When JB Hallan, an American, moved to Bengaluru in January, he found that he didn’t really need the local language Kannada to live in the city. English worked just fine. Whenever required to communicate with vendors or auto rickshaw drivers, Hallan would break into Tamil, which he learnt during a two-year stint in Tamil Nadu.
He still needed to learn Kannada for work though. “I do social work and 70% of my job I have to speak English but for the other 30% it’s useful to know the local language,” he said. “We go into villages and I don’t want to be just sitting there useless.”
One of the first language classes he found was far from regular. It was on a WhatsApp group called Kannada Gottilla. Hallan registered to be part of the group and soon started receiving one lesson of four new words every day, accompanied by audio clips for pronunciation.
Ease of technology
Anup Maiya started Kannada Gottilla as a single WhatsApp group in November last year when some of his non-Kannadiga friends in Bengaluru to help them learn the language. Maiya, who is an electrical engineer working in Puttur, was asked by some of his non-Kannadiga friends in Bengaluru to help them learn the language.
In a little over six months and through word-of-mouth, Kannada Gottilla has 30 groups and more than 500 learners. Maiya’s aim is to have his WhatsApp students stop having to say “Kannada gottilla”, which means “I don’t know Kannada” while conversing with anyone in the city. Maiya spends an hour of his free time every day composing his lessons with Kannada words, notes and audio recordings.
In Bengaluru, no Kannada is no problem. Bangaloreans have always managed to translate and respond to queries in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. So it was with some surprise that the city received news last October of a Manipuri student being physically assaulted by men who demanded that he speak Kannada or get out of the city.
But it isn’t fear of linguistic aggression that’s driving people towards Kannada classes. It’s the ease of the technology that’s delivering lessons. “I have one person who is an advocate from Kerala. His aim is to go to the court and fight a case in Kannada,” Maiya said. “One lady wants to translate books from Kannada to Gujarati. That’s why she wants to learn Kannada.”
From around the world
The majority of Maiya’s students are software engineers from outside the state who have moved to Bengaluru. Another group lives outside but plan to come to the city to live and work. A third set of people are just eager to learn a new language and have chosen Kannada. “They are in Germany, UK, US, Switzerland. I don’t know why they want to learn Kannada. Some are getting married to Kannadigas and want to impress their better halves.”
Maiya’s is just one of many new online avenues to learn Kannada. The Karnataka government launched an android app called Kelu, meaning “listen” in February 2014. Before Kelu was Kannada Baruthe or “I know Kannada” – a website and mobile application that teaches simple words and phrases.
“On the website, we get around 10,000-12,000 hits every week,” said Rudraprasad Nanjundappa, a software engineer who co-founded Kannada Baruthe and helps run it in his spare time. “We are focusing mostly on Bangalore because we come across a lot of people in the IT sector. But we have viewers across the globe, mostly the US, but also Australia, Canada, UAE.”
Hallan thinks that he might someday want to join a proper sit-down Kannada class but for now his WhatsApp lessons are convenient and useful. “When people see a white guy speaking Kannada they are obviously really happy and that is a huge motivation right there – the fact that you can make people happy by speaking their mother tongue.”
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He still needed to learn Kannada for work though. “I do social work and 70% of my job I have to speak English but for the other 30% it’s useful to know the local language,” he said. “We go into villages and I don’t want to be just sitting there useless.”
One of the first language classes he found was far from regular. It was on a WhatsApp group called Kannada Gottilla. Hallan registered to be part of the group and soon started receiving one lesson of four new words every day, accompanied by audio clips for pronunciation.
Ease of technology
Anup Maiya started Kannada Gottilla as a single WhatsApp group in November last year when some of his non-Kannadiga friends in Bengaluru to help them learn the language. Maiya, who is an electrical engineer working in Puttur, was asked by some of his non-Kannadiga friends in Bengaluru to help them learn the language.
In a little over six months and through word-of-mouth, Kannada Gottilla has 30 groups and more than 500 learners. Maiya’s aim is to have his WhatsApp students stop having to say “Kannada gottilla”, which means “I don’t know Kannada” while conversing with anyone in the city. Maiya spends an hour of his free time every day composing his lessons with Kannada words, notes and audio recordings.
In Bengaluru, no Kannada is no problem. Bangaloreans have always managed to translate and respond to queries in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. So it was with some surprise that the city received news last October of a Manipuri student being physically assaulted by men who demanded that he speak Kannada or get out of the city.
But it isn’t fear of linguistic aggression that’s driving people towards Kannada classes. It’s the ease of the technology that’s delivering lessons. “I have one person who is an advocate from Kerala. His aim is to go to the court and fight a case in Kannada,” Maiya said. “One lady wants to translate books from Kannada to Gujarati. That’s why she wants to learn Kannada.”
From around the world
The majority of Maiya’s students are software engineers from outside the state who have moved to Bengaluru. Another group lives outside but plan to come to the city to live and work. A third set of people are just eager to learn a new language and have chosen Kannada. “They are in Germany, UK, US, Switzerland. I don’t know why they want to learn Kannada. Some are getting married to Kannadigas and want to impress their better halves.”
Maiya’s is just one of many new online avenues to learn Kannada. The Karnataka government launched an android app called Kelu, meaning “listen” in February 2014. Before Kelu was Kannada Baruthe or “I know Kannada” – a website and mobile application that teaches simple words and phrases.
“On the website, we get around 10,000-12,000 hits every week,” said Rudraprasad Nanjundappa, a software engineer who co-founded Kannada Baruthe and helps run it in his spare time. “We are focusing mostly on Bangalore because we come across a lot of people in the IT sector. But we have viewers across the globe, mostly the US, but also Australia, Canada, UAE.”
Hallan thinks that he might someday want to join a proper sit-down Kannada class but for now his WhatsApp lessons are convenient and useful. “When people see a white guy speaking Kannada they are obviously really happy and that is a huge motivation right there – the fact that you can make people happy by speaking their mother tongue.”
