Seminar “Aspects of Hindi teaching: Language, Culture and History” is organized by Department of Indology and Far Eastern Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb in collaboration with Embassy of India in the context of International Hindī day on 13th and 14th February 2018.
13th February
Inaugural Session (9:00 am to 9:30 am)
H. E. Mr. Arindam Bagchi, Ambassador of India to Croatia
Prof. Dr. Vesna Vlahović Štetić, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr. Ivan Andrijanić, Head of the Dept. of Indology and Far Eastern Studies
Tea/Coffee Break (9:30 am to 9:45 am)
First Session (9:45 am to 11:15 pm): Hindi Didactics
Chair: Ivan Andrijanić, Zagreb University
- Višnja Grabovac, Department of Indology and Far Eastern Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Teaching Hindi – The Question of Method and Content
- Liliya Deneva, Indology Section, Classical East Dept. University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Sofia, Bulgaria
Hindi language teaching at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Bulgaria
- Jyoti Sharma, ICCR Chair, Department of Indology and Far Eastern Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Role of information and broadcasting technology in teaching Hindi at foreign universities
Tea/Coffee Break (11:15 am to 11:30 am)
Second Session (11:30 am to 1:00 pm): Hindi Didactics
Chair: Jyoti Sharma (11:30 am to 1:00 pm)
- Katarina Katavić, Department of Indology and Far Eastern Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
- Marijana Janjić, Indian Cultural Centre, Zagreb
Hindi teaching: question of focus?
- Péter Sági, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
Which Hindī after all? The regional character of Hindī as a second language
Lunch (1:00 pm to 2:00 pm)
Third Session (2:00 pm to 3:30 pm): Language and Literature
Chair: Višnja Grabovac, Zagreb University
- Mandar Purandare, Adam Mickiewicz Universiy, Poznań, Poland
Creative Writing in a Hindi Classroom
- Małgorzata Sadkowska, Department of Indology, Institute of Oriental Studies, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
Matrophoby or mother-quest? Mother-daughter relationship in “Ai Ladki” by Krishna Sobti
- Krešimir Krnic, Department of Indology and Far Eastern Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Pain and Joy of Reading Hindī Literature
Tea/Coffee Break (3:30 am to 3:45 am)
Fourth Session (3:45 pm to 5:15 pm): Literature, Linguistics and Philosophy
Chair: Krešimir Krnic
- Igor Grbić, Faculty of Humanities, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Croatia
The Occidentocentric Fallacy: Turning Literature into a Province
- Ivan Andrijanić, Department of Indology and Far Eastern Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Hindī numerals in historical and comparative perspective
- Goran Kardaš, Department of Philosophy, Department of Indology and Far Eastern Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb
Classical Indian Logic up to Dignāga
Closing Session (5:15 pm to 5:30 pm)
7:00 Dinner for participants
14th February
Round table (9.00 am –11.00 am)
Abstracts
Mandar Purandare, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
Creative Writing in a Hindi Classroom
Creative writing is rather a general and not a very old term. Usually we associate it mostly with poem-writing, although it could also cover essay writing and belletristic. Creative writing in one’s mother tongue and creative writing in a foreign language that one is learning are two different things and hence need different strategies. Writing in a foreign language like Hindi is difficult, challenging and yet necessary, because it is about Self-expression. There is a lot of material available for creative writing in English classes, however very less for Hindi. I am trying to explain herewith my strategies, goals, ideas, frustrations, experiences and failures concerning this rather unattended section of language learning and teaching. Creative writing could be wonderful , interesting and could even open for us the doors of literature, could give us practical support in writing on social media.
Liliya Deneva, Indology Section, Classical East Dept. Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Bulgaria
Hindī language teaching at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Bulgari
The paper aims at revealing aspects of Hindī language teaching at Sofia University and is based on my personal experience as a lecturer. Hindī is being taught at different levels at the University and is a compulsory subject in two BA programs – Indology (where it is being taught as a first Indian language) and South, East and South-East Asia (a new interdepartmental program where Hindī is taught as a second Eastern language). I will try to show the different challenges that I face with students from different programs.
Péter Sági, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
लेकिन कौन-सी हिन्दी? हिन्दी का क्षेत्रीय स्वरूप और भाषा-शिक्षण
Which Hindi after all? The regional character of Hindī as a second language
Fort William College, colonial dichotomy, Hindi and Urdu, India and Pakistan… These keywords are still the main concerns when we discuss the shape of the most widespread North Indian vernacular, especially in the academic register. The many dialects and regional varieties of Hindi are seldom given actual importance. In my presentation, I would like to draw attention to how some aspects of the colloquial registers of Hindi should be dealt with in the classroom, with reference to popular culture.
Małgorzata Sadkowska, Department of Indology, Institute of Oriental Studies, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
Matrophoby or mother-quest? Mother-daughter relationship in “Ai Ladki” by Krishna Sobti
The talk titled “Matrophoby or mother-quest? Mother-daughter relationship in “Ai Ladki” by Krishna Sobti” outlines the contemporary novelist’s intimate and incisive portrayal of a complex relationship between a mother and a daughter. The two female characters of Krishna Sobti’s novel: Ammu (lit. Mother) and Ladki (lit. Girl) seem to epitomize, and at the same time contest the often stereotyped mother-daughter relationship as it has been shaped by the rules of the traditional Indian society. The analysis of the relationship presented in the talk is an attempt to answer questions such as: how matrophoby and mother-quest attitudes can be defined in the Indian context, or whether any of the two prevails in the literary portrait of the daughter, “Ladki”.
Ivan Andrijanić, Department of Indology and Far Eastern Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Hindī numerals in historical and comparative perspective
One of the problems that foreign students face while learning Hindī are numerals. For usual European classical and modern languages one has to learn by heart numerals from one to ten or twenty. Numerals from one to ten are usually based on unrelated stems, while eleven to twenty are in most languages more or less transparently formed on the basis of stems from one to ten. However, the numerals from twenty-one to ninety-nine are usually formed regularly according to some recognizable pattern and students only have to master the rule. Such is the case even with Sanskrit, but not with Hindī (and other New Indo-Aryan languages) where all numerals from one to hundred have to be memorized separately. So for instance 24 in English is formed regularly from twenty + four, 25 from twenty + five. In Sanskrit they are formed from catur (4) + viṃśati (20) and pañca (5) + viṃśati. In Hindī 24 is caubīs, where numeral cār (4) is not recognizable; even more with 25 pacīs where pā̃c (5) and bīs (20) cannot be separated. This means that numerals caubīs (24) and pacīs (25) do not appear at first sight as a part of regular succession. The reason for this seemingly irregular number succession is that numerals in Hindī are not formed by pattern, but by sound change from the Sanskrit original through Middle Indo-Aryan (Prakrit) forms. Caubīs is derived from Skt. caturviṃśati (through Prakrit forms like catubbīsam) and pacīs from pañcaviṃśati (through Pāli pañcavīsati, paññavīsati etc.). This presentation will explore a) sound change that affected numerals in different stages of language development, (e.g. how come that caubīs retained Skt. –v-, while it disappeared in pacīs) and b) analogical formations that affected many numerals in a rather unpredictable way. The presentation will also try to explore the direction and range of analogical change that affected the succession of numerals.
Krešimir Krnic, Department of Indology and Far Eastern Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Pain and Joy of Reading Hindī Literature
The approach to teaching Hindī can take different directions. Of course technical part, i.e. mastering the grammar and vocabulary are one unavoidable part. But after that, stress could be made on more theoretical linguistic knowledge or on level of understanding of source text. When this text is itself of the technical nature, it means, such that more the core meaning than its stylistic value is important, the satisfying result is usually achieved after two to three years of study. Both teacher and student face more problem when coping with literary texts, since these texts ask for literary sense on the part of the student (and teacher, of course), and grasping of the real meaning of the text, not to talk about grasping its hidden aesthetic value, can be real pain. But the joy it gives to the one who successfully solves the quest is of the utmost value.
I will try to discuss the way and methods to lead our students from pain to joy.
Katarina Katavić, Department of Indology and Far Eastern Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Hindi Gender System
One of the hardest parts of language learning is mastering the gender oppositions. Hindi has two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine, which are partly semantic, partly phonological and partly arbitrarily assigned. The Hindi gender system has been researched to some extent, but only a few assignment rules have been extracted and most Hindi students still learn gender of nouns by heart. Using the Tlex dictionary software and a wordlist containing more than 7000 nouns, I will try to extract as many assignment rules as possible, taking into account both phonology and etymology of words at stake.
Jyoti Sharma, ICCR Hindī Chair, Department of Indology and Far Eastern Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Role of information and broadcasting technology in teaching Hindi at foreign universities
During the course of my teaching session in foreign countries, I felt that use of information and technology mediums makes the learning of language not just easy but also interesting. Actually both teaching and learning of language are difficult tasks. Learning a new language is like entering into a new world of sorts. According to Italian film director Federico Fellini — ˝A different language is a different vision of life ˝.
Moving ahead on this path, both teacher and student require a lot of patience, interest , self-confidence and continues efforts . Use of information and technology make this journey convenient. Blogs, YouTube, E-Mail, WhatsApp, Facebook, twitter and such other several media platforms are making language learning easier every day.
For instance, while teaching literature, history or language Hindi one can take help of images , songs and videos to explain things in a way. One can show the image of ‘Kutaj’ while talking about Hazari prasad Diwedi’s famous essay – Kutaj or play the game of Guli – danda on YouTube to explain the story of the same title by Premchand . In case of Fanishwarnath Renu scenes from rural Indian life can be used as good supplementary material.
India’s booming film industry, Bollywood , too has made transmission of Hindi language and global . Moreover, websites like – Shitykunj, hindinest, sindisamay, kavitakosh etc. are also helping the reach of Hindi language and it’s litreature in global area .
Indeed , with digital revolution various online teaching-learning platforms have come about , which one making for learner across the globe. Some of these includes-E-pg paathshal, Illl.du.ac.in, startalk , sai.columbia.edu etc.
A new interest towards Hindi language , literature, culture and society ,can also be seen developing with the widespread telecasting of T.V serials, E- kaavisammelan, E- talks and so on.
Although serious question have been raised from time to time about the accuracy of language and quality of literature available in those platforms . However, there can be overcome with responsible attention and effort . And thus information and technology can serve even more vital role in the spread of Hindi language , it’s literature and culture etc. In coming future .
Višnja Grabovac, Department of Indology and Far Eastern Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Teaching Hindi – The Question of Method and Content
When it comes to methodology of teaching a foreign language there have been many methods developed in Europe since 16th century onwards. During the 20th century great economical, political and sociological changes occurred and the need for learning languages for widespread work, education, cultural exchange, leisure and so on became greater than ever and methods of language learning and teaching underwent great changes as well. The authors of textbooks for major European languages such as English, German and French recognized the “sign of new times” and have adopted new ways of teaching and presenting the language to the students. The intention behind this paper will be to offer and to put to test some of ideas concerning the possible methodology and content of lessons that should be included in classes and hopefully new Hindi textbooks.
Igor Grbić, Faculty of Humanities, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Croatia
The Occidentocentric Fallacy: Turning Literature into a Province
Occidentocentrism in literary criticism has created an extremely lopsided and partial idea of literary history and theory, and, worst of all, of literature itself. Unlike non-Western cultures, familiar with their own and Western heritage, the West presents a particularly sad case of being autistically concentrated on itself. The book diagnoses the present situation, warns of the need to acknowledge it as a circumstance not simply piteous, but first of all disastrous for our understanding of the literary phenomen as such, and finally suggests some practical remedies. It thus includes perspectives from both non-Western cultures and minority cultures within a supposed West, contrary to the still much too common habit of identifying the world (as in the syntagm world literature) with the West (which is again downsized to a part of Europe, and the USA). Also considered, as part of the problem, are various cultural assymetries pertaining to literature (too many of them stemming from big-versus-small literatures/cultures), global awards such as the Nobel Prize, and translation issues. The prime concern of the book is awakening its readers to the fact that, incredibly but truly enough, literature (much like other spheres of humanities studies, but so unlike those of natural sciences) in its total, all-human purport and realization, is something yet to be discovered, and literary scholarship something yet to be established.
Marijana Janjić, Indian Cultural Centre, Zagreb
Hindi teaching: question of focus?
Learning a new language requires focus as it is time and energy consuming investment that also takes its toll on the person’s finances. Hence, one ought to come into the foreign language classroom already aware of the benefits one seeks from acquiring communication skills in a new language. If a student in a classroom doesn’t know why he/she is there, the process of acquiring new skills can be and usually is dampened for a lack of desire to master new data and for a lack of curiosity to understand a civilization, a culture, which ever way we choose to name it. However, students are only partially responsible for the outcome as teacher(s) share the responsibility as well as desire to master new learning styles of their students and a curiosity to understand both the needs of their students and the purpose of the course they facilitate.
Learning/teaching of Hindi is dampened by different attitudes that take root in students/teachers prior to classroom experience: a) everybody speaks English in India, b) I don’t really need Hindi attitude, c) Hindi is useful only for watching Bollywood films today, d) I can learn Hindi from anyone, e) I don’t need to learn the script, f) teaching/learning materials for Hindi are not interesting, g) my students are here only to pass time and exams, h) my students don’t really need Hindi.
The paper analyses the need for teacher’s effort to recognize students’ learning styles and adjust his/her teaching style in order to help students achieve their learning goals. Thus the focus in teaching/learning is shifted from abstract curriculum plans to the cross-section of curriculum plan(s) and students’ needs. Paper gives examples of how students and teachers can develop mutual interest in their respective work/goals from which new materials and new approaches to teaching/learning Hindi can spring up.
Goran Kardaš, Department of Philosophy, Department of Indology and Far Eastern Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb
Classical Indian Logic up to Dignāga
Although there are at least two ancient Indian texts dealing with the logical reasoning in more or less developed fashion that most probably predate Nyāyasūtras, namely „ayurvedic“ Caraka Saṃhitā and Saṣṭitantra („Six Doctrines“) of the Sāṃkhya school (preserved only fragmentary), it is the Nyāya school that established definite conceptional framework of logic in India. In my presentation I will analyze crucial „probative“ steps in forming valid logical proof according to this school and will also point out the place of logic within the broader frame of Nyāya Philosophy. After Classical Nyāya school („Old Nyāya“) the primacy over logical investigations in India took over Buddhist Logicians starting with Vasubandhu and Dignāga. So I will also point out certain refinements and improvements that these Logicians introduced in logical analysis.