BENGALURU: You are a techie from the city and one of your duties involve travelling to countries like Japan or Germany a few times a year. Although you want to learn the languages of these countries, you don’t have time.
The Centre for Global Languages at Bangalore University has a solution for you. From this year, they are starting what they call ‘conversation classes’, a sort of crash course in the basics of a foreign language that usually comes handy in day-to-day use.
Jyothi Venkatesh, coordinator at the Centre, says, “This is a two-month long course of merely 40 hours. We will offer these conversation classes in the 10 foreign languages that we are already teaching such as French, German, Japanese, Spanish and Chinese to name a few. Besides these, we are also planning on bringing in new languages such as Hebrew, Polish for the conversation classes.” The Centre may also offer the same in Dutch and Thai, if the need arises.
As the name suggests, classes will be oral with a final review or exam at the end of the two months. A certificate will be given for completing the course.
“We want to cater to the crowd that regularly goes abroad for business or leisure. We will try and pack in as much and in-depth learning in the course within the two months,” says Jyothi while adding, “The intake will be 20 at first but we will subsequently increase if there is a demand.”
Integrated programmes
This is the first time in the history of the institute that such a course is being offered. “We have JNU and DU offering the course in the North but there are no proper institutes that offer these in Karnataka. This is probably the first such initiative here,” says Jyothi. A person can join the course right after his class 12. The course will have an exit option after three years, giving him or her a BA degree in French. The full five years will lead to a Master’s degree in French. “For this year it’s just French but we will offer the integrated programme for German, Spanish, Chinese and other languages in subsequent years,” adds Jyothi. The Center is also offering it’s A1 certificate course of eight months now for only four months. This according to the faculty is as per international standards. Admissions begin on June 15. For more details, contact 9844358534 or 9845489267.