US wants young, full-time Hindi teachers for their schools
Some schools in the US have decided to introduce Hindi as a foreign language with staples like French, Spanish and German. Biz week in pics | Global Indians
By Hemali Chhapia, TNN |
MUMBAI: Little would Jagdish Prasad Sharma have dreamed that his proficiency in Hindi would one day take him from the quiet holy town of Mathura to the bright lights of the US.
Earlier this month, Sharma was one among the 100-odd Hindi teachers who travelled to Noida to be interviewed by a delegation from Connecticut and Carolina, in India to headhunt young, full-time Hindi teachers for their schools.
Hindi is the new Mandarin. Just as Mandarin is being learnt by youngsters all over the world to give them a strategic advantage with the emerging China, Hindi too is being sought after as the language of the other Asian tiger.
Some schools in the US have decided to introduce Hindi as a foreign language with staples like French, Spanish and German.
Apart from Hindi, the visiting delegation also interviewed about 70 Arabic teachers. Last year, the Bush administration had identified Arabic and Hindi among half-a-dozen critical foreign languages which it felt was vital for its national security.
"We're going to teach our kids how to speak important languages. We will welcome teachers here to help teach our kids how to speak languages," US President George Bush had said during a National Security Language Initiative in New York.
With an initial budget of $114 million, this initiative aims at helping more Americans to become multilingual and to do so at a young age. Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, Persian and Hindi are all "important languages".
Earlier this month, Sharma was one among the 100-odd Hindi teachers who travelled to Noida to be interviewed by a delegation from Connecticut and Carolina, in India to headhunt young, full-time Hindi teachers for their schools.
Hindi is the new Mandarin. Just as Mandarin is being learnt by youngsters all over the world to give them a strategic advantage with the emerging China, Hindi too is being sought after as the language of the other Asian tiger.
Some schools in the US have decided to introduce Hindi as a foreign language with staples like French, Spanish and German.
Apart from Hindi, the visiting delegation also interviewed about 70 Arabic teachers. Last year, the Bush administration had identified Arabic and Hindi among half-a-dozen critical foreign languages which it felt was vital for its national security.
"We're going to teach our kids how to speak important languages. We will welcome teachers here to help teach our kids how to speak languages," US President George Bush had said during a National Security Language Initiative in New York.
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With an initial budget of $114 million, this initiative aims at helping more Americans to become multilingual and to do so at a young age. Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, Persian and Hindi are all "important languages".
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Instructors are being recruited to teach these from kindergarten right up to the university level.
In India, the recruitment process is being facilitated by an arm of the human resources development ministry, called EdCIL (Education Consultants India Limited.
In 2004, EdCIL signed a memorandum of understanding with the American Department of Education to export several full-time Indian teachers for math, science and special education.
"Now, for the first time, there is a demand for Hindi teachers too,'' said Anu Banerjee, chief managing director, EdCIL. "The applicant needs to have a master's degree with a B.Ed or an M.Ed and a minimum of three years' work experience."
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This American dream beckons many. For 39-year-old Sharma, who has been teaching Premchand's writings and Kabir's dohas for years, teaching in a US state school at a salary of Rs 12 lakh a year is an unimaginable opportunity���and one that truly makes him a global villager.
Courtesy: www.timesofindia.com
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