Immersive Global Experience

Sanskrit as a Foreign Language (SAFL)- 2 Week Immersion Camp

July-August 2016

In 2014, I joined SAFL, which is a 3 year online program for high school students in the U.S. who wished to learn the ancient Indian language Samskritam or commonly known as, Sanskrit. Samskritam is a language that dates back to Vedic Period of India and is now still seen in many scriptures, prayers, and some villages in India.

This program is run by Samskrita Bharati, a non-profit organization whose mission is to "promote Samskritam as an everyday language and provide access to its rich and diverse repository of knowledge."

Organizations like Samskrita Bharati are aiming to revive this language and make it as prominently spoken as it used to be once upon a time.

In the summer of 2016, I attended a 2 week-long, culminating camp in Bangalore, India at the "Aksharam." This was an honors camp to enrich and build up on the skills we had learned throughout the program. We were exposed to more complex topics in grammar, literature, and attended teacher-training sessions. In addition, we took field trips to places in Bangalore that still widely spoke this ancient language. We visited an all boys hostel where they conversed and learned everything in Sanskrit, and a small school that widely spoke and recited Sanskrit prayers. Throughout these 2 weeks, we were as well expected to converse almost entirely in Sanskrit, as the staff at our lodge lived their lives daily doing so.

I found this camp to be very entertaining and educational. Although I have been learning this language since the age of 6, this camp was the one time where I really attempted to converse completely in the language and really put all my knowledge into use. I was able to spend 2 weeks with friends I had made around the United States and be in a very comfortable and traditional environment.

Here are some pictures from my camp:

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