The Eternal Optimist!

“only learning is not important. The feeling that you have learnt is more important because that’s what gives you confidence!” said our new teacher as he inaugurated the class. There is one more class who study B2.2. For them learning has become demanding. For us, it is demanding as well as unconventional.   His creative ideas for learning German remind me of the sultan of pop up books who revolutionized book reading. So I just nicknamed our new teacher after that man. Lothar Meggendorfer His intelligence borders somewhere between genius and insanity and he refuses to stick to the teaching structure followed by most teachers.   While others stress on grammar in the passages given in the book, “don’t force yourself to understand grammar” is what our teacher says. “Mark the lines that you think are awesome. Underline beautiful idioms and expressions.” says Meggendorfer.   He teaches us a complicated grammar rule, we analyse in detail how it works, and then h...

I will not hide the fact that I am bored to death with the German classes of B2.1 level.  I miss my peaceful and quiet home.  Even as the voice inside my head screams for home, there is one small problem. I am walking towards a cultural shock. There is every possibility that I might lose my German language. I do not know how many people will understand my Germanized Marathi and Konkani.  My friends in Pune find it absolutely normal to scream ‘Gesundheit’  (good health) when someone sneezes.  ‘Gluckwünche’ (good wishes) echoes everywhere  when it’s someone’s birthday or ‘Alles Gute’ (I wish you all the good ) during exams. When I was home for a brief time in August, my Goan friends were rolling on the floor laughing when I instinctively shouted these words.  My German classmates move seamlessly between English and German, often mixing the two languages mid-sentence. They will casually say “‘That’s so ‘peinlich’” (t...

I started learning German out of curiosity but it is becoming a hectic exercise as I advance throughthe levels. Teaching style of the Germans does not match my learning style. Six hours a day, six days a week, one just takes in new words, grammar and culture. While class work focuses more on group work, I tend to be more of a pause-think-observe-learn person. I am simply overloaded by the content and my classmates rush ahead with work while I am still busy thinking about how can one get more creative with the given assignments. One only finds time on weekends to focus and 'digest' the language, working in peace and solitude. However, the very teaching and assessment mechanism of the Germans works in my favor. They believe that language is learned best in a group as it gives you lots of opportunity to talk. It gives me lots of opportunity to observe. Secondly, while classes focus on group work, exams are held in a different class than usual. Oral exams are hel...

Dear dad, Yes, you work hard to give me the relative prosperity we have today compared to your times, yes, my life seems more comfortable in material terms, but I also face issues. Please, try to understand. Yes, you are right when you say, that today’s generation cares more about practical life than emotions and relations.   Yes you are right when you say today’s generation is confused. We are confused because we witness the differences that exist between the values you taught us and the ways the world operates. We are confused because we live in times markets and sociopolitical situations are fast changing. We value our culture with the same zeal and passion that you do but we do not hesitate to make pragmatic decisions and welcome that change if it benefits us.  Yes, I am always on phone or the Internet, Yes, I know its not always good. but dad, its the need of the hour.   The Internet has opened the doors to infinite knowledge. It h...

Unlearning is the key to successful innovation. I wish to have these words tattooed across my forehead so that I never forget them. That is what I learnt during my two year long career as a journalist in ‘our Great News Channel’.  It’s a really simple two step process. First, you list all the assumptions people have about a story. Then, you break them all. It was my boss, the editor of Our Great News Channel who taught me these things.  It was him who set the core value of my writing both in journalism and creative writing. “Content is king”. He used to remand all his staff from time to time. Get your hands on great content and present it in an entertaining manner because infotainment is the best means to keep your audience hooked in information age. He was a boss with brilliant ideas and very liberal way of leadership. When I looked at his ideas and his ability to build networks of knowledgeable people, a nickname just popped into my head. This man understood th...