The people that work here and the Indian grad students that are studying here are so welcoming and friendly - but they're also so much fun!
Yesterday between classes, we were totally acting like children - and were loving it! One of the people working in SVYM's school taught us a common game for young children called, "Fire on the Mountain." Picture a group of 10 college students, age 19 - 21 running in a circle chanting "Run, Run, Run!" in perfect unison after the teacher would say, "Fire on the Mountain." He would then yell instructions like "1 house" or "1 house, 2 sheep" and we would have to find a group of people and make the corresponding signs with our bodies - and the last person was eliminated. So naturally, we became super competitive and were racing each other, screaming and squealing to beat everyone else. It was just so great! (I'm pretty sure that the video is going to be posted to our team blog on Cornell's ILR website.)
A couple of days ago, my whole group went to the school to play some volleyball with the Indian grad students - it was a prime example of finding common ground without being able to speak the same language. Some of the students spoke some English, but the majority just picked up on the phrases that we used during the game, like "nice!" or "I like it!" or "dirty!". Basically, we mixed the teams so there were Indians and Americans on each side and, again, became competitive. We played best out of 7 - there was so much trash talking between the teams in both Kannada and English. It was really cool how I had no idea what they were actually saying, but I could totally get the gist by watching their facial expressions, hand gestures and the tone of voice they used. Pretty sure they were being as sassy towards the other team as we were!
This has been such a wonderful experience so far. I never realized how much merit there is to taking some time to learn in an unfamiliar environment... it really brings a whole new perspective on things. From listening to my various lecturers, I've found that people who were originally non-English speakers have such a gift for phrasing what we would consider to be basic or simple ideas in such a way that you are forced to take a step back and think about the ordinary in a different way. It's really quite powerful.
On a much different note, we rode in our first rickshaws today! Seeing the city from a rickshaw is such a different experience from seeing it from a bus. I felt like we were able to actually experience the city more... the people, the sounds and smells - it was absolutely incredible. I loved it!
Yesterday between classes, we were totally acting like children - and were loving it! One of the people working in SVYM's school taught us a common game for young children called, "Fire on the Mountain." Picture a group of 10 college students, age 19 - 21 running in a circle chanting "Run, Run, Run!" in perfect unison after the teacher would say, "Fire on the Mountain." He would then yell instructions like "1 house" or "1 house, 2 sheep" and we would have to find a group of people and make the corresponding signs with our bodies - and the last person was eliminated. So naturally, we became super competitive and were racing each other, screaming and squealing to beat everyone else. It was just so great! (I'm pretty sure that the video is going to be posted to our team blog on Cornell's ILR website.)
A couple of days ago, my whole group went to the school to play some volleyball with the Indian grad students - it was a prime example of finding common ground without being able to speak the same language. Some of the students spoke some English, but the majority just picked up on the phrases that we used during the game, like "nice!" or "I like it!" or "dirty!". Basically, we mixed the teams so there were Indians and Americans on each side and, again, became competitive. We played best out of 7 - there was so much trash talking between the teams in both Kannada and English. It was really cool how I had no idea what they were actually saying, but I could totally get the gist by watching their facial expressions, hand gestures and the tone of voice they used. Pretty sure they were being as sassy towards the other team as we were!
This has been such a wonderful experience so far. I never realized how much merit there is to taking some time to learn in an unfamiliar environment... it really brings a whole new perspective on things. From listening to my various lecturers, I've found that people who were originally non-English speakers have such a gift for phrasing what we would consider to be basic or simple ideas in such a way that you are forced to take a step back and think about the ordinary in a different way. It's really quite powerful.
On a much different note, we rode in our first rickshaws today! Seeing the city from a rickshaw is such a different experience from seeing it from a bus. I felt like we were able to actually experience the city more... the people, the sounds and smells - it was absolutely incredible. I loved it!
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