March 30, 2014
Namaste! Welcome to "Feeling Pune", my travel blog that I will try my best to keep up with in a country with unreliable internet access. The title is just the beginning--expect many more bad puns as I prepare to travel to Pune, India this summer in 2014 to learn the beautiful, important, really difficult Hindi language. For prospective student travelers, anxious family members, friends back in the U.S., and for myself, I've decided to keep a blog about my trip to Pune. So here we go!
This is my approximate understanding of the program--for more information, I would definitely check out <www.nsliforyouth.org>. The National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y for short, which I pronounce Nestle-Why,) is a program sponsored by the U.S. State Department to send about 650 American high school students to foreign countries to learn languages that are less commonly taught in the United States, for either a summer or a school year. Those languages are: Arabic (Jordan, Morocco, Oman), Mandarin Chinese (China), Korean (South Korea), Russian (Russia), Tajik (Tajikistan), Turkish (Turkey), and Hindi (India). The purpose of NSLI-Y is, according to the website, to prepare
"American citizens to be leaders in a global world. Now more than ever, it is important that Americans have the necessary linguistic skills and cultural knowledge to promote international dialogue and support American engagement abroad. NSLI-Y aims to provide opportunities to American youth that will spark a lifetime interest in language learning."
To begin with, NSLI-Y is absolutely 100% sponsored by the government. I know you're skeptical, but I promise there's no catch. NSLI-Y pays for your your schooling (we learn Hindi for four to five hours per day at a school in Pune), your airplane tickets (for your flight to the pre-departure orientation in New York City, to the country and back), they reimburse you for your visa, and give you a phone for the country, as well as 750 emergency rupees per week! The only thing not covered is extra spending money and the cost of a passport. Trust me, I'm going to college soon--I would not be going if it wasn't so cheap.
It's sort of confusing, but my understanding is that NSLI-Y is the scholarship funded by the government, while other outside organizations actually are in charge of each program. For example, the group of fifteen students who are going to Pune are with the organization iEarn India, while AFS covers those going to Indore. This summer is the first, as far as I know, that students have gone to Indore--before it was only Pune. One more thing to note is that NSLI-Y gives scholarships for both summer programs (approximately six weeks, mine is from a three-day pre-departure orientation beginning June 18th until I return August 6th, and the dates always change) and year programs (for which there are far fewer scholarships).
That basically sums up NSLI-Y, but as I said, check out the official website for more information. My next posts are probably going to be about me/why I chose India and Hindi, and then about the application process, so stay tuned! Please feel free to comment or ask any questions!
"American citizens to be leaders in a global world. Now more than ever, it is important that Americans have the necessary linguistic skills and cultural knowledge to promote international dialogue and support American engagement abroad. NSLI-Y aims to provide opportunities to American youth that will spark a lifetime interest in language learning."
To begin with, NSLI-Y is absolutely 100% sponsored by the government. I know you're skeptical, but I promise there's no catch. NSLI-Y pays for your your schooling (we learn Hindi for four to five hours per day at a school in Pune), your airplane tickets (for your flight to the pre-departure orientation in New York City, to the country and back), they reimburse you for your visa, and give you a phone for the country, as well as 750 emergency rupees per week! The only thing not covered is extra spending money and the cost of a passport. Trust me, I'm going to college soon--I would not be going if it wasn't so cheap.
It's sort of confusing, but my understanding is that NSLI-Y is the scholarship funded by the government, while other outside organizations actually are in charge of each program. For example, the group of fifteen students who are going to Pune are with the organization iEarn India, while AFS covers those going to Indore. This summer is the first, as far as I know, that students have gone to Indore--before it was only Pune. One more thing to note is that NSLI-Y gives scholarships for both summer programs (approximately six weeks, mine is from a three-day pre-departure orientation beginning June 18th until I return August 6th, and the dates always change) and year programs (for which there are far fewer scholarships).
That basically sums up NSLI-Y, but as I said, check out the official website for more information. My next posts are probably going to be about me/why I chose India and Hindi, and then about the application process, so stay tuned! Please feel free to comment or ask any questions!
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