KOCHI: When children spend time on their mobile phones or laptops, the normal assumption that parents have is that they are either playing games or watching videos. However, there are times when this assumption is proved wrong – for the good.
Take the case of Aarav Sajju. The class I student of South Vazhakulam Government LP School, in Ernakulam district, was castigated by his mother for extensive use of the mobile phone, only for his family to find that the six-year-old had been using his time spent with the device to learn multiple languages.
He can now read and write in nine languages: English, Malayalam, Hindi, Greek, Arabic, Urdu, Japanese, Korean and Russian. And Aarav didn’t stop at that. He also learnt the periodic table of elements. His talent had his teachers so impressed that they shot a video of Aarav explaining the periodic table. The video was shared by General Education Minister V Sivankutty on his Facebook page. It garnered much attention.
Talking about his special hobby, Aarav’s mother Athira says, “He got hooked to learning new languages after coming across the keyboard options on the mobile phone.”
She adds, “All this happened when was playing around with his mobile. Seeing the peculiar characters, he asked us about it. But since we couldn’t give him any explanation other than the fact that they were foreign languages, he turned to Google.”
Aarav began by learning the alphabets. Speaking about his method, Aarav says, “I copy-paste the alphabets onto Google Translator. I then write down the alphabets and corresponding sounds in English.”
He also listens to the audio pronunciations. “I used to get exasperated seeing him bend over the phone scribbling on pieces of paper. I would scold him for spending long hours on his mobile. It was later on that I realised that he was learning languages,” says Athira. She says that this has become his hobby. “It is not as if he will take up these languages seriously in future. He has developed a hobby of learning new languages,” she adds.
Aarav also teaches his friends at school the languages he learns. “After he found me throwing away the paper he had used to scribble the words and alphabets, he began stuffing them in his bag and taking them to school. There he would teach not only his friends the languages but also his teachers. That’s how they came to know of his interest,” says Athira.
As for the periodic table, she says, “He came across the table behind the pamphlet of a tuition centre. Once again, he took to Google and learnt the names of the elements, their atomic numbers, atomic mass, groups into which they are classified, etc.” However, oblivious to the interest that he has generated, Aarav continues to hone his language skills by expanding into writing words and sentences using the alphabets he has learnt.