>
> On 15.05.2011, at 02:08, Jaob Schmidt-Madsen wrote:
>
>> Dear Al,
>>
>> A couple of years ago I took spoken Sanskrit classes with the Samskrita
>> Bharati organization in Delhi and Varanasi. They also teach in the
>> medium
>> of the language being taught, and discourage students from speaking in
>> any
>> other language in class. In the boarding-school-like Samvadashala in
>> Delhi
>> where students stay for anything from two weeks to several months, even
>> speaking in any other language outside class is strictly prohibited (and
>> enforced as such).
>>
>> Apart from the rather severe discipline upheld by Samskrita Bharati, I
>> was
>> quite taken by their method of instruction which enabled students with
>> little or no prior experience with Sanskrit to quickly get a basic grasp
>> of the language. The grammar, of course, was watered down with
>> periphrastic forms and a predilection for a-stem nouns and thematic
>> verbs,
>> but still students were able to make simple conversation in Sanskrit
>> after
>> just a few classes. Myself included, rather to my surprise.
>>
>> So by all means, tell your son to go ahead and join the course (which, I
>> am sure, will be less rigid in its discipline than Samskrita Bharati's).
>> It is quite an eye-opener learning Sanskrit through conversation alone.
>> You quickly learn to set up a grammatical "no nonsense" filter in the
>> Paninian center of your brain :)
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Jacob
>>
>> Jacob Schmidt-Madsen
>> Department of Indology
>> University of Copenhagen
>>
>>> My son is contemplating this class in Heidelberg. He has the Sanskrit
>>> background for it but is hesitant because it is conducted (like all
>>> language
>>> immersion programs) in the language being taught. I would be interested
>>> to
>>> hear from anyone who has taken this course in the past, hopefully
>>> telling
>>> Nick that it is not too threatening.
>>>
>>> Al Collins, Ph.D.
>>>
>
>