Discover new naunces

Updated on: Monday, September 06, 2010

Foreign language courses continue to be a favourite with students as they give them an international edge over their peers. Having working knowledge of any one international language sets a candidate apart in the job market as well. And while most of these courses like French, German, Spanish, Japanese, and so on draw a large number of students, there are quite a few exotic and equally enchanting courses on offer at the
Department of Slavonic and Finno-Ugrian Studies in Delhi University. These languages — Russian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Polish (bracketed under Slavic) Hungarian and Finnish (belonging to Finno-Ugrian) — belong to eastern Europe and are being taught through courses which are part-time, certificate, diploma and advanced stages.

"While languages like German, Italian, French belong to what is known as 'modern European languages' find favour with most students, those who come to study Slavic and Finno-Ugrian language courses, study them to broaden their horizons and for the different perspective these courses offer about the western world," says RK Nagpal, the head of the department who teaches Russian. "Of all the languages we offer, Russian language has the largest number of takers. That is because knowledge of Russian language gives students an undeniable advantage even since the Russian economy has been bolstered by President Vladimir Putin," he says. That is not to say that the remaining languages don't offer employment opportunities. "Knowing any of these languages can help you get a job in translation work and even jobs in embassies," he says.

Neha Prasad, who is doing her diploma in Bulgarian says, "It is one of the lesser known languages of Europe and I have always been fascinated by its richness. With even a smattering of the language I always tend to stand out in a crowd and it also looks attractive on my CV."

Referring to the richness that these languages offer, Nagpal says, "A large number of books that today are considered classics like War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, Anna Karenina were written in Russian, so the richness of literary merit that these languages have to offer is beyond question. However, it is our constant endeavour to make these languages not only aesthetically pleasing but also functionally beneficial."

SK Vij, dean of students welfare at Delhi University who teaches Bulgarian points out that for a large number of people in today's generation, the understanding of the western world comes from Hollywood and MTV. "This monochromatic view is shattered when one learns any of these east European languages. People from these countries are a lot like Indians in their approach to life, they have strong family values and adhere strongly to tradition. Like Indians, they tend to think more from their hearts unlike western Europe where logic and rationality are paramount. These countries even have a different script (Cyrillic), and not the Latin script followed in western Europe," he says.

Quite a few of the teachers teaching here are part of the cultural exchange programme. "We have teachers coming from Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to teach here. In exchange, we send our teachers to teach Hindi and Sanskrit to these countries," says Nagpal.

Times of India

Discover new naunces

More Education news