Berkeley Urdu Language Fellowship Program 2006

I heard that my blog is featured on the BULFIP website, so I'm going to post some info for the people trying to decide about whether to come to Lucknow. I couldn’t make up my mind whether to come or not, really until I was on the plane… up to that point I kept telling myself I had the option to turn around. That’s how I got myself to skydive, come to think of it.

The only thing I could compare leaving the U.S. for that long was dying! But it was kind of neat to know what it felt like to prepare for death, and then die, but still get news updates and talk on the phone with your life.

The language instruction is fantastic. It is different though, and I think primarily because each class is so small there’s more opportunity for slowing down and getting wrapped up in the details of linguistic whatever. Very interesting, but possibly you wanted to get on to the next goal. Again, because it’s so small, you can be accommodated but you have to express the complaint/wish. Only Urdu is spoken in class, both because the teachers are much more comfortable speaking in Urdu, and because it’s their teaching style. They generally have a very good theoretical grasp of English. With the other Americans, I generally speak English. We often speak Urdu at lunch, or at home if we remember, but it’s just a real mental relief to have other Americans to communicate with. Lucknow is not a very English-speaking place, unlike Delhi is for instance, and maybe because of the program and lack of tourists many Lucknowis actually expect you to understand and speak Urdu/Hindi.

Our stipend is just about equal to what the teachers earn, and support their families on. We eat out and travel instead. For me it was not quite enough; I came out about $100 below each month, but that is entirely because of 1. shopping and 2. taking the Shatabdi Express back and forth to Delhi many more times than necessary. I can safely say that the stipend was not enough for the girls and was enough for most of the guys. I don’t know why, they just didn’t spend as much. Rohish even saved money, in spite of buying a motorcycle and sound system, kamal ka. Outside of UP I traveled to Pune and the Northeast. We went on field trips to Hyderabad, AP, and Aligarh, UP. Sadaf and Geeti went to Pakistan. Rohish went to Rajasthan. Nathan goes to Jaipur every now and then. Maryam went to Aurangabad. I had plans to go to Jharkhand but I’m running out of time.

This year there are seven students in the program, and five of us live together in a flat above a family’s house that we have minimal but sufficient contact with. The other two live in home-stays a little farther out. I decided there was a trade-off between loneliness in the home-stays and a less learning-intensive environment living among other Americans, and I chose the latter. It keeps me sane. That decision is up to you. There are a bunch of other little things I do to keep my sanity (membership at the gym, over-paying favored cycle rickshaw drivers and feeding them chai). The thing that keeps me going the most, though, is learning Urdu. It’s really fun. If you’re not that into it, it would be easy to get depressed. There are other projects that keep you going: Geeti and Sadaf take a dance class, I take a singing class, Nathan takes tabla classes and goes to Musheiras, Brian plays a bunch of tennis, Rohish is working on some articles for the Urdu newspaper, Maryam has her dissertation research to translate. Stuff like that. I met an American lady teaching at Lucknow University for a semester who said that out of 30 years of overseas experience, her experience in Lucknow has been the most difficult. So you need to pamper yourself a little.

Hope that helps!

Comments

[Rose]

Maybe I should add that I am now actually really worried about going back to America, and am really attached to everything here. It turns out Lucknow is lovely in many ways. The food is amazing, both veg and non-veg, and the culture is humble and refined at the same time.