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Every student in India makes a tough choice in class 5th or 8th - To choose or not to choose Sanskrit as second or third language. In most of the schools and colleges, Sanskrit is taught by a grammar-translation method which is the main reason why Sanskrit appears difficult and discourages students from learning it. In grammar-translation method, students learn the grammatical rules first and then the usage.
Memorizing Rules Is No Language Taught
Merely knowing the moves of every piece in chess will be of no help unless you apply it to counter the opponent's moves. Memorizing grammar rules in any language without knowing the usage is a tedious task, especially when you are new to it.
But what if we told you that one woman in Bangalore is single-handedly making Sanskrit a more approachable choice. Pradnya Jere Anjal is using rhymes and animations as her chosen weapons to break down the daunting image of Sanskrit.
For This Gold Medallist, Masters Was Just A Step Closer To A Doctorate.
Young Pradnya always knew she would pursue Arts for the sheer love she had for Sanskrit. "I still remember the Sanskrit song my teacher taught me in school. With a simple but catchy tune, she made it into a fun song with hand actions than just reading it out loud."It was very clear to Pradnya that learning a language needs two things. First, to have a 'usage-first, grammar-next' approach and second, to make it a fun process. Her curiosity and love for the language pushed her to do an MA in Sanskrit. It was no surprise to her family when she won a gold medal for it. But for Pradnya, a Masters was just a start to pursue her Ph.D. Today, her LinkedIn profile has a 'Dr.' to her name.
An Instructional Designer Feeding Her Fetish for Teaching.
In early days of her career, it was clear to Pradnya that she wanted to teach. But regular blackboard teaching did not excite her enough. With a strong urge to break through the traditional teaching techniques, Pradnya trained herself to become an Instructional Designer and worked for MNC's like Wipro, Bosch and a couple startups. She also freelanced to create e-learning content for HCL.
Quitting Her Job To Become A ‘Mompreneur’.
Pradnya’s love for Sanskrit was not getting enough space in her everyday schedule. The idea of making Sanskrit more enjoyable to learn had become a weekend project.
Then one day, her daughter came home from school humming a rhyme mentioning Kannada alphabets and it all came back to Pradnya, reminding her of the very incident that got her into loving Sanskrit. What better way to teach a language than with rhymes! Pradnya took it a step further and brought in her Instructional Designer experience.
“I started working on the first set of rhymes. While writing all of them, I had such a clear visual of them. I knew animating them will definitely make learning more enjoyable and engaging.”
Soon she quit her job and decided to make these rhymes a reality. Today, Pradnya’s YouTube channel for Sanskrit rhymes and stories has 44,00,000+ views and 29.6K+ subscribers. The responses she has been receiving from parents and teachers only proves how useful these videos have been.
Pradnya now wants to continue her work by creating world-class online platform to publish more songs, stories, comic strips, infographics, e-learning videos, games and activities. But she needs your support to make this a reality.
How Can You Help?
If you were a Sanskrit student, you know rhymes and stories like these would have made your learning less tedious and dry. For every student and parent contemplating to learn Sanskrit or not, this Mompreneur's work will be a game changer.
Support her to produce these rhymes and make it accessible to anyone and everyone who wants to learn Sanskrit.
