You had me at Hola: Can you speak a Foreign Language?

German, Mandarin, French, Spanish...and Arabic too,” rattles off Bhaskar K Devendra, Director, Cambridge Institute Foreign Languages Classes,  on being asked about the currently influential and in-demand foreign languages Mumbaikars are queuing up to learn. He shares that the institute, which also holds classes in English, Russian and Japanese, sees an exciting mix of students with varying goals.
“During the course, their proficiency is tested through internal examinations at the end of the different levels—A1, A2, B1, B2, denoting graduation level expertise, and C1, C2, considered PhD-equivalents. International exams are also there,” says Bhaskar, before passing on the dialogue to Mandarin trainer Kala Karnik, who, having picked up the language at the age of 52, now teaches at the institute.

Fresh opportunities
Kala, a former Mathematics lecturer, insists that for all the challenges of its elaborate script, Mandarin, if mastered, has huge potential that’ll only expand with India’s developing business relations with China. “While relatively high-end careers might benefit from the knowledge of German or French, Mandarin is equally useful for Indians involved in small-scale industries like hosiery, agro, chemicals, small battery and gadget production, etc. China is intent on exploring the Indian market and it gives an Indian businessman, big or small, an immense edge to be able to strike business in Mandarin,” Kala explains. Bhaskar agrees, laying out the usual patrons for some of the other languages—young corporates/engineers aiming for high MNC positions for German; language-enthusiasts, aspiring embassy employees and future translators for French and Spanish and so on.
Of Mandarin, Kala says, “The core essence of the language is steeped in familiar cultural sensibilities like respect for elders—it shares with Hindi the distinct modes of address denoting different relationships”. The difficult bit is the script, which one better not approach during the initial phase of learning. Instead, Kala advises picking up native greetings and pleasantries first, then trying to read the same in a similarly oriented script of familar origin (Devanagari is what she uses) eventually progressing to the intricacies of the written word. ‘Listen-speak-repeat’, Kala’s mantra for taming the “beautifully developed” language, might help you earn $85 per hour as an interpreter, or `4 per word as a translator, the lady reckons.

Learning a new language can be an enriching experience

Music, lyrics...
Not everyone is driven by a professional motive in picking up a new language. Sanchari Bhattacharya, 25, admits to putting Enrique’s songs on loop as a teenager, crushing simultaneously on the singer and his appropriately gorgeous language. A tester course in Communicative Spanish heightened her attraction to the tongue, and she started taking regular classes alongwith a friend. Now in their Senior-1 level, Sanchari and her friend have since come up with odd, fun ways of staying “in conversation with the language”.

...and some homely tips
Begin with simple, conversational phrases.
Pick up the basic grammatical elements that help support the structure of these sentences and increase your vocabulary.
Listen to the language in different forms—movies, cartoons, songs, football commentaries, cooking shows.
Read manuals in Spanish, play scrabble and other word games.
Make flashcards and keep a journal.
Create learner’s groups on Whatsapp or add native speakers on social media.
Use apps like Duolingo lStart thinking in Spanish.
Try to avoid a sabbatical.

Steady romance
Mahek Shahani, currently working with the administrative department of the Consulate General of Spain, remembers taking a sabbatical. But that did not stop her from going from student to teacher at the Instituto Hispania, or working briefly with a Spanish shipping company to gain enough confidence before bagging a consulate job that delights her with its complete and constant “Spanish environment”.  And all this, from the love of the phonetics floating in the air of a Latin ballroom dancing class Mahek had once taken.
Mahek too, stresses on learning to think in the foreign language, instead of translating it. “Suppose you come home from your class, do you see a sofa? Or a toothbrush, a doorknob or a clock? Try naming these items in Spanish. Do not disconnect,” she insists, adding that the scope for a teaching career in Spanish is now stronger, with many IB schools adopting it as part of their curriculum. So where should one start? “At Hola! My first word,” gushes Mehak.


Hola!

Logical learning
Saanika Amembal, who teaches at the Cambridge institute, speaks fondly of German. “German’s a logical language. You speak what you read.” She claims that it is relatively easier for a Hindi-speaking person to relate to this language that uses adjective-endings, (equivalents: wo laal rang ki kursi/ wo sundar dikhne wali ladki) sometimes attributing gender affixes to even inanimate objects, unlike in English. A book is ‘neutral’ gender in German. But wait, apparently, a young girl is ‘neutral’ too. “But not without logic!” Saanika laughs. “The smaller version of any object is considered neutral, in German and a girl is the smaller version of a woman, isn’t she?”

Challenge accepted
“The challenge in French lies in its pronunciation,” reveals trainer Anuradha Joshi. “Most of the time you do not pronounce the last consonants. A lot of words ending with an ‘e’ denote a feminine noun. Then you have the accents—they transform each sound. Articles are very important in determining gender, or singular-plural,” lists Anuradha with enthusiasm. “On the other hand, many of the words are very similar to English, which is also what the script is in,” says the former primary teacher, who picked up the language at the age of 35 to push herself towards “something new”.

Can you speak French?

A wide horizon
Translator and interpreter Neha Mohan could tell you a thing or two about the lust for the new. “I always wanted to make a career out of a new language—a foreign language,” she confides. And make a career she did, first as a teacher at Alliance Française, and then as a translator. “I chose translating over teaching as it exposes me to many different fields. “One day it could be medicine, and the next, law, psychology, sociology, economics, finance, science, coaching, tourism, or even art and culture”. The knowledge I can thus tap into is incomparable.” So, what’s one way to gauge if your love affair with the language is for keeps? “See if you are willing to spend quality time with the language. You cannot depend solely on classroom teaching, it has to be a personal pursuit,” winds up Neha.
For many like Neha, it is this pursuit that translates distant ‘mother languages’ into private tales of sagesse (wisdom) and amour (love).

@gupta_sohini