Exchanging words

An online French course being conducted by Alliance Francaise

Take the German route

Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai started a "blended learning course" in November 2019, where 50 per cent of their language courses are conducted in classrooms, and the rest are held online. This has now held them in good stead since they had the requisite knowhow to shift the entire module online post the lockdown. They also had special online-only courses earlier, conducted by MMB Kolkata, and that knowhow, too, is coming to additional use right now. Mukta Gadkari, course coordinator of the language department, tells us, "We are conducting the live online courses via Adobe Connect, but are planning to try out the Zoom app today to see which platform is better."

Email german-mumbai@goethe.de

French connection

Since Alliance Francaise de Bombay is part of the French Overseas Network, the courses it offers are recognised anywhere in the world. But that also means that there are certain processes that have to be followed, such as creating a completely French environment during its language courses, where the teacher talks only in that language. This becomes a challenge for the online format, though Siddharth Bhatt from the institution says that they have an advantage in this regard since they have been working on creating seamless online courses for the past two years. "We have a learning management system that allows us to teach and track the learning curve of a student online, which we are now implementing [during the lockdown]," he says.

Email helpdesk.mumbai@afindia.org

Russian with love

Russian isn't an easy language to learn, given the tricky pronunciations. But with the current lockdown, the Russian Centre for Science and Culture has taken its courses online, with the classes being held one-on-one to make the learning process simpler. Vidya Swarge-Madane, director, Russian Language department, says, "Everyday lessons are being sent to the students via text, and we continue with the teaching from where we left off the last time. We also send them homework in between classes, and give feedback on what they did." She adds that the instructors use Skype for the online
lessons, and that they teach the language from the most basic level.

Email india_mumbai@rs.gov.ru

Also check out

Join Hispanic Horizon's popular Spanish course, conducted in such a way that you can choose to join both, weekend or weekday lessons. Call 8082647938

Those keen to learn Italian can join Valentino Agri, who is using Zoom to conduct online courses. Call 9819614723

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