E-Paper
Learning language with a song-dance
While watching a Spanish film as a student, Brij Kothari wished the film had subtitles in Spanish rather than in English so that he could learn the language.
While watching a Spanish film as a student, Brij Kothari wished the film had subtitles in Spanish rather than in English so that he could learn the language.
Ten years on, Kothari has not only become fluent in Spanish but is also helping hundreds of thousands of people in India learn their mother tongue by watching popular film songs with subtitles in the same language.
He developed the same-language subtitles (SLS) system to exploit the popularity of lavish songs and dance sequences in Indian films to help people who are barely literate start reading.
Two subtitled programmes now run weekly on national broadcaster Doordarshan II and are watched by an estimated 180 million people. Subtitles will be introduced later this month in five more of the 17 official languages in India.
With funds now coming in from Google Foundation, the charity offshoot of Internet search company Google, Kothari has plans to introduce the concept in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Because of the sheer numbers involved, the project works out to be cost-effective.
