Q1.
Find out about the languages spoken by students in your class and name them.
Answer
Do a quick class survey. You will almost certainly find more languages than you expected.
How to do it:
- Draw two columns on the board: Language spoken at home and How many children.
- Each child says the language they speak at home with their family.
- Make a tally mark against that language. If it is new, add a row.
- Also ask a second question: which other language can you understand, even a little? Add those too.
- Count the rows at the end. That number is the number of languages in one classroom.
Sample answer — a class of 32 children:
| Language spoken at home | Number of children |
|---|---|
| Hindi | 14 |
| Bhojpuri | 6 |
| Bengali | 4 |
| Marathi | 3 |
| Urdu | 2 |
| Odia | 2 |
| Nepali | 1 |
| Total children | 32, speaking 7 languages |
Your class list will be different. Write down what you actually find, not this list.
What the survey shows: More than a thousand languages are spoken in India, and 22 of them are listed in our Constitution. Many children in India grow up hearing two or three languages every day — one at home, one in the street, one at school. That is normal here, and it is a strength.
Nice to add: Ask each child to write namaste or thank you in their home language on a slip of paper. Pin all the slips on one chart. That chart is a picture of your class.