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Varsha Seshan

International Mother Language Day

February 21, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

All kinds of thoughts come to my mind as I think of the term mother language. I love the fact that so many languages exist. I love the celebration of language as both art and skill. Yet, working as I do with children and adults in diverse environments, I can’t help seeing other implications.On the […]

Filed Under: Language Tagged With: English, International Mother Language Day, mother tongue, Tamil

Workshop on Communicative English

July 11, 2016 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

The six-hour journey from Pune to Beed was lovely. I love travelling in the monsoon through pouring rain, looking at all the shades of green passing by. I love the hills in the rain. They’re so full of life, so different from the parched summer browns! My workshop last weekend was with Gurukul English School […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: communication, English, language, Ratna Sagar

Mythical Maze – Workshop II

January 18, 2015 by Varsha Seshan 2 Comments

The Mythical Maze Reading Challenge is nearly over! After Reading and Role Play and Idioms Are My Cup of Tea, today has Myths from around the World and Myths and Fables. I showed the little ones a map of the world. These children are in the age-group 5-7. We were reading a ‘story from Arabia’, Where There is Will. “Do […]

Filed Under: Children, Workshops Tagged With: British Library, English, language, mythical maze, reading, reading challenge, workshop

Vocabulary Workshop at Magarpatta City

October 10, 2014 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Now moving to a new venue – JustBooks, Magarpatta City! Vocabulary Workshop for Children Dates: 18th and 19th October, 2014 Time: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Venue: JustBooks, Magarpatta City Age-group: 8-12 years Registration fee: Rs. 500

Filed Under: Children, Workshops Tagged With: English, JustBooks, language, Magarpatta City, vocabulary, workshop

Photographs from Yesterday’s Workshops

August 25, 2014 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Sunday morning saw the end of my two-day workshop, Weekend with Words, at JustBooks Aundh. With Word Search, Word-Building and Word Train, we came to the end of a fun workshop! At the British Library, we had a day based on Roald Dahl! Today, we have: Storytelling Workshop Time: 11 am to noon Age-group: 5-8 […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: British Library, communication, English, language, photo, photographs, photos, pictures, reading, story, storytelling, workshop

Fun 4 Kids

April 25, 2014 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

It’s workshop season! The Cultural Centre, Pune, is a new space in Mundhwa for different activities and programmes. “Fun 4 Kids” is a venture into a range of activities for children. I will be facilitating the ‘Literature’ activities with reading and writing workshops once a month. The poster says it all!

Filed Under: Children, Workshops Tagged With: English, reading, the cultural centre pune

The Peculiar English Language

August 2, 2013 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Of course we know that language is peculiar. And English? Any new speaker finds it ridiculously bewildering. I’m reading a book by Rachel Anderson called Asylum.  More about that will come in a book-review soon, but it brought me to laugh aloud at the ridiculous English language. We learned similes in school. As fresh as […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Language Tagged With: English

The Table Family

April 20, 2013 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Have you been introduced to the Table family? When I was in school, we were kept forcibly away from the family. The Table family was a strict no-no for us. Pronounce correctly. Stay away from the awful Table family. Trends are changing, though. Many children have found their comfort zone with this delightfully extended family. […]

Filed Under: Children, Language Tagged With: English, school

The Dictionary at School

March 31, 2013 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

  The portion for the exams has been completed; students are fed up with revision. So, a colleague of mine decided to do something different – she read out a story from The Story-Catcher. I was thrilled! This reading went one step further than ‘I loved your story’ and ‘nice story’ and ‘I like the story […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Writing Tagged With: catcher, English, reading, school, story, story-catcher

Talking to Children

March 11, 2013 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

In one of the places where I used to teach dance, children from various backgrounds often had trouble communicating with me. They spoke little or no English and sometimes, little or no Hindi, Tamil or Marathi. Problems occurred when they spoke just one language if that one was not one I understood. I remember one […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: communication, English, language

The Awful English Language

January 17, 2013 by Varsha Seshan 2 Comments

Teaching English is impossible. Words like ‘enough’ are enough to put anyone off, but they don’t even begin to scratch the surface. It so happened during one class that I had to pronounce all the words – though, thought, although, rough and plough. The hilarity and bewilderment are impossible to forget. One particular class stands […]

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: communication, English

Cut

December 9, 2012 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

My sister and I often got invited to the same parties. Once, when I was about seven, both of us received birthday invitations that had a fancy RSVP slip that had to be cut along the dotted line. Below the dotted line, it said: I can/ cannot attend your birthday party. (Please cut one) I […]

Filed Under: Children Tagged With: cut, English, language

Learning to Communicate

November 27, 2012 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

“Do you speak English?” we asked three police-people standing at a signal in Milan. The policewoman shook her head and turned to the men. “Just a leetle,” said one. Then began our attempt to tell them we were lost and looking for our hostel. The hostel had given us a map, but we had walked […]

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: communication, English, Italy, language, left, right