RAMI NAIR
rnair@northwestern.edu Phone: 847-467-7581
Address: Dept. of African and Asian Languages, Kresge Hall 356, Northwestern University, Evanston IL 60208 USA
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RAMI NAIR rnair@northwestern.edu Phone: 847-467-7581 Address: Dept. of African and Asian Languages, Kresge Hall 356, Northwestern University, Evanston IL 60208 USA |
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Education:
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, 1986-87
Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw, Poland., M.A. 1992 Polish Government Scholarship University President's Award for Academic Merit, four years.
Dept. of Linguistics, Northwestern University, Ph.D 1998. Thesis: Syllables and Word Edges
Employment:
1998- Lecturer, Dept. of African and Asian Languages, Northwestern University.
Publications and Presentations:
Current Courses: Hindi I, Hindi II
Languages: English, Polish, Hindi, Russian, French, Punjabi
In the News: The Daily Northwestern, 1998
Vishal Vaid wants to be able to talk with his grandmother. Now that university administrators have announced they are offering Hindi, her native language, Vaid may be able to do just that.
The search for a Hindi language teacher is over, said Chris Herbert, associate dean of Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Rami Nair, a Ph.D. candidate in linguistics at Northwestern, has been hired to teach at least one section of beginning Hindi this fall, Herbert said Monday. Another section might be added if student demand is high enough.
Students, some of whom have been lobbying the administration for Hindi classes for several years, do not see demand as an issue.
"I don't see that second class not happening," said Vaid, a McCormick freshman. As political action/outreach chairman for the South Asian Student Alliance, he has talked to many people who want to take Hindi classes, he said "There's going to be a pretty hefty wait list," Vaid said.
Manu Bhardwaj, Associated Student Government academic vice president, said ASG has been working with SASA and the Asian American Advisory Board to pressure the administration to hire a teacher for Hindi classes. "All these student groups worked so hard," said Bhardwaj, a Weinberg sophomore."All ASG did was lobby for (the students') concerns." Students have petitioned, called and sent e-mail messages to the administration, he said. "Millions and millions of people speak this language," Bhardwaj said. "It's about time we got it."
Students will need permission of the department to sign up for the beginning class, said Richard Lepine, director of the Program of African and Asian Languages. If enough students show some knowledge of Hindi during advance registration, an intermediate class could be added, Lepine said. Each class could hold up to 15 students. "Although we're only offering first-year in 1998-99, we're expecting it to be a successful program," Lepine said. He said Hindi could be expanded to be a full two-year program in fall of 1999.
Administrators have discussed adding Hindi for about a year, and requests from students was one of the factors considered, Herbert said. "This college administration is keen to be responsive to the educational needs of students," he said. The prospect of adding a Hindi language program was first brought to the administration in Spring Quarter 1995 by Leading Opportunities Towards Understanding and Solutions, a group that split out of the former Indian Students Association, said Sumi Pendakur, former chairwoman of AAAB. At that time, the administration decided to offer Korean and hold off on Hindi, said Pendakur, a Weinberg senior.
In the 1995-96 school year, students who were fluent in Hindi volunteered to teach student-organized seminars in the language. The classes were filled to capacity during the two quarters they were offered, Pendakur said. Although Pendakur will be graduating this June, she said she is "super excited" that Hindi will be offered next fall. "(Studying new languages) leads to more cross-cultural understanding," said Pendakur, whose family is from South India. "Or let's say it's an Indian or a Pakistani student -- we're given the tools to understanding more about ourselves."
Students involved in lobbying the administration said they were encouraged Monday after seeing results. "The university has to be commended for their responsiveness," Bhardwaj said. "You can only hope for the same thing in developing programs like Asian-American studies."