Studying in India or Nepal
The Department runs 'Year Abroad' schemes in India and Nepal for undergraduate students majoring in Hindi and Nepali respectively.
In both cases, the 'Year Abroad' programme constitutes the first and second terms in the third year of a four-year degree. Nepali students return to SOAS for the third term to take the annual exams, while for Hindi students the assessment for the programme takes place in India and students do not have to return to SOAS until the beginning of the following academic year (late September). The main purpose of these programmes is to enable students to develop their spoken skills in the language, while absorbing the culture at first hand.
The Hindi Programme
The Hindi programme runs in Jaipur, Rajasthan, beginning in early September and ending in March; there is a Christmas break, and several shorter breaks and public holidays throughout. The course is designed and run for SOAS by the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS); students are housed as paying guests with Hindi-speaking families, and attend a demanding but rewarding course in which they are taught the full range of language skills through Hindi medium. Much use is made of audio-visual materials (especially Hindi films); the course includes the study and analysis of literature, as well as a wide variety of other media, and the AIIS staff also organise trips to local places of interest. The AIIS teachers are happy to respond to individual learning needs, and to help students pursue particular interests as they hone their linguistic skills.
Jaipur, a state capital, is the ideal location for a course of this kind: it is a large and vibrant city with strong artistic traditions and rich historical associations, but its scale is manageable and its climate not too challenging - at least during the months of the SOAS programme. Those who go on this programme find that the months spent in Jaipur, living and working in a Hindi-speaking environment, help them get closer to the language than can ever be managed in a classroom in London. Students begin the programme with a sound knowledge of Hindi from their SOAS courses taken over the previous two years; but they end it with a greatly enhanced fluency and a much-deepened awareness of Indian culture generally - not to mention a whole bagful of travellers' tales.
The Nepali Programme
The Nepali programme is at the Bishwa Bhasa Campus of Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu. Students take intermediate and advanced courses in Nepali language and literature, and may also study a second language such as Newari or Tibetan. In consultation with their SOAS tutor they gather materials for their final year Independent Study Project.
