Telugu Cultural Association of Finland (TCAF) organized a pioneering summer camp to enhance the Finnish language skills of Telugu-speaking children. Led by Hansika, a passionate 9th-grade Finnish student, the camp exceeded expectations and received overwhelming positive feedback. With the support of her experienced parents, Hansika orchestrated the camp, ensuring a smooth operation and fostering an optimal learning experience.
Motivated by the success, TCAF aims to expand the camp to Telugu-speaking children in the Uusima area, addressing linguistic challenges and promoting integration into Finnish society. Through this program, TCAF fosters cultural exchange, empowering Telugu-speaking children and promoting language learning and inclusivity.
Interview
Q. What inspired you to initiate and conduct this class?
As Viday says, We heard from several parents about the struggles their kids face at school while learning the Finnish language and they expressed the need for mentoring and tutoring. This really motivated us to help the kids by mentoring to bolster their confidence at school as well as in their daily life with their Finnish language skills. Since both our kids are native level speakers, we asked them if they could do this during the summer and they readily agreed. That’s how this idea rolled out. We wanted to do this on behalf of TCAF as it represents a large Telugu community and many families with kids who are going to English medium schools could benefit in some way or the other from the Finnish language sessions during the summer.
Q. Could you share your approach to planning and organizing this class?
As Ram says, We really started this on a trial basis with just 5 kids. The idea was to teach them basic grammar and make them feel comfortable with what they are learning by putting in to practice in day to day activities such as baking and simple games. After each lesson kids were asked to do their homework tasks that included reading, speaking and writing.
Q. As a 9th-grade student, how were you able to effectively engage and manage younger children, ensuring their attentiveness and cooperation?
As Hansika says, I was able to effectively engage and manage the younger children, ensuring their attention and cooperation by engaging them with activities that fun-filled and useful. These activities have brought more interest and shown improvement in the kids’ knowledge of the Finnish grammar. The kids also do the homework after each lesson that includes speaking, reading and writing tasks. These tasks also helped them to strengthen their Finnish language skills.
Testimony
Jeevika
First and foremost, I would like to thank you and your parents to initiate the Finnish teaching classes and giving me a chance to be part of the group. Though, I attended few classes, I felt the classes were amazing. You teach the class so passionately. I truly appreciate your efforts in organizing the class topics, homework, and baking sessions. The way you teach is commendable.
Ganesh
My child Adya studies at EIS and she will be going to 4th grade next year. As anyone can guess her Finnish is at a very basic level. After taking 3 week classes with Hansika, now she added past, perfect, past perfect to her verb conjugation skills. What Adya and I like the most is the introduction of passive voice already at this stage. And, why would any kid complain when there’s a baking class each week. They leaned the recipes of pizza, cookies, cake in Finnish while making them which is a nice idea to keep the children encouraged. The teacher Hansika’s dedication and patience is highly appreciated!