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| Sulochanan, Pottavila Veettil, Vellar, Vizhinjam, Thiruvananthapuram |
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At least some foreign tourists who fall in love with God’s Own Country, wish to learn Malayalam before leaving this place. Sulochanan has been teaching such people the rudiments of the language for the past 15 years.
Most of these visitors, to whom Malayalam is Greek with its arcane style of letters and tough grammar, would however pick up the alphabet within weeks. He is happy to reveal that a few of his students keep corresponding to him in Malayalam.
Starting with the German Reiner Hoffman, he has so far taught around 90 foreigners. While most of them learn the alphabet within a month, atleast a few have done the same in one week.
His students are from Holland, USA, France, Italy and Germany. His methodology involves first teaching the pronunciation of letters followed by teaching them to write the same. The English alphabet and a few symbols are used to convey the he sound of letters. He gives them assignments to speed up the learning.
Sulochanan’s father was a traditional teacher in the olden days. Thus he had a natural affinity for teaching from the early days. His 1st venture was a free tuition centre for class 1 to 10 students. At present there are 25 students availing this facility. In addition he gives a helping hand in non-formal education to the elder, illiterate persons.
As fees he never demands anything. Whatever is given by the foreign students he accepts gladly. His desire is to teach the language to atleast 200 foreigners.
Sulochanan amidst his foreign students
Courtesy: Malayala Manorama, August 24, 2003
Contributed by: Administrator
