Professor Srijan Kumar
The Journey From A Scholar to
A Hindi-Teaching Professor
India's vast land has a variety of philosophies and cultures. However, Korea still has few experts in Indian culture. Last year, a Korean YouTuber was researching an unknown culinary method regarding Indian street food. They had been looking for the related background information about the food for almost a month, but they could not get the correct information. Luckily, Professor Srijan Kumar was able to help the YouTuber complete their video of Indian street food. On top of that, it turned out that he is a scholar and has a Ph.D. in Korean Language Education. Even though teaching Hindi was not his major, he decided to follow his passion for education and teach Hindi here at BUFS, rejecting job offers from other businesses. Therefore, The Woeseong Times hit the road to listen to his story of being a scholar and his time with the YouTuber.
Q1. Could you please introduce yourself and what you do?
A.I am Srijan Kumar from India, and I have been teaching Hindi at the Department of Indian Business Studies at Busan University of Foreign Studies for nine years. I am also in charge of a course for those not majoring in the Department of Indian Business Studies to introduce Indian culture and history. I am currently working on a Korean-Foreign Language Parallel Corpus Construction Project with the National Institute of Korean Language.
Q2. You won the Global Korea Scholarship back in 2008. Could you tell us the story about how you came to study your Ph. D in Korea?
A.I first did my Bachelor's degree in Korean Language in India before I was awarded a scholarship to study in Korea. I studied Korean from 2005 to 2008 at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi. After receiving the Korean Government's Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) in 2008, I came to Korea for one year of language training and to do a Master's program. I did my Master's degree in Korean Language Education at Kyung Hee University (KHU) in Seoul from 2009 to 2012. When I was a student there, I participated in the 2015 NonJangPan Competition, where foreign and Korean students presented a historical figure in Korea. My team's theme was Heo-Jun, a prominent physician of the Joseon Dynasty in Korea, and we won the first prize. After getting my Master's degree, I was again awarded the GKS to study for a Ph.D. course in 2012. While doing my Ph.D. at KHU, I got an offer to teach at BUFS in 2013. That was when I started teaching Hindi here.
Q3. Would you like to advise students applying for scholarships to study abroad?
A.Some students become serious in their fourth year. It would be best to explore what scholarship programs are available in your target country starting from the second or third year. In addition, be informed of what requirements you need, such as an English test score, when you are in your second year. That way, you can leapfrog other students who do not have the right information. Even though you may only be preparing for one university, you can use the application for all other universities with slight changes based on each university's requirements.
Lastly, many students think that scholarships are for the intelligent only; however, scholarships are for everyone who is prepared. Many students assume they will not get the scholarship and do not even bother applying for it. Do not ever underestimate yourself, but instead just go for it. In my case, it was almost impossible to get the GKS to study for a Ph.D. at that time because the process was different from the one for a Master's degree. But I tried and got it again. No one knows the future.
Q4. Were there any challenges you faced when you started teaching Hindi here in Korea?
A.When I was offered the Hindi teaching job at BUFS, I had to teach my native language to Koreans. Although my research works during my MA and Ph.D. were all related to the contrastive study of Korean and Hindi languages, I actually studied how to teach Korean to foreigners. The challenge was walking through the Hindi grammar before diving into my job at BUFS. Even if you are a native speaker, explaining the difference between two similar sentences can still be challenging. Nevertheless, teaching Hindi was not that hard, thanks to what I learned in my major because the method of teaching foreign languages is identical, the only difference is the content. In addition, my experience as a language learner helped me guess what kind of questions my students were likely to ask, and it helped me a lot.
Q5. When does teaching Hindi here at BUFS feel most rewarding to you?
A.I feel rewarded when I correct misleading information or prejudices about India. When I talk to Koreans, their knowledge of India is sometimes inaccurate. When I correct the misleading information, and they understand the cultural difference, I feel I am doing something for both Korean and Indian society. Besides that, I also felt rewarded when one of my students won first place in a Hindi-speaking contest in Seoul. That was also a proud moment.
Q6. I heard that you helped a YouTuber with their video on unknown Indian street foods. Thanks to your assistance, the YouTuber could complete the video. How did you help them?
A.They had contacted me many times while I was very busy working on the project with the National Institute of Korean Language. However, when I saw the reference from the YouTuber, I thought I should help them. The reference was a video of a guy who cooks grains with heated sand. It was interesting that they could not find any information because it is a familiar culinary method in my area. It gives the grains a nutty flavor which you cannot get when they are cooked with oil.
Although those foods are sold in metropolitan areas like New Delhi, only citizens from rural areas in India can really explain the cultural background of it. That is why I decided to help the YouTuber, even though I am usually not that interested in these kind YouTube videos. I did not realize their YouTube channel was quite famous in Korea. But after I gave them an interview and the video came out, many people contacted me, saying they had seen the video with my interview and it was very informative.
Q7. Could you share some authentic aspects of Indian culture that you would like to introduce?
A.First, you have two ways to say hello in India. One is bowing, and the other one is saying "Namaste." Indians believe that everyone has a soul, a part of the supreme divine. So, the meaning of Namaste is "I respect the divine inside you." That is why we say "Namaste" when we say hello or goodbye.
Second, the reason Indians avoid eating beef is connected to the philosophy that the female cow is like Mother Earth (called 'Gau Mata/mother cow' in India). When India was an agricultural society, having one cow in your family could help you fulfill life's necessities. The cow provided milk for newborn babies in case we ran out of breast milk. Still, in India, newborn babies are given cow's milk only. Cow dung was also used as an organic fuel, as well as organic fertilizer. After the cow died, its bones were used to make accessories. So, donating a cow was almost equal to donating a life. Thus, saving cows was considered as saving nature, as well as humanity. These philosophical and mythological reasons are associated with why we do not eat beef.
Q8. Do you have any plans after the fall semester?
A.First of all, I have to wrap up my project. Then, I plan to travel if I do not have any work to do during the vacation. Traveling is essential in my life as a language learner, which gives me acceptance of others and good exposure to various cultures.
Q9. Do you have anything to say to BUFSians in the Department of Indian Business Studies?
A.Learning a language is a gradual process, not a one-day job. In an Indian book, there is a saying: "We should always work without expecting the outcome." You cannot achieve it by cramming, so studying gradually for two or three hours per day is enough. Give yourself enough time, about six months to a year.
Lastly, I tell my students that, 17 years ago, I used to be a student just like them who sat at the desk in the lecture room. Thus, I understand how my students feel. When I started learning Korean, it was difficult to speak even one sentence. But constant hard work made me speak Korean fluently. Many foreigners speak Korean fluently. So ask yourself why can you not learn and speak a foreign language. It is very much possible since you have already mastered one language, namely your mother tongue, and I am sure you can learn another language as well.