NEWS FROM AUROVILLE LANGUAGE LABORATORY 23.07.08

Auroville Language Lab would like to thank Ellie for sparing her precious time and for the energy she had put into teaching French for the past three months.  We appreciate her dedication and interest.  Her class will continue for one more week.  The Lab urgently needs a French teacher to replace her, who can commit on a more long-term basis.

 

We’d also like to thank Ulli for the German classes she taught with much enthusiasm, as well as Muthu for his Tamil classes and Erin, who valiantly made the trek out to the Lab everyday on her bicycle and carried the English teaching load the entire summer.  The Lab is always open for committed volunteer teachers as well as people with administrative, computer, and design skills, so please don’t hesitate to contact us if you want to get involved.

 

We are very happy to welcome Josephine from Nebraska, USA, who will dedicate herself to teaching English for six months from 1^st August, three days a week :  Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 3:30 pm to 6:00 pm, for Intermediate and Beginner levels. Depending on the need, an advanced writing and conversation class can also be organized.  Do not miss this opportunity. 

 

English for Italians: Edo from Italy will teach English weekly two days for Beginners from Italy. Volete imparare inglese? Venite al Laboratorio linguistico!

 

On going classes:

 

Chandrima teaches Hindi and Sanskrit once a week for Beginners and Intermediates on Tuesdays from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm. Timings can be altered according to the teacher and students’ wishes.

 

Jyoti continues to teach Japanese for Beginners every Saturday from 10:00 am to 11:30 am.  Using films music etc., he introduces people to Japanese culture also.  New students are welcome to join at any time.

 

Isabel, a newcomer from Spain, teaches Spanish for Beginners and pre-Intermediates weekly three days :  Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10:00 am to 12:00 am.

 

Edo also teaches Italian for Beginners on Wednesday and Friday from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm.  More advanced students are also welcome; a new time can be arranged.

 

Tamil Audio Visual program on Tuesday and Thursday from 3:00 pm to 3:30 pm; Contact Raj or Mano. For Beginners and Intermediates , Saravanan holds Spoken Tamil classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm.  You can also make appointments any day during the week with Raj for learning the Tamil Alphabet.

 

We have excellent university level video and audio study materials and software in our mediatheque, to enable self and guided study in various languages.  Some 28 languages including Indian languages, are available.  Some of the award-winning software allows you to compare the spectral analysis of your own voice with that of a native speaker, allowing you to self-correct your pronunciation, in addition to exercising skills of listening, reading, and writing, as well as teaching grammar and vocabulary.  Material is available for all levels > absolute Beginners, pre-Intermediate, Intermediate and Advanced.  We are also constantly updating our database of web-based language learning materials, and these are available on the mediatheque.  In case you thought that language learning only happened in class, we suggest you come and check out the mediatheque, and you will be quite surprised!

 

If you have any dictionaries, textbooks, CDs, videos to help learn any language at all, language travel guides, etc, lying around unused, please bring them to the Lab to add to the materials available.  Thanks to all of you who already did so.

 

We are also happy to announce that thanks to an enormous work by Raj and Vasanth, the changeover of our server to Linux has gone off without a hitch.  The new Linux server gives us all the functionality of our previous server but with much greater security.  Thanks also to some help, inspiration and workshops by Blue Light, we have also switched over some of our work systems to Linux, and it is possible to arrange Demos, so you can discover how easy it is now to get your work done under Linux.  Just contact Raj or Mano.

 

Listening Tests for the Tomatis programmes (both language assimilation and therapeutic) are available on Tues and Thursday afternoons at the Tomatis Research Centre in Centre Field, only on prior appointment.  Please call 2622575 / 2622467 or 9443631861 or send an email to apptom@aurovillelanguagelab.org.  Languages available are : English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, and since very recently, Brazilian Portuguese (a big thank you to Jivatman, Eliane, Aryamani and Ana for the voices and to Joel and Matthia for the invaluable technical support).  Thanks also to all who participated in the recordings for the Tamil language research (Raj, Mano, Ranjith, Saravanan, Sudhakar, Prema, Guna-Unity Fund, Buvana-Land Fund, Jothi and Priya S.) and to Ashok for organising it impeccably.  Finally, we have brought out a brochure about the Tomatis method, which is also available at the Language Lab at Shakti, as are several articles if you want more information.

 

On another note : We are desperately searching for funds for a green generator to enable the mediatheque to function during long hours of power cuts.  Repairs also are needed for the roof of what is one of the oldest buildings in Auroville.  The walls etc were painted some 5 years ago, and its time for some renewal.  Donations are therefore very welcome.