Blogging in English is passe; around 25 Indian students are blogging in French and simply loving it!
Blogging in English is passe; around 25 Indian students are blogging in French and simply loving it!u00a0
From the Big B to the BJP, netizens in India have taken to blogging in a big way. And GenY is now taking this trend to a new level. Students of Alliance Francaise De Mumbai are speaking their minds out about V-Day in India to Doordarshan on their blogs. And more interesting than their debates is the fact that they blog in French.u00a0u00a0
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FRENCH connection: Students who blog in French with their professor Bhushan Thapliyal at the Alliance Francaise De Mumbai. PIC/BIPIN KOKATE |
The brainchild of their professor, Bhushan Thapliyal, blogging in French seems to have opened a new world for these youngsters. "We started the exercise so that all the students could improve their language. But it has taken a life of its own," said Bhushan.
And Satyajit Pradhan, a student of the advanced level at Alliance, is excited at the opportunity. "We pick different subjects, most of the time they reflect what's happening in the city or the country. These blog entries are accessible to everyone at Alliance, and they all have a right to comment," he said.u00a0 A fact that has made them all very conscious about what they write and how they write it.
"Blogging in French has helped me a lot. We talk about subjects close to our hearts for example, about 'The need for Valentine's Day in India', which was a hot-debated topic. At first, we were afraid about saying what we felt, now it's all about sharing our thoughts," said Satyajit. Suryesh Chatwani seconds Satyajit's opinion. "I am so confident about my French now. But thank God that our entries are edited before they are posted," he laughed.
Advantage
Blogging in a foreign language has an advantage of its own.u00a0 "When an exercise like this is carried out on a blog, the readership is much wider. The blogger is more aware of the need to capture the reader's attention, and hence, puts in more effort. Writing on blogs also kindles a sense of belonging to a 'virtual' community," said the professor.
However, Internet professional and avid blogger Gaurav Mishra thinks that the trend of blogging in foreign languages is not a wise one. "In other countries, people blog in English because they want to reach out to the rest of the world. We already blog in English as a default, why would we change that," said this author of gauravonomics.com.
India on the blogTrine Norgaard, who is from Denmark, talks about how it's not all "just slum and dirt" in Mumbai on her witty blog, greatdanetraveling, while an unnamed Lithuanian blogger who writes the A Girl From Foreign blog, says, "As soon as you accept how things work and realise that you should not expect Indians to fit into your (European, American or whatever) schedule, they come and prove you soooo wrong!" And just when you are thinking how true that is, you stumble upon the blog of an American in Delhi, who is visiting the few bookshops in Gurgaon and lamenting, "I'll never find Steinbeck here in this country."
