Report on Shillong Camp

Between the 17th and the 19th of November, the Goethe Institut, Kolkata conducted a workshop on
“multilingualism” in collaboration with the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU),
Shillong Regional Campus. It was an international symposium called “Crossing Boundaries”, an
opportunity which allowed for the exchange of thoughts and ideas between German teachers as well
as teachers of other (North Eastern, in particular) languages.
The first day of the event was marked by opening remarks from the various dignitaries that graced
the panel: Prof. Ravindra Kumar Vemula, Director, The EFLU, made an inaugural speech, followed
by a few words from the Chief Guest of the evening: Shri N Munish Singh Zonal Director, ICCR
North Eastern Region. There was a Welcome Address by Dr. Rebekah Tham, Assistant Professor,
EFLU. Ms. Dolon Gupta, Consultant: Communication, Culture, and Soft Skills Co-founder, Business
Communication Facilitators Association of India (BECFAI), then gave an interesting talk on
“Intercultural Communication in a Multilingual World”. Ms. Astrid Wege, Director, Goethe-Institut
Kolkata, despite not being there with us physically, had a few warm words of her own which were
conveyed by Dr. Tham. There was a lovely musical performance in the evening by a famous singer by
the name of Lamphang Syiemlieh and his assistant, Malcolm.
The second day kicked off with interesting and engaging sessions by Dr. Desmond L.
Kharmawphlang, Professor, NEHU, Dept. of Cultural & Creative Studies (who talked about “Oral
Epic Performance: Memory, Recovery, Delivery, exploring the richness of Khasi Oral Epics and their
significance) and Dr. Benjamin L. Lyngdoh, Associate Professor, Dept. of Tourism and Hotel
Management, NEHU, Shillong (whose session “Language versatility as a critical element in tourism
entrepreneurship for enhanced tourist experience” touched on various aspects of language and how it
can bring about better prospects and results in tourism). Following this was a set of parallel
workshops: the first being a workshop for German teachers called “‘Language Diversity’ as a lesson
topic”, the use of various languages in the German classroom to facilitate more effective teaching of
the language. This was conducted by Mr. Miguel Rezzani, Educator & Advanced Trainer, German as
a Foreign Language Goethe-Institut Berlin. The second was a workshop called “Towards the
designing of a Multilingual Glossary addressing linguistic and cultural challenges”, where teachers
shared their views and experiences of learning and using various languages whilst teaching other
languages. This was conducted by Dr. Jayati Chatterjee and Dr. T. Temsunungsang, Professor and
Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, The EFLU, Regional Campus, Shillong. After that,
there was an online workshop for the German teachers titled “Conceptualisation of German as an
Additional Language textbook from a critical and decolonial perspective” and it was conducted by
Prof. Dr. Mergenfel Ferreira, Gastprofessorin an der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (Guest
Professor at the University of Jena) and Associate Professor at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. It
gave us interesting insights into how a team of German-language teachers was coming up with ideas
to create textbooks with a more local flavour, without having to rely too much on European models.
The third and final day commenced with an online workshop on “Trans-Languaging: Opportunities
over Problems” conducted by Rrivu Banerjee, M.A. Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. It explored
the phenomenon of “trans-languaging”, where multiple languages find their way into various aspects
of our lives, various theories with regard to the phenomenon and how it can be advantageous from
both language-teaching and language-learning points of view. This was followed by an engaging
session by Ms. Amrita Dhara, Language Trainer, Goethe-Institut Mumbai on “Multilingualism and
the multicultural identity in the German classroom”. She introduced us to new ways of enlivening
German instruction at the scholastic level by incorporating several linguistic and cultural aspects from
both local spaces and sources in the target-language (German, in this case). This was followed by a
closing ceremony,a vote of thanks and an online address from Ms. Puneet Kaur, President, InDaf |
General Secretary, International German Teachers Association.