An established professor of commerce, K Eresi has garnered much fame instead from his stint as chairperson of Bangalore University’s Department of Foreign Languages, which presently offers 11 languages. Although the two are poles apart, Prof Eresi has managed to achieve a rare confluence. “My association with this department started when we introduced a master’s in tourism administration in the Department of Commerce. A tourism course would be incomplete without foreign languages, so we got linked to this department. In 2004, I was asked to take charge of this department,” Prof Eresi recalls.
The university became the first in the country to offer a master’s in international business with a foreign language component, an idea credited to Prof Eresi. “As part of this course, my students will learn any one European language in the first two semesters. In the remaining two, they will learn an Asian language. So at the end, they will know finance, two foreign languages, their native languages and are ready for the global world,” he beams.
According to him, employers greatly value the knowledge of a foreign language. “I have always maintained that local needs do not bother me. I am preparing my students for the world. Employers ask students, ‘Fine, you know accounting. What else?’ So if a student says he knows French or German, it greatly increases his employability,” Prof Eresi explains. Many of his commerce students have gone to become language experts in their companies, instead of their domain expertise in the field of accounting, he laughs.
Ensemble of languages
The department offers six European, three Asian, Russian and Arabic languages. The courses are offered at certificate, diploma, higher diploma and advanced diploma stages. The department offers two full-time MA courses in French and Japanese. “We want to start many more languages, based on demand, and we plan to start two more PG courses in German and Spanish. We measure demand mainly in terms of students’ queries and our interactions with other experts,” he says. “On an average, we have added one language every year in the last 10 years.”
The department has linkages with Alliance Francaise, Max Muller Bhavan, Instituto Cervantes, English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, among others.
Students’ profile
In what he calls the department’s ‘greatest contribution to the community,’ weekend executive programme for working professionals were started last year. “Most of our students are not interested in acquiring literary knowledge in a foreign language. They want to have working proficiency. Most of them enrol owing to international postings or projects. We even have government officials. Recently, the assistant commissioner of customs and excise and transport commissioner, Karnataka cadre, was admitted,” he says.
The Eurozone crisis
The economic crisis in Europe, Prof Eresi says, has affected Bangalore University more than what the Government of India may have faced. “Our department has been affected as European embassies have reduced funding. Most of our European language courses are supported by the respective embassies. They depute teachers, but now they cannot afford that. Embassies of Italy, France and Germany have withdrawn the deputation of native language teachers. We have only two native teachers now, a Chinese and a Korean.”
However, Prof Eresi said efforts are on to rope in as much support as possible. “We are interested in starting training in Portuguese. There is an institute in Goa with whom talks are on. Even the Portuguese ambassador who visited us was very enthusiastic.”
On the anvil
A long pending demand of the department is to have a new building sanctioned for itself. Right now, the department is working out of a 90-year-old building, which the university engineers are not too keen to repair. “A day must come when people can come to Bangalore to study foreign languages. We have drawn up a detailed plan for a centre for global languages. We request the administration to give us a new building, and I can assure them of getting 1,000 students every year. Once we become a centre, it would help us get funds from embassies, hold independent programmes and other benefits,” he says.
Lastly, does Prof Eresi know any foreign language? He laughs adding that though he doesn’t know any foreign language, “this helps me stay in a position where I can promote all foreign languages without any bias.”
— bharath@newindianexpress.com