NEWS FROM AUROVILLE LANGUAGE LABORATORY 01.07.11

We are happy to welcome Annabelle Carton , from the French part of Belgium , as a teacher of French . Annabelle has a lot of experience with teaching, is sensitive to individual needs, and is very competent. Please take advantage of her presence. She will be here for the full month of July and then will return in September and will be with us for a year. We will be offering two courses with her in July:

The first, at the Language Lab itself, will start on the 1st of July, for Beginners . This will be in the usual 3 times a week format, for one month.

The second, will be an Intensive Tomatis French class, for Beginners , at the Tomatis Centre, for 2 hours a day, Mon-Fri, for 3 weeks starting on 11th July, from 8:30 – 10:30 am. Using very special headphones which stimulate the cortex directly, there will be one hour of Tomatis listening, to open one's body-being to the sounds, cadences and frequencies of French, to train the ear to acquire the French ‘listening posture'. You can lie back, relax and even sleep as you listen, or play games, draw, paint, etc. And then there will be one hour of group class, which will be conducted using the Tomatis Electronic Ear. All students, and the teacher, are connected to the Tomatis machine with individual headphones and microphones, to give a very precise and heightened listening, and to improve pronunciation. This will be an intensive immersion experience. Please contact the Lab right away to register since numbers are limited to 7.

To know more about the Tomatis Method for language learning, please go to: www.listenwell.com and click on the Languages page, and please check out the links on the Tomatis page at our Language Lab website:  www.aurovillelanguagelab.org

The Tomatis Centre will remain closed for all other programmes during the last 3 weeks of July and will re-open in August. We apologize to all those who have been asking for Listening Tests and we thank you for your enduring patience! We will resume testing in August.

At the Language Lab, a new Tamil Class for Beginners is starting in July, with Raj . Please also come to have some fun and enjoy some modern Tamil music and some funny classic Tamil film clips in the Audio-visual program. We also have materials including the “Fun With Tamil” series on the mediatheque for those who would like to practice on their own.

Chandrima is teaching Hindi, Sanskrit and Bengali for all levels. The classes take place at the Language Lab by appointment.

We are also happy that Isabel is back from a long stint away in Spain and is teaching Spanish regularly for all levels. Old students are welcome, as are new!

As for English , Ben , an American Newcomer with a great love of languages, continues to give English classes for Beginners three times a week from 5 to 6 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He is also willing to start an Intermediate group if there is interest, so please let us know. Ben has also brought some lovely new video and audio material for learning English, as well as latest versions of software, which have been loaded onto the mediatheque.

Intermediate and Advanced students of French are also welcome to contact the Lab with their needs, because if there is enough demand, then a course can be organized accordingly.

If you want to learn a language that is not on our schedule, please let us know, and we will explore resources you can use and we will also try to find a teacher for you. Those who would like to teach are also welcome to contact us. We are looking for teachers who can give a long-term commitment.

All those who have any material for language learning > CDs, video clips, dictionaries, textbooks…. please think of donating them to the Lab. They will be greatly appreciated. Thank you to the wonderful person who donated the “Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language” to our Library. If anyone of you is upgrading to a better digital video camera and can afford the largesse of parting with your old one, we will most gratefully receive it!

And for all those who want to know what's happening with the new building: we received 5 lakhs from the Government Grant in March, which enabled the payments to the various consultants and site clearance, fencing etc, and we had a lovely tree-planting ceremony where the land and the project were blessed in many languages by all those present. It was beautiful and amazing to see how a simple gathering of Aurovilians and friends had so many languages represented. Now we are waiting for the first instalment of the Government Grant in the new financial year to arrive, in order to start. 

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. 

Contact: Phone: 2623 661, 9585207962.  Email all@auroville.org.in  Location : Shakti Community.