How To Survive In A B-School If You Don't Know The Regional Language - Tips To Fight The Language Barrier

Dec 26, 2017 | 4 minutes |
I am a South Indian with very less exposure to Hindi (I was forced to take Hindi as an elective during my 3rd year in Undergraduate (YES! :/) and am still clueless how I ended up with a C (I was expecting an F :P)). So, you can imagine my state when I got an admit into IIM Indore! I had months to pick up on Hindi before stepping into Madhya Pradesh for the first time, but as usual, I was like Blah and spent time catching up with family, and here is why. Almost 2 years now and still I manage to shameless say “ Sir, Hindi nehi maalum.. English se please explain kardeejiye..” (Hey I am proud I have come this far!) Anyway, here is how I am still surviving happily :D The main goal of this article is basic survival tricks, and here is how: WATPI S05 - In-Article Top Ad Well that is how I am surviving till date. But let us be serious, a few ways to actually learn the new language can be done by 3 ways (I am suggesting, yet I have refrained from doing so till now. God knows why!) (1) Watch that language movies with subtitles (2) Use those mobile Apps (3) Just be around guys who converse that language and do not hesitate to start conversing with them, no matter how much they roll laughing! But, I have to mention how fun it is to hang out with guys in the same boat as you and you end up making a huge fool out of yourselves and confuse the localities! So many funny and crazy moments that you can cherish. For instance, I ended up with two cabs instead of 1 cab one early morning which pissed out the cab driver (yes! it was funny ..because till date I do not know how I managed to do that :P ) and the numerous times all my friends die out of laughter listening to me trying to talk in Hindi. If a person like me can survive, you can too A VERY SERIOUS NOTE: This article is not to shun you away from learning a new regional language. But I get it, we are all old now and learning a new language will be tough, so it is fine and you need not feel dumb/bad if someone says “2 years in that state and you still do not know their language?!”. Just tell them "Knowing the language and acing in that state is easy, but rocking despite not knowing the language? That is quite something! "