Reporting (not)Live from the Basic English Workshop

I solemnly promised Deepak I’ll post ( hence I am! ).

We have been rather active as a society recently. Counting, this semester, we have conducted

1) Crossword

2) Essay competition

3) Inchoation (2.0!!!)

4) Turncoat

5) Basic English Workshop

6) Vocabulary Workshop

Not to mention we tried really hard to start off the Movie Club (twice!) but couldn’t (due to unavoidable circumstances, to put it nicely).

Anyhow, Deepak is forcing me to report the Basic English Workshop, so that’s what I’ll do now.

We have been planning to conduct English Classes for the last year now. The reason being, when we ask students to join Lingua Franca, we tell then it will help then improve their English. Now the people with a reasonable understanding of the language can take part in our events and improve themselves through the process of preparing for the event, participation, and by observing others taking part. However, a large chunk of the college population is abysmal in the language, and thus the events aren’t as much help to them as the rest. For most of them, taking part is nothing more than a fantasy. The idea behind the Basic English Classes was to improve the level of such people was to an extent that they can express themselves and hence move to the next step in the process, i.e. participation.

Last year, the president gave Meghna and me the responsibility of conducting classes. I came up with a few ideas, but admittedly, that’s all that I did. Meghna, in classic Meghna fashion, went ahead and planned lessons, study materials, techniques and God knows what else. Then, semester exams came up and everybody forgot about all besides cramming, cramming and cramming. As soon as college reopened, she started working on the idea again, and by the time our tired bodies and brains got over the orientation, she was ready.

Finally, the first class was scheduled for this Tuesday lunchtime. Meghna is one of the members of the rare breed of people who don’t like to miss classes, so what could have been more irritating (and funny) that the teacher for her toughest subject scheduled an extra class on the aforementioned lunchtime! Grudgingly, Meghna missed her extra class and stepped into the shoes of a teacher. We were concerned about the number of people that would turn up but our worries were put to rest as 15-20 people appeared on time. Our confidence was further boosted as more and more people kept turning up, even after half an hour into the class, sometimes arriving in groups herded in by Vivek, making me wonder if he caught every first year passing by and forced them into the class (which, by the way, he assures me he didn’t ).

The class started with Meghna discussing the various aspects of the language, including the structure of sentences and the various parts of a sentence. However, she soon realized that the students were clear about the basics and what they lacked the most was confidence. Infact, some of the students did not need to attend the class in any sense, and she turned them away. Hence, the rest of the class was spent on confidence- building activities. The teacher even awarded the first student who stood up in the class to give a discussion with some toffees (:)).

We distributed worksheets and study material, and as far as I could see from their faces, most students went back thoroughly satisfied and will come back for the next class.

PS: Here you go Deepak, you see I do listen to you sometimes!

Fear Factor

As promised, I'm here again on Tuesday. I apologize for the delay because I was stuck with some work in the morning. Anyway, I'm here now and without wasting any more of your time and attention I'd like to address a very important issue. The fear of speaking in public.

It is very easy to go into that shell and it usually happens at an early stage in life. As you grow, you realize that you lack the confidence for speaking out loud in front of a group of people when everyone's attention is focused on you and they're listening to what you have to say. The frequency of these situations will only increase as you move ahead in life. So you have to break out of the shell as soon as possible. It looks like a difficult job, but if you follow a few simple rules it's a piece of chocolate cake.

Rule no. 1 - TRY
What is the worst that can happen? There are some people who might laugh at you for stammering or stuttering (personally I despise the type who do) and will forget about it by the next day. What you gain from this is a sense of accomplishment. You TRIED. That's the only thing you need to do.

Rule no. 2 - TRY AGAIN
Imagine yourself standing beside an escalator that is going up. When you try, you step on to the escalator. A failure is the equivalent of taking a step back on the rising escalator. You are still going up, it is not a setback, it is a lesson that will help your climb.

Rule no. 3 - THEY ARE JUST NORMAL PEOPLE LIKE YOU
The group of people you are addressing are just like you, humans who can see, hear and speak the same way you can. They aren't any reality show judges passing judgment on every vibration emerging from your vocal chords. It isn't the end of the world if you fumble or falter, they would too, anyone would.

Rule no. 4 - IT'S OK TO BE NERVOUS
Confidence and nerves are inversely proportional to each other. The more confidence you gain, the less nervous you will be. You might be the captain of the Debating Team but you will still be nervous on a big occasion. Your nerves will get used to it soon enough, just follow the simple rules.

I'm looking forward to a forum where people can put forth their problems and help us help them.

Until next time, keep trying.
Sid

P.S. - Congratulations to the Lingua Franca Team for a hugely successful orientation program. Hope it gets better and better.

P.P.S. - I am slightly disappointed by the lack of posts on this blog. People other than Deepak should also contribute. (Nice template Deepak, well done)

New Logo!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the new logo of Lingua Franca. We did not have good quality copies of the previous logo, so i remade it keeping intact the theme of the mediating man. I've changed his body though, given him a more masculine frame (a shield for a chest) and golden color for body. The new logo has been used in the identity cards and the certificates that we've got printed.

By the way, i've never quite understood the meaning conveyed through the logo. What does the meditating guy stand for? Anyone has any ideas?

Inchoation 2.0

After having been made to believe that our orientation program is jinxed, the relief of having conducted a successful event can’t be put down to words. But more on why the event almost got canceled later.

We started our preparations about a week back when we got to know of our event date. Since every society in college wanted to conduct their orientation programme before others, there was a clash amongst the presidents and dates were ultimately decided through a lottery system of picking up chits. And when it’s left to luck, you know what happens. Hell, something had to go wrong. We ultimately had a choice between two dates – 3rd(which was too early and possibly a holiday due to Ganesh Chaturthi) and 18th(which was a bit too late).

No marks for guessing, we took a blind chance and started preparing for 3rd. Special credit goes to our president for that. We christened the event Inchoation 2.0 (Thank you Aastha for such an peculiar name, it’s irresistible and Thank you Garima for giving it a techno-savvy feel) Here’s one more compliment, the Dean said – “I claim to have a very good vocabulary, but I have not heard this word before..”

So we began with the basic publicity. And then started deciding the events we were going to have. Somebody came up with the idea of launching a movie club at the orientation programme. Nandu prepared a fun Crossword, other rounds like Voice Recognition, Dubbing Scenes, Picture Quizzes were also finalised in the next few days. The idea was to keep the event simple, and host it well.

I must mention the second year students, especially the girls who toiled away days and nights to make sure the event is publicized well. Little did we know that the event was going to be such a success.

No Reservations

Hi everyone. I don't know how many people actually read this blog but if there is a blog then it demands that you write stuff in it! An un-updated blog is as good as attending class just for the sake of getting attendance, there is no point to it. So to help change that I'm going to try and post on a weekly/monthly basis (depending upon the time I can spare) and I'm going to call my column "No Reservations".

For those people who know me I don't need to give an introduction, for those who don't know me, my name is Sid and that's about it. I'll share my experiences with you about stuff that I think would have helped me if someone would have told the same to me when I had certain reservations and was generally a shy and quiet kid. Coming out of that mould isn't as hard as it looks. But as with all journeys, the first step is the hardest.

So let's embark on this journey together and see how far we can go. But remember I can only show you the door, you have to enter it (yeah I'm a Matrix fan).

Cheers
Sid

Debate - Patriotism has reduced to mere Tokenism

I presented this debate at JIVE 08, the cultural festival of Jaypee Institute. I was speaking for the motion. And no I did not win a prize but I just thought it deserves a read..

I would like to ask you a very simple question. Do you know the name of the local MP? No? You must at least know the political party he/she belongs to.. Now I am sure half the people sitting here have no idea. We don’t know because we don’t care. But if I ask you about Deepika Padukone and her boyfriends, then each one of us will have an answer.

Well the reason I asked you the above is question is this: If you consider yourself patriotic, then the first thought that should come to your mind when you think of your nation is, who are the ones ruling it? What are their credentials? Is this country in safe hands? Governance is closely related to patriotism.

But we don’t even give a damn.

One of the cleanest figures of Indian politics and the architect of a liberal India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, himself failed to get elected to the Lok Sabha and that too from a highly educated constituency of the capital city Delhi. He had to be brought in as a member of the Rajya Sabha from the far-off state of Assam. So what does that say? We might talk big things but we do not even exercise our right to vote. We’d instead prefer to go out and watch movies when we get a holiday for general elections.

India earned her freedom after much sacrifice and bloodshed. Bhagat Singh, one of the most popular faces of the Indian Freedom struggle, gave up his life for the nation the young age of 21 years. 21 years. Today when I look around, I hardly see that kind of a passion for the country. True, India is a free nation today, true India is not in a state of war. So we don’t require revolutionaries who would sacrifice their lives at the drop of a hat. But there are so many issues plaguing us right now. According to our former president APJ Abdul Kalam, there are several factors that are a threat to our dream of becoming a super power by 2020. Corruption is one such factor. Even being a passive witness to corruption is a form of corruption. With scores of venal people around us, how many of us here feel enough is enough? How many of us actually step out of the crowd, raise our voices and do something about it?

All that we do is celebrate cricketing victories, shout slogans, wave our national flag and think that we’re patriotic.

Patriotism is a big word. We as a nation are not even fulfilling some of our most basic obligations. Our national animal, tiger is on the brink of extinction. But we don’t care. Our National Heritage, all our priceless monuments are in a state of absolute neglect. But we don’t care. Every single day, we litter our nation in the most uncivic of manners. Even when there is a dustbin in sight, we don’t have the patience to walk up to it.

This year, recruitments in the Armed Forces have been at an all time low. We are facing an acute shortage of uniformed men. Which basically means people no longer have that desire to support and defend our nation. No doubt, the current Army Chief suggested a compulsory 1 year cadetship to all Indian graduating males.

Since 1947, we have come a long way. It’s been 60 years. But my heart pains when I see that patriotism has indeed been lost somewhere in the pages of history. Patriotism has been long forgotten and all that has remained is mere tokenism.

New Template!

Now this blog looks more lively! The reason why i revamped the look of this blog is to mobilise some kind an activity here. This blog was lying dead. Shreyasi was regularly posting but there was hardly anyone reading her posts. I felt that making this a community blog would do us a lot good. Hence I sent in invitations to everyone who has a blog. This blog can have a maximum of 100 contributors so incase you are interested in becoming one, send a request mail at deepaknettem@jssaten.ac.in. I will promptly dispatch an invitation.

Blogging is a wonderful thing to do. It makes you take out some time for yourself(and for the society in this case). Writing is one of the most powerful media a man can express himself in. It gives you way to siphon off your "creative tensions". There is a lot of creativity entrapped in each and every one of us. All we need to do is give it a chance, an opening.

I have always believed that the purpose of being organising members of Lingua Franca is not only to conduct successful events in college but also build a very strong sense of companionship, a team-bonding amongst ourselves. This blog might just help us do that.

Another very important purpose of this blog is to chronicle the events we organize. In the last one semester alone, we might have conducted atleast 10 events. But we(I) don't even remember half of them. We have no records, no fixed place where we write down all we do. This blog solves that problem. I am sure many years down the line when we look back and read the posts of this blog, it will give us all huge satisfaction and happiness that we did something like this.

Yet another reason for the existence of this blog is to facilitate interaction with Lingua Franca alumni. How will Rupali Tyagi or Siddharth Goyal be known to students who join college(and Lingua Franca) next year? There you know now..

I guess that's all for now. Write in you suggestions/criticism about the template.

Group Discussion Workshop

Our team organised a GD WORKSHOP on 5th march. It was a huge success. The workshop was conducted by MR.ARINDHAM BHATTARCHARYA, the renowned faculty of IMS, a leading management coaching institute in Noida.

The mood was upbeat. We had planned this workshop deliberately before the tech fest of our college,in order to give an overview to the students regarding how a GROUP DISCUSSION is conducted, 'CONCLAVE' being one of our major events in ZEALICON '08. We are grateful to MR. BHATTARCHARYA for taking out time for us from his packed schedule.the session was very interactive.our members were able to approach him with their queries which were answered well. The tips he gave will be very useful for our members. He also gave suggestions to overcome stage fright in order to speak confidently in public.

Two mock GDs were conducted in the end. The speakers were given individual remarks and were judged on various points like content,number of examples included,active participation and fluency.

The feedback from the members was very encouraging for us and we will definitely conduct many more such workshops in the coming future.

Lingua Franca - About

LINGUA FRANCA-‘a common language adopted between speakers whose native languages are different.’

Ever felt lost in a crowd where you couldn't comprehend what was being said?? Hoped that you could converse and be a part of it too?? Heres an opportunity at improving your communication skills.
Lingua franca, an active literary society in JSS, provides you the opportunity to discover the literary spark in you. It aims to fathom and nourish that talent to exaltation.The society works towards the overall development of an individual by providing its members a platform to not only envisage but to express their opinion articulately on various topics and build their confidence in public speaking. The society tries to ensure that the next time a lingua franca member is given an opportunity to represent the mass or discuss a particular issue, he delivers an explicit and exuberant speech efficaciously.Apart from developing oratory skills in the members,the committee aims at moulding them into chivalrous and devout leaders.
We organize events like debates,extempores,group discussions,etc in order to give opportunities to students who are intimidated with the thought of speaking on a public forum, to help them overcome their inhibitions.Afterall,'practice is the best of all instructors'.We encourage people to believe in themselves as ‘belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad'.
But we can't do this alone.So,we request our members to participate in all the events held periodically and we assure you
that we will enhance your vocabulary,self-confidence and leadership qualities.Team Lingua Franca is always available for providing its members guidance and support whenever required.It is so rightly said that ‘inspiration but no involvement,charisma but no change,hope but no harness is futile.’

Lingua Franca Library

A library will be started in the girls hostel very soon.There will be abundant books of all tastes-fiction,non-fiction,philosophy,romance,comics,literature,magazines,etc.Boys need not be disappointed. We are aiming to do the same in the boys hostel. The delay is due to the shortage of funds. So please be patient and cooperate with us.

Recently Conducted Events

VOCAB TEST:-

Lingua Franca conducted a VOCAB TEST on the 1st of feb.The response was overwhelming.Precisely,107 teams turned up.
The test was prepared on the GRE cum CAT pattern.There were 5 kinds of questions-synonyms,antonyms,fill in the appropriate word,one word substitution and analogies.We had shuffled the questions by making 3 sets-A,B & C to avoid unscrupulous means and to ensure that we got deserving winners.Each team consisted of 2 members.There were a total of 25 questions and the duration for the test was 30 min.
There were 4 winning teams.The 2nd place was shared by 3 teams.The winning team was awarded a cash prize of Rs. 200 while each runner up team received Rs. 100 each as a token of appreciation.The scores and solutions were e-mailed to all participants.
We will conduct many such tests in the future and thereby give opportunities to all the members to improve with every performance.

RESULT:-

1st prize: ROHAN JAIN(EE 4th year) & AMIT BARNWAL(EC 4th year)
SCORE:18/25
2nd prize: PARUL SHUKLA(EE 4th year) & PRANAYE ASHOK(CSE 4th year)
SCORE:17/25
ANKUR CHAUDHARY(EC 3rd year) & NISHITH SINHA(EC 3rd year)
TRIPTA(CSE 4th year) & RAMYA(IT 4th year)

SUGGESTIONS:

To improve vocabulary,NORMAN LEWIS is a great help for beginners.But first and foremost reading the newspaper is extremely important,especially the editorial section.For preparing for various competitive examinations,GRE BARRONS is highly recommended.

RECRUITMENTS:-

Lingua franca held recruitments from 1st year students for joining the team of organizing members.It was delightful to know that a fairly large number of students were interested.They were interviewed by a panel of 7 senior organizing members of the society including the president,RUPALI TYAGI.We were impressed by the CVs’ of most registered people.But due to the limitation on the number of new organizing members,we had no choice but to consider the very best ones.Some interviews were carried out in the hostel also.Though the achievements and credentials of most were commendable, we finally narrowed down to 11 candidates whom we found most deserving and promising. The jury had laid emphasis on some of the following factors-confidence,eloquence of speech,team-spirit,leadership and communication skills.We hope that the newly recruited members who are now a part of our team will work diligently for the upliftment of the society.

The newly recruited 1st years are:-
1.NITISH
2.ROHIT
3.ANUJ
4.ETIKA
5.RITIKA
6.AKANKSHA
7.NANDINI
8.SHUBHANGI
9.GARGI
10.ASHUTOSH
11.MANASVI
12.ARJIT
13.PRATEEK
14.SHIKHAR

VOCAB TEST FOR BEGINNERS:-

Lingua Franca organized another vocab test on 13th feb in the girls hostel.This idea was proposed to us by the first years as they needed practice exercises on vocabulary and grammar.The test paper prepared had questions on words starting from alphabet ‘A’ to ‘D’.There were 25 questions,each carrying 1 mark each.There wasn’t any negative marking.The overall performance was very good.The results and solutions were displayed on the notice board.

JUMBLES:-

This event was conducted on 13th feb in the college.Jumbled words were given which had to be arranged to form the correct words.A team of two members was eligible for the test.The winning team comprised ROHAN JAIN(4th year-EE) and AMIT BARWAL(4th year-EC).Their score was 32/32.