Increasing Cultural Competency Through Meeting with NGOs

Every semester, Kusum Ji has exposed us to various aspects of Indian culture and allowed us to explore different issues plaguing India. This semester, in Hindi 203, one of the activities to expose us to Indian culture was talking to people from the Delhi Young Artist Forum and to create a poster for them to help promote their cause. The Delhi Young Artist Forum is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that seeks to educate the youth through multiple facets in order to combat social injustice. We had previously met with the Delhi Young Artist Forum last year in Hindi 102, so it was nice to see them again. 

During our talk with the DYAF, we first went around and introduced ourselves by saying our names, when we woke up, and what we had for breakfast. I thought this was a great icebreaker because it allowed us to appreciate how early the DYAF workers get up and also how similar our breakfasts are. Then some members of the DYAF read a poem and sang. I think these intimate activities helped us to open up more to the rest of the people in the meeting. 

We then presented the different posters we worked on to help encourage children to continue schooling. If underprivileged children do not go to school, they may miss out on opportunities that typically only go to more privileged and educated people. As a result, the cycle of poverty could continue. In order to combat this, my group made a poster utilizing iconic cartoon characters (mostly Indian ones such as Chhota Bheem or some super famous American ones such as Mickey Mouse) that said encouraging quotes about staying in school. 

Meeting with the DYAF also made me feel super honored because they took time out of their busy days to talk to our Hindi class and help increase not only our cultural competency but also our confidence in speaking. I for one slowly became more comfortable speaking as everyone was super welcoming. It felt very comfortable to talk with them as we talked about how we celebrated Diwali, what our favorite foods were, and what movies we liked to watch. Moreover, I was able to describe a little bit about what American culture is like, namely through describing what Thanksgiving is and how our lives at Duke are. Additionally, it was very interesting to talk to all of them because they all had different accents, emphasizing the diaspora of Indian culture and experiences.  

One of the goals of Hindi 203 is to foster connections between the language we learn in class and the culture that speaks it. To this end I think that meeting with this NGO was extremely productive. Overall, meeting with the DYAF was a great way to gain insight into the daily life of someone from India in a way we haven’t gotten to do before in Hindi 203. 

*This workshop was supported by Asian & Middle Eastern Studies and Duke Service-learning.