Sanskrit Study and Practice Club

As an alternative to my Pali Study Club, 

this is a flexible and adaptable language learning program for Sanskrit. 

In its standard form this program offers live online Sanskrit learning with a senior Sanskrit teacher, including one weekly private lesson (scheduled individually), and one group session per week. Group sessions are mainly on Saturdays, 13-14 PM CET (Brussels Time), 20-21 PM SGT (Singapore Time) - but groups often arrange other timings by mutual agreement.

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what this is

This Sanskrit learning & practice club combines students and practitioners of all ages (children, adults, seniors) and all levels (beginners to advanced). Everybody can join at any time, there is no prior knowledge of Sanskrit or any other Indic language required.

There are two learning moments every week:

1 weekly one-on-one session or tutorial

These sessions are scheduled by the students and the teacher, in timeboxes that are convenient for both. During the one-on-one sessions, the students get help and make great progress in precisely the areas that suit their individual learning needs. Students get assignments and work at their own pace and their own level.

2 weekly live online club meeting 

Students are also expected to attend a weekly live online club meeting. 
Club meetings are festive occasions where you meet fellow Sanskrit enthusiasts - with play, games, dialogues, quizzes, practice, calligraphy, chanting, reading - and an occasional brief lesson on a certain topic.

join this program and expect to

~ meet like-minded people in an online learning group, with lots of peer-to-peer learning and cooperative exploration
~ have an experienced, senior Sanskrit practitioner and teacher at hand to assist you with every issue and help you find answers to every question
~ progress in small iterations, using a unique, playful, and no-nonsense, "exformative" methodology - with no more than two hours a week of work, one in a one-on-one setting, another in a mixed group setting.
~ learn how to read and write the Devanagari script, and/or, if you already know the Devanagari letters, practice Sanskrit calligraphy
~ learn or refresh the basics of Sanskrit, just enough to have a go at simple narrative riddles, mantras, shlokas, animal fables, philosophical treatises, or adventure stories
~ get learning guidance with samples of text of your own choice
~ learn and practice some basics of conversational Sanskrit

methodology

We use a no-nonsense, immersive learning approach, inspired by exformative learning (Francis Laleman, 2020), and by the work of the revolutionary linguist and language teacher Jan Marius Hoogvliet (1903), aka The Man Who Knew Too Much (Noordergraaf, 2002).

To find out more about our exformative learning approach, check out this book.

the facilitator

Francis Laleman lives with his family alongside the green corridor in Singapore, where he loves to watch tropical birds from his window. Originally from Belgium, he started teaching Sanskrit, Pali, and Historical Buddhism in the late 1970s - before he moved from academics to social work to become an experimental, non-formal educationalist, a train-the-trainer, train-the-facilitator, train-the-teacher, and a teacher of Agile philosophy and frameworks. Francis picked up teaching Sanskrit again with the first lockdown in March 2020, and has been developing a new, unique online learning Sanskrit method to cater for a variety of students and practitioners from all over the world. 

series & iterations

For their individual sessions, students can pick from the following modules (according to personal interest) - or suggest texts and topics of their own.

SKT1 Write what you hear and draw: Devanagari script for beginners (the basics) and the advanced (calligraphy)
SKT2 For storytellers and educators: Animal fables from the Panchatantra and other sources
SKT3 The blessings of loving-kindness: Buddhist texts 
SKT4 Who knows? - The Nasadiya Sukta from Rigveda and other pieces from India's argumentative tradition
SKT5 Yoga sutras for yoga practitioners and yoga teachers
SKT6 For the adventurous: Small-time crooks: stories from Kathasaritsagara and Dashakumaracharitam

For the group sessions, expect a lively interchange with other students from all over the world, practice spoken Sanskrit, learn about unexpected topics, and participate in games, dialogues, play, and other forms of interaction.

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how to register

1 = Free first lesson (one-on-one, 30 mins., schedule by appointment)

Book a free first intake session. This typically takes a half hour. We get to know each other and explore your individual learning path. If all goes well, we discuss a mutually convenient schedule for our weekly one-on-ones. 

2 = Buy a self-chosen number of learning credits at 15 € each. You can also buy 20 learning credits and get one free.

You need two learning credits for each one-on-one lesson - and one learning credit to attend a weekly live online club meeting.

This means you will typically need three learning credits per week - but you can move on at a slower pace if you want.

If you are an organizer, riding the Ticket Tailor train through our affiliate link provides us with a small incentive at no extra cost to you.

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