I love the most. Meeting and talking to people, communicating, sharing and getting enriched by other peoples experiences!
Next week, we will go and meet the person in charge of the language course for kids (for us in Marathi) and then see how it goes further. Keeping fingers crossed.
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