Fun-filled podcast for non-Kannada speakers

Bengaluru: A new podcast for migrants is teaching people to speak Kannada and promoting Bengaluru-Kannada at the same time. If you are still struggling with learning Kannada even after several years and have exhausted every resource available, you should check out the Kannada Gothilla podcast on Spotify.

It all started when Aakash Athawasya asked his Bangalorean friend Arvind Krishna to teach him the language. Despite having lived in the city, Aakash is not really fluent in the language as many of us. What started as video-call sessions between two friends soon transformed into an educational podcast for the internet, The duo said that they chose podcast as the medium due to its low production expenses.

When they started talking to people sharing the same troubles, they realised two things. One, there were many resources for reading and writing but very few for spoken Kannada. Second, there is no efficient resource targeted for adults. "We learnt that most people don't necessarily want to learn to read and write, they just want to learn conversational Kannada," said Aakash.

He added that these resources were also targeted towards children, these were oriented towards teaching Kannada from the basics. But, they wanted to create a new Kannada resource for the adults where they can simply skip to the end and can learn conversations they can use in their daily life.

The duo started the podcast Kannada Gothilla last May and have continued to successfully produce episodes that are essentially your starter kits for short conversations within various scenarios. The conversations range from what you should tell your delivery partner to talking to BBMP authorities to Kannada chants for the Indian Cricket team. The podcast is an absolute lifesaver for someone new to the city.

The strength of the podcast is the chemistry between the duo. Aakash who is himself is a non-Kannada speaker understands the problems faced by them and Arvind who is a Bangalorean who is fluent in the language is capable of teaching it efficiently.

"In addition to creating a resource, we wanted to create something that could be easily retained in memory. We decided to push out content through three social media platforms - Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and made flashcards for various episodes," said Aakash.

While teaching Kannada, they also promote the Bengaluru -Kannada. "In Bengaluru, we have a fun dialect that is similar slightly variant from some districts. The Kannada we speak in the city is interspersed with English words. We didn't feel like there was a need to replace these words with their Kannada words as the locals are usually familiar with these words. Words like 'result' and 'bus-pass' are part of common parlance," said Arvind.

They further plan on exploring Bengaluru culture and history and then move on to other dialects and districts.