Priya Gupta is an IT engineer turned Hindi language teacher turned author. In this conversation, hear how she unexpectedly became a go- to resource in her community for teaching Hindi, and how she turned that into a small business.
One Summer, a grandparent of a neighbor was visiting from India, and helped to form a Hindi playgroup for the little ones. When the grandparent returned, the community didn't want to stop the playgroup and Priya stepped up to keep it going. Hindi Kay Bol was born!
She has an innovative approach when it comes to teaching kids - by making learning fun - and has never had a family drop out. Realizing there weren't a lot of suitable resources, she wrote 4 Hindi books to use in her classes. Check the link (in the image) for her latest release, “Main Hoon Kaun?” (Who Am I?) which is based on a game played in her classroom and features artwork from her students.
Below are some concrete tips on teaching language, including a short list of resources discussed in this chat.
Tips for Passing on Language:
- Build a language ecosystem. Movies, books, playgroups, an online class and a Desi community.
- Don’t give up. It will be challenging and there will be times your children will reject it. Just be persistent.
- Aim for at least 10 minutes of immersion and speaking a day.
- Daily practice is better than a one hour class a week
- Make it fun for young children. Use toys as props. Kids learn through play!
- Read to them everyday.
- Don’t rush to introduce literacy. Let them build their confidence in speaking and understanding first.
Games to Play:
With your kids to encourage speaking
- Letter Chain: pick a letter or sound and go around in a circle, each person naming one word that begins with that sound. See how far you can keep it going!
- Who Am I?: Give some basic facts about an object or character and see if your friends can guess.
- I Spy: A favorite of Anita’s! Teach your kids the phrase “I see…” Next time you are on a walk, ask them to tell you five things they see. If they don’t know a word, teach them or look it up.
Book Recommendations:
For Easy Translation to your target language
- Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathman (no words)
- Journey by Aaron Becker (no words)
- Mr. Panda series by Steve Antony (easy to translate)
- Eric Carle (easy to translate)
- Piggy & Gerald by Mo Willems (easy to translate)
Also check out Bhashakids bilingual Hindi Learning Collection: Bilingual books, vocabulary cards and worksheets.
| BK Interview 19 | Watch the interview here
*BhashaKids is eligible for commissions from Amazon purchases.
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