3Rd Lesson, Preparatory Phase: Gathering Knowledge

3rd lesson, preparatory phase: gathering knowledge

Getting to know India, the-five-star experience

It’s important to gather some knowledge before you travel to an unfamiliar destination if the goal of the trip is more than entertainment. This exchange is part of your education and you need to cooperate with students from India, live in an Indian family for over a week and participate at school. To get more out of the programme, to make it a five-star-experience so to speak we will focus on 5 areas to help you prepare and gather some basic knowledge.

Here you will find links directing you to more information about India. You need to read up on these different categories and there are assignments connected to each of the topics.

★ History

Assignment 1 Create a timeline of Indian history and compare the dates you have picked with events that happened in the Netherlands and/or Europe at the same time. To create an online timeline you can use this tool. Of course you can also do it in a different way. Factmonster is a site that is not too difficult to understand and gives you a quick search engine on topics related to India.

★ Geography

Assignment 2 Compare and contrast the Netherlands to India using the following site. To show your results you could use this online tool to make an infographic but if you want to show your work in a different way that’s also fine. See if you can zoom in on Helmond and Mumbai as well.

★ Religion

Assignment 3 India has a lot of different religions. We will focus on the religions that are most common in Mumbai because that is the area we visit. Here is a short explanation on two important religions of India. Which one appeals more to you and why?

★ Culture, food and art

Food Food is an important part of culture, especially in India. So you need to learn how to eat Indian food the Indian way. Typically, when eating with the help of one's fingers, only one hand is used for eating (the right hand), the other remains dry and only used to pass dishes or to serve or drink water.

Rule one is eat with your right hand only. In India, as all across Asia, the left hand is for wiping your bottom, cleaning your feet and other unsavory functions (you also put on and take off your shoes with the left hand), while the right hand is for eating, shaking hands and so on. (makes sense for Hygiene!)

While you can hold a cup or utensil with your left hand, and can usually get away with using it to help you tear your chapatti, you should not eat, pass food or wipe your mouth with your left hand. In general do not pass anything to anyone with your left hand, or point at anyone either. In general you should accept things with your right hand.

Strict vegetarian and non-vegetarian people eat together, but the etiquette is not to mix serving utensils between the foods, to respect the spiritual beliefs of non-violence to animals prevalent among the strict vegetarians.

The other rule to be aware of when eating or drinking is that your lips should not touch other people's food. Don't for example take a bite out of a chapatti and pass it on. When drinking out of a cup or bottle to be shared with others, don't let it touch your lips, but rather pour it directly into your mouth. Cleanliness and hygiene is important, and except in the cases of intimacy of a couple or a family, people usually do not dip, serve or accept food with the fingers or cutlery that have gone in someone's mouth.

Eating is usually with family and friends, with the homemaker on the table keeping an eye on the table, bringing and offering more food. In larger group meals or celebrations, a volunteer or attendant may not eat with the group, and dedicate himself or herself to bringing meal courses, feeding and serving the group. Asking for water, salt and helping oneself to items is accepted and cheered. Special requests such as less or more heat, yoghurt and other items is usually welcomed. Sometimes the group may eat silently, but asking questions to a loved one, catching up about one's day and conversations are common

Assignment 4 Watch this tutorial on Indian food. In class we will practice eating with one hand only, so it will be less difficult to try it in your host family. But don’t worry, if you cannot manage you can always ask for cutlery.

Art Art, dance and music also reflect a country's culture and we will follow workshops on art and dance in Mumbai. To know how those art forms fit in broader context you need Assignment 5 All of you need to familiarize yourself with the background of the art form and dance form, Bharatnatyam, because we will experience those two in Mumbai. So watch the clip, video of Bharatnatyam dance and read this article…...

Next step is to choose one of the subjects on art and one of the subjects of dance in the table below. Just click on them and you will be linked to the information. Pick the subjects that appeal to you the most and find out more about how they are part of the Indian culture. art dance Warli painting Bollywood Mehndi, history of the henna tattoo Lavani Dance, Folk Dance of Maharashtra. Indian Buddhist sculpture and architectural wedding dance, performed by wedding styles party believes made visible, Hindu gods in art. Banghra

★ Language According to Census of India of 2001, India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages. However, figures from other sources vary, primarily due to differences in definition of the terms "language" and "dialect". The map above shows you a number of the most important languages spoken in India.

Since the era of British colonisation, English continues to be an important language in India. It is used in higher education and in some areas of the Indian government. Hindi, the most widely spoken language in India today, serves as the lingua franca across much of North and Central India. The language of the state Mumbai is situated in is called Marathi.

It might take a little bit of time to get used to the stress patterns and intonation of Indian English, which differs from the British or American English we are familiar with. video that shows differences in sounds. Because of tv shows we might think all Indians sound the same but there are a lot of different accents. If you are interested you can watch this interview with one of the actors who made the Indian accent famous. actor from the Big Bang talks about Indian heritage and accent.

There are also words that have a different meaning than what you might think. What Foreigners Think of Indian English shows you some examples that might surprise you. And guesses from non-Indians that might surprise you even more!

Although we will use English to cooperate with our partners in Mumbai it is nice to know at least some simple phrases in Hindi, how to greet or thank someone for instance. Assignment 6 Study some basic Hindi sentences and words. There are several free apps and here are links to clips that will help you. conversational phrases lesson on youtube lessons online

Film yourself introducing yourself, saying hello, thanking people and asking for simple things like where the toilets are or where to get a drink.