[lg policy] Cherry Hill (NJ): Hindi school gives kids lessons about homeland

Sun Oct 10 21:48:55 UTC 2010

Hindi school gives kids lessons about homeland

 By BARBARA S. ROTHSCHILD • Courier-Post Staff
• October 9, 2010

 CHERRY HILL — Most Tuesday evenings during the
school year, classrooms at Beck Middle School are
bustling with the sounds of teaching and learning.

But the sounds are in Hindi -- the primary official
language of India, where English is considered a
secondary one. The teachers are native Indian
speakers now living in South Jersey, and the
students are children whose parents want them to
experience the language and culture of their
homeland.

HindiUSA, founded by Washington Township couple
Devendra and Rachita Singh about 10 years ago,
relocated its classes from Voorhees to the Cherry
Hill site last year.

Open to children from ages 5 to 15, the classes
draw primarily from the Cherry Hill-Evesham area,
but attract students from throughout South Jersey.

Classes are grouped by home exposure to Hindi as
well as by age, from a starter class for the youngest
children, followed by beginner classes and
progressing through intermediate and advanced.
Honors classes are generally filled by middle-
schoolers and above.

Students are taught through inductive techniques,
with very little English spoken, but their textbooks
combine lessons written in Hindi script with
English-alphabet transliterations, English-language
translations and colorful illustrations.

"We have to teach through English," said Devendra
Singh, who teaches honors students at the Cherry
Hill school.

He and his wife, who came to America from the
Central India state Madhya-Pradesh 30 years ago,
speak Hindi at home. But many other families speak
another of India's numerous languages with their
children or address them in English.

The Hindi language is a way to unite Indian families
in a common culture and facilitate understanding
between Asian Indians and Americans of other
backgrounds -- hence the name HindiUSA.
 The organization has grown over the years, with
classes now conducted in more than a dozen New
Jersey communities -- including Chesterfield in
northern Burlington County and several more in
Central Jersey, which has the state's greatest
concentration of Asian Indians.

All classes meet for about an hour each week from
September through June, renting space in public
schools. Families pay $225 to $250 for materials for
the first student, less for additional children. The
Singhs and other coordinators, as well as teachers,
all volunteer their time to the nonprofit organization
.

More than 3,000 students attend the various chapter
schools, which include several outside New Jersey.
About 46 now attend the Cherry Hill site.

The Singhs' first two pupils were their children --
daughter Prachi, 19, now a sophomore physics
student at Princeton, and son Parth Singh Parihar,
17, a Washington Township High School senior
who drew attention last year when he scored a
perfect 2400 on the SATs.

"When we were teaching our children, we did not
have many books available," Devendra Singh said.
"Those there were came from India and were not
attractive or geared to children in the United States."

HindiUSA's textbooks are published in India but
were authored by Rachita Singh for children who are
more American than Indian.

The Singhs say they filled a need that is more
Advertisement  intense as Asian Indians continue immigrating here
in record numbers, not just for young people to
learn the language but to learn the culture their
parents and grandparents left behind.

Upcoming 2010 census figures are expected to
show an uptick in the number of Asian Indians
living in New Jersey from the 2000 figure of
169,180, or 2 percent of the population.

American Community Survey estimates for 2006 to
2008 show 249,238 Asian Indians living in the state
-- nearly 3 percent of the population, which is
growing as a whole. ACS Burlington County
estimates for the same three-year period include 7
,149 Asian Indians, or 1.6 percent of the county
population; Camden County, 5,423 Asian Indians,
or 1 percent of the county population; and
Gloucester County, 2,220 Asian Indians, or .8
percent of the county population.

In one beginner class on a recent Tuesday evening,
instructor Dolly Chatterjee of Swedesboro spoke
only Hindi to children ages 5, 6 and 7. She asked
them their names and had them count to 10 and
beyond, inviting one young girl to write the
numbers on the board. Even those look different in
the Hindi script known as Devanagari.

Chatterjee, whose family tongue is Bengali, keeps
the class interactive to hold interest and elevate
motivation.

"I do involve the children a lot. We play games and
every kid gets a small piece of chocolate," said
Chatterjee, who learned English as a youth in India
but never spoke it there.

Nimisha Jain of Mount Laurel enrolled her son, 6-
year-old Sachin. Jain, whose parents moved from
India when she was only 1, grew up speaking
Punjabi. Her husband's family speaks Hindi.

"We hope that if we stick with this, Sachin will get
the gist of the language," she said.

Parents often wait in Beck's hallways while their
children study.

Sachin Gawanda of Marlton, who speaks a regional
language of Central India called Marathi, brought
son Rohan, 5, to learn Hindi.

"I want him to learn about India," Gawanda said.
"He's born here, so he doesn't know anything of the
 language or culture."

Adwait Ghotikar, 8, of Marlton, was accompanied by
his father, Makarand, a native of Mumbai in western
India.

"Asian languages are important in the economy,"
Makarand Ghotikar said. "Hindi is going to be a
global language. There will be a definite need to
learn about that language and culture in the near
future."

There is debate about whether Hindi should be
offered in New Jersey public schools, given the
growing Asian Indian population here and the
importance of the language on the world scene.

In New Jersey, only the Edison and Piscataway
districts in Middlesex County and Franklin
Township in Somerset County offer Hindi in their
high schools. The courses have been fueled by
federal grant money and help from HindiUSA.

Priyanka Chatterjee, 13, of Swedesboro, attends
Devendra Singh's honors class while her mother,
who speaks Bengali at home, teaches the younger
students.

"I'm not that good at speaking Hindi, but I now
mostly can understand it," Priyanka said.

HindiUSA ends every school year with a two-day
festival for its East Coast chapters, featuring Hindi
competitions. About 1,500 students participate
yearly, competing in dance, drama and more at the
event, usually held in Central Jersey.
 HindiUSA welcomes any child, including those of
non-Asian Indian descent.

Reach Barbara S. Rothschild at (856) 486-2416 or b-
arothschild at camden.gannett.com

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=201010090348

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