Obama grants $120 mn for Hindi, Urdu courses

Indiana University's programme for India studies, aimed at training high school students in Hindi and Urdu, has received about $120 million from the Obama administration. The money has been granted to the University under the 'STARTALK Program' of the US government, which was started by George W Bush, to increase the foreign language proficiency of Americans.

Updated on: Jun 3, 2009, 01:31:43 IST

PTI | By HT Correspondent, Washington

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Indiana University's programme for India studies, aimed at training high school students in Hindi and Urdu, has received about $120 million from the Obama administration.

The money has been granted to the University under the 'STARTALK Program' of the US government, which was started by the previous administration of George W Bush, to increase the foreign language proficiency of Americans in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Persian, Turkish, Swahili and Urdu.

"Our goals are for the participating students to acquire the linguistic and cultural competence to communicate successfully in the language and obtain various learning strategies and skills," said Sungok Hong, a lecturer and Hindi-Urdu language coordinator in the India Studies Program.

The free summer intensive programme for Hindi and Urdu provides the equivalent of one semester of university-level instruction.

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