Language Courses

Two of our volunteers have been participating in our language and culture classes. In the photo, you will see our language teacher, Bindu, with two students, and my son next to Bindu! She works as a therapist in a hospital, and she speaks very good English and Hindi. She has been teaching the Hindi language courses for our students for several years now, both to speakers of English as a first language, and to people who learn English as a foreign language. With students, she covers material such as greetings, important adjectives, nouns, and verbs, and some dialogues for memorization. Some of our students who really have an interest in the language grasp the material very quickly. She always translates any sentences volunteers would like to learn (for example, most commonly, people ask how to say "I love you" or "Nice meeting you"). She also teaches some very useful phrases for bargaining, and ways to explain "Not interested" or how to ask for directions. We have had very positive feedback with our language courses in general, and we are very proud of being able to offer these courses to the volunteers interested in this program. Additionally, in our language and culture program, volunteers learn how to cook traditional Indian recipes from our cooks, they go to markets with locals to learn bargaining traditions, and visit local sights in Delhi NCR. If the volunteers are interested in these activities, we also arrange trips to local temples and a trip to see a Bollywood movie. Many times, foreigners comment that the movie theaters back in their countries do not compare to the wonderful movie theaters we have here in India! The theaters here have big, reclining seats, and each theater is little smaller than the size of an IMAX theater, according to our volunteers. Even though some movies may not have subtitles, the movies are fairly easy to follow and understand through body language and tone of voice. With these activities and opportunities in our language and culture program, our participants have always recommended and enjoyed the program with Aim Abroad.