No matter the age, poetry can open our hearts and minds. In addition to helping us to express our feelings, poetry can also serve as a doorway to our emotions.
In Hindi 101 class, Professor Knapczyk incorporated and organized various real-life scenarios to implement our understanding from the class. From Bollywood dance workshops to working with NGOs, one of these events included a poetry writing workshop with Mr. Jagdish Vyom, where we submerged ourselves in a foreign language in a creative and fun way while learning about different ways to express ourselves through Hindi poem writing. It was one of those experiences I never considered I would encounter if it weren't for Kusum Ji's class.
First of all, for someone like me who didn't know how to compose poems at all, it was scary at first. Then I saw all my peers coming together to write poems about their families, homes, friends, and day-to-day lives. This illustrated how poems could be a more fun way to understand a different language engagingly. We wrote poetry by ourselves first with the guidance and suggestion of our professor, Dr. Knapczyk, and then we shared our poem with the class. We gave constructive feedback to each other, recited the poem, and then worked to improve the poem. This felt like I was working as a group; everyone was there to help me succeed and thrive. We also learned how to type in Hindi and typed out our poems to get further feedback.
After this, Dr. Knapczyk took the assignment further by inviting poet Mr. Jagdish Vyom to our poem-writing workshop. Vyom Ji was born and raised in Delhi, India. A poet, novelist, and author from India, Vyom Ji, believes poetry helps us explore our inner selves. We felt the same vibrancy throughout our whole session. Our Zoom session became an open and welcoming stage to intercommunicate our thoughts and emotions through our poems.
Our poems were applauded and encouraged by Vyom Ji as we recited them. After learning a new language for just a couple of months, the first poem I wrote made me happy and optimistic about my language-learning journey.
At the end of the session, we asked Vyom Ji about his life in India and how he started with literature. We discovered even more about ourselves as we learned more about Vyom Ji and each of our classmates through this poem-writing workshop. If I hadn't taken this workshop, I would never have known that using poetry to find our voice can unlock new ways of expressing ourselves and healing and restoring us, especially during anxiety.
In other words, this is precisely what our liberal arts education is all about: providing an expanded educational experience by reading critically, communicating effectively, and thinking without borders through the lenses of natural and social sciences.
Some of the other Hindi students wrote their experiences with the poetry workshop.
Rakshita, "I read my poem to my mom and she was impressed that I have learned a lot of vocabulary. I liked writing a poem and enjoyed getting to express my thoughts in a different medium. I enjoyed talking to Dr. Vyom and it was very helpful practice listening to Hindi. He also gave a lot of helpful suggestions for our poems."
TRS, "I read my poem to my father and he was really excited to hear me speaking Hindi! My grandparents were also enthused that I was learning so much in class. I liked writing poems in Hindi – it felt like a creative way to apply the material learned. Dr. Vyom was a fantastic presence to listen to and learn from. It helped with listening comprehension as does class immersion."
Shloka, "I showed the poem to my mom, and she was very happy to see how much progress I was making with my Hindi studies. Initially, the idea of writing a poem in Hindi (a language I have very minimal exposure to) seemed very daunting, but I ended up having a lot of fun and realized how much I had learned in the past couple of weeks while trying to write the poem. I enjoyed learning about Jagdish Ji’s experience with poetry writing and listening to all of the feedback he gave."
"I showed my poem to my friend who speaks Hindi and it was fun to show how much I’ve learned so far. I like writing poetry so I really enjoyed this assignment and writing it in Hindi was an interesting challenge. Dr. Vyom was a great guest and him speaking in Hindi most of the time was definitely challenging."
This event was supported and funded by Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Duke Service-learning.
Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies