Ok yes. A post actually taking place in India is WAYYY over due,
but better late than never right? Sorry it took so long guys but the wifi
struggle can be real sometimes. Alright, this one's for my newbie IPSE kids who
are interested in India or my Indian finalists.
Here's some of the main things you need to know before you come to
India.
-There will be a language barrier of some sort with most people
you meet.
While English is used nation wide, do not expect everyone to know
it well or to always be able to freely communicate with you. There will be a language barrier
during your exchange. This might be
especially prevalent at school depending on where you are placed.
BUT, this is an excellent opportunity to get to learn the local
language. It'll be overwhelming at times and all you'll want is to cuddle up
and watch a Hollywood movie to hear a conversation you can understand, and this
is perfectly okay. You are not a failure, you are not stupid for not picking up
the language fast enough, you are trying. This whole experience is difficult
and language will be a main part of the difficulties, but as long as you're
trying and enjoying all you can, you are doing everything you're supposed to. Do not worry, you. are. o. k.
-School will be different and you most likely will get bored at
times.
School in India works by using streams, usually being four:
science, humanities (arts), commerce, or medical. The stream system works by
the student picking their stream in 11th grade (or 11th standard as they call
it there) picking a stream means picking what kind of career they want to go
in. They will learn classes specifically important to their chosen stream and
will continue it in 12th.
ex: Science stream has math and science classes as Humanities does
not have math or science but classes like history or language.
Most exchange students are placed in
the Humanities stream, but others, such as myself, are placed in
Commerce as they do not offer Humanities at all schools. You can take
other streams if you want, but I don't recommend it, unless you want to spend
your time stressing about how you're going to study all those chapters of
Physics if there's a festival going on.
Now, school itself. Lectures are conducted by the teacher teaching
straight out of the book. Word by word will be read out of the book, and, as
the books are in English, there will be frequent stopping for explaining what
was read. You may already know this information, you may get it the first
time you read it, you may not understand a thing and have to wait for the
local language explanation before you have time to ask your question. You will
get frustrated sometimes. You will get bored. These feelings will happen.
There's not too much you can do about this except make sure you socialize with
other students or find other work to do; learn to doodle, work on the language,
try to do homework (if there is any, which 98% of the time, there isn't). Just
keep yourself busy, or do as most exchange students and take a nap of there is
nothing else to do.
-You will love street food
It's a known fact. All exchange students will love all, if not
most, if not some, street food. I don't recommend eating it right off the bat
like myself, but do make sure you get some paani poori, ghugra, samosa, vada pav,
bav phaji, gola...basically, just try all the things you get offered. You won't
regret it. Trust me.
- You will appreciate the little
things
Being in a country where you will probably
be placed in a vegetarian family, have frequent power outages, have frequent
misunderstandings, or may not be able to walk outside, you start to appreciate
the little things from home. You form a bigger appreciation for the US and also
will appreciate the little things you might not have in the US such as the way
your host mom makes your favorite meal when she knows you're feeling down, or
even the way the sun looks in your host country.
Important sidenote: you will never take
wifi for granted again as it is very common to not have access to wifi here.
Thank goodness for the cheap data plans here, but wifi will be one of the
things you will appreciate a lot more on going back.
-You will speak like an Indian
As you begin to spend time here you will
find the way Indians speak English is a little different. They speak British
English so they have different ways of saying things by using different words
and phrases, also Indians have their own way of saying things for example to
say "Me too!" they might say "Same pinch!" You might not
even notice it but this is one of the first things you pick up on.
-You will take naps
Taking an afternoon nap in India is a
daily thing. Usually between the hours of 2-5 in the afternoon. You may not
take naps, you may not be used to taking naps, but it's very common for host
families to ask you to take a nap and you will get used to it quicker than you
think. You'll even begin to look forward to the sleeping. It might be one of
the things you'll miss the most when you go.
-You will form bonds in ways you can't yet
understand
Obviously, coming into an exchange you
more or less hope or expect to form a bond with your host family, which you
probably will. However, the bond you will form with your fellow exchange
students is something you won't understand until you experience it. You will
help each other through everything by just sharing your issues. Knowing you are
not alone is one of the most helpful, most valuable things that will help you
move forward through this experience.
- You will learn about yourself
Going into exchange you may be or not be
sure about who you are and how you react in situations. Being on exchange
however, will show you exactly how you react in situations and you may discover
characteristics you posses you didn't know you had or didn't know were so
prevalent. Sometimes, as I've found here, these traits will even be pointed out
to you as you probably act differently in situations than most of the people
born here.
No matter what happens on your exchange,
what you learn, the hardships you go through, you will in the end, love India.
If not all of India, some aspects you will love and miss when you go. It's a
tough country with a lot of mentalities you have to get used to and adapt to,
but it's a wonderful experience that you definitely won't forget and will learn
so much from.
