Ramesh runs a business in the hub of the capital and he admits that learning Spanish has helped him a great deal in his business venture. “The customers are happy when I speak their language and they often end up buying the products,” says Ramesh who learnt both Spanish and French from the Bishwa Bhasha Campus. Since his brother only knew a few words of French, he insisted Ramesh to learn the language so that he could communicate well and help improve their family business. [break]
According to Dr Madhav Prasad Pokhrel, linguistics expert and former professor of linguistics at Tribhuvan University, most people are learning foreign languages in Nepal as it provides them with immediate economic benefits.
Photo: Bijay Gajmer
The number of migrant workers leaving for countries like Korea, Japan and Malaysia are increasing everyday. So they opt to learn foreign languages so that they can adapt and find better jobs when they land up in those countries. “Many of them aren’t well educated academically, so at least knowing a specific language can help them understand the culture and society of that place, so that they can grip the situations and cope better,” he adds.
According to the 2007 College Bound Seniors report issued by the College Board which administers the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), students with four or more years of foreign language study score more in SATs and other standardized tests than their monolingual peers. Besides being creative, those who know a foreign language are considered to have better cognitive development and have the ability to think in divergent ways than monolingual people.
Though there are many who study foreign languages for economic reasons, at the same time, there are many students who want to take up foreign languages due to their passion and hobby.
Arati Sharma, 18, who just completed her Plus Two, has recently joined for French classes. “Learning a foreign language is definitely an advantage in this age of globalization as it gets us a lot of exposure. It will also help me get scholarships for my undergraduate program. So learning French will not only help me improve my skills but will boost my confidence, too,” she says. Moreover she is finding it interesting how she is learning a new word, phrase or slang each day.
The mushrooming language institutes in the Valley stand as an evidence that learning new languages has become a fad even among other Nepalis. Like Arati, there are many youngsters who are taking up language classes to get better exposure.
There are, however, many who take foreign language classes either to kill time or to follow what their friends are doing.
Pratik Tamrakar, 18, is learning Spanish since he admires Spanish football players and is just fascinated with the language. Besides that, he wants to make use of his free time until he joins college.
“Many of my friends joined foreign language classes and I didn’t want to be the only one left out. It’s also considered hip if you can flaunt a new language,” he says.
Apart from students, many want to settle abroad which is why they learn foreign languages to acquire Green Cards as well. There were approximately 2800 applicants for this semester’s course alone at the Bishwa Bhasha Campus that provides language classes for both foreigners and Nepalis.
Besides offering Chinese, Japanese, Korean, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian for Nepalis, the institute also provides courses in Nepali, Sanskrit, Newar and Tibetan languages to foreigners. Anyone who has passed SLC examinations is eligible to get enrolled for the classes and the semesters range from three to six which depends on different languages.
While a few institutes offer month-long courses as well, at places like Alliance Française, the courses in French are full fledged that runs up to fourteen semesters.
Pokhrel mentions that Nepalis have an advantage since many know more than one language. “A survey shows that, in average, a Nepali can speak more than two languages,” he says. He points out that since the education system stresses on fluency of English, the quality of English language has improved a lot. Besides that, the influence of Bollywood has resulted in many speaking fluent Hindi, and at the same time a lot of people speak their own ethnic languages as well.
According to Bam Dev Adhikari, Campus Chief of Bishwa Bhasha Campus, there’s however more demand to learn Chinese, Japanese and German these days. He explains that those who opt to study these languages are usually guides or those working in the tourism industries.
Supporting his points, linguistics expert Pokhrel says that one of the prominent reasons for learning particularly Chinese, however, has been due to the booming economic growth of China. In future, there are possibilities of Chinese market growing in Nepal, so to improve the chances of getting employment, many are taking up Chinese classes.
Understanding the benefits of foreign languages, a few schools in the capital are giving foreign language classes to students, too. Ullens School in Lalitpur also offers Chinese language to the students starting right from grade one. Those who take International Baccalaureate (IB) after the tenth grade even have to study French and Spanish as compulsory subjects.
“Since India and China are emerging as world economies, in future these two countries will dominate the world. Most of them understand Hindi language, so we thought of giving Chinese lessons so they are well prepared in future. The students are learning it like any other subjects but they don’t have to give exams to pass it,” says Medin Lamichhane, Principal of Ullens School.
But he mentions that since the students get to practice Chinese only with their teachers but hardly anyone outside school, most of the time they are not able to reinforce what they have learnt.
“The wider the language proficiency they have, they will have additional benefits in the international market. Therefore exposure to new languages is vital,” he says.
Adhikari of Bishwa Bhasha Campus explains that since the campus is non-academic, the students study Chinese or any other languages for three years as part of language training. “This is why we are working to make the classes academic. We are trying to make a BA program for Japanese and Chinese languages and we need to work with the concerned embassies and TU for that.”
He mentions that in that way, students who study BA in Chinese or Japanese can directly do Masters in the same language in foreign countries if they plan to. The campus is also trying to add Scandinavian languages like Danish, Norwegian and Finnish to their list.
In this age of globalization, college students, young jobseekers and world travelers are aware of the obvious advantages of learning foreign languages.
After living six years in Germany, Sampurna Adhikari, 33, is back in the capital for good. Going back the memory lane, he fondly remembers his initial days while he was juggling work and studies in a foreign land. But if there’s one thing that helped him survive with ease when he was away from home, it was his skills of speaking fluent German.
“When my friends were having a tough time to rent a place, I could easily get by as I knew the language well. The course I took before I left came handy in school, at work, shopping and even while doing the smallest of chores,” says Sampurna who didn’t find it strange or difficult to settle in Germany due to his familiarity with the language and culture.
Be it for immediate economic benefits, or to study abroad or due to passion and commitment to understand the culture of the respective countries, many are opting to take up foreign language classes. But experts agree that if you don’t have a lifelong commitment or passion to the languages you are learning, you’ll never understand the culture well nor upgrade to the advanced level of the language. Nevertheless, when you combine foreign language skills with your areas of expertise, it opens up varied opportunities.
nistha.rayamajhi11@gmail.com
Related story
Gurung and Magar languages to be made official languages
