Landour Language School, Mussoorie

bijapuri

Last month I spent 5 weeks at the Landour Language School (LLS). Here's my take on the place.



1. It's located above Mussoorie, in an extremely quiet, peaceful setting. it's too far from Mussorie town to stay there, but there are several places to stay within walking distance. Dev Dar Woods, Wolfburn, Ivy Bank and a few others all provide room and board for aboput rs.350, or a bit more.

2. LLS offers Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu. The full course is three months long, but it's not uncommon for people to take as little as a week or two of classes.

3. Fees are hourly, based on the number of hours you take, with a maximun of four, although the occasional student crams in 5. Tutors that suppliment the courses by offering conversational tutoring can be found in Char Dukhan, the nearest hamlet, for Rs.50. Fees at present are Rs.150 per hour. Classes are booked in weekly segments- Mon-Fri, although again, some teachers will suppliment their income with weekend classes.

4.Signup for classes is best done on Wed-Fri before the next week of classes, although they will make an effort if you show up on a Monday morning to fit you in. You won't get the teachers or the hours you want that way, so I recommend you arrive mid-week befor you start, and sing up, pick a lodge, and get settled and ready for the next week's classes.

5.Classes are individual tutoring, although if you arrive with someone at your level, you can share. What you learn is up to you. If you simply want a few weeks conversational, they'll oblidge. If you're a serious student (?) they'll "throw the book at you." This is their very own Hindi textbook, in its third edition. (LLS is over 100 yrs old now). It is recommended that you start with learning the script, which takes about 2 weeks. I also recommend it. In fact, it's about all I learned, hahaha . . . but I'm old and stoopid, and an old ganja smoker back in the day, so expectations were low Their standard approach is very heavy on grammar and correct, formal Hindi, but those who went further than me mostly stated that about halfway through the course, it really picks up and becomes less grammar and more fun. I dunno, but I believe it.

6.Some teachers are better than others. You can request a teacher either be assigned or not assigned, and take advantage of it, everyone does it. When there, it was generally agreed that the worst teacher was H***b. . But most of the teachers are quite good.

7.The biggest drawback was that in the lodges one tends to speak european languages. Although I was pleasantly surprised at how articulate and interesting a crowd goes halfway 'round the world to study, there was this drawback.

Bottom line- Recommended, at any level one cares to learn. From conversational to post-graduate, it's a great place.

Their phone is:
91 135 2631467
Ask for Mr. Dutt, principal.

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Samsara

Thanks for the useful tips, Bij. So it seems if you already know very basic beginners Hindi you can still turn up there and get tuition from the stage you're at? I'ld really like to spend a few weeks at Landour. I've done Hindi 1 and 11 already through Open Learning Australia. To any Aussies that's a great course as you can do it at home and it's open to anyone. I've got up to being able to write and read the script and really really basic grammar and vocab.

Erbaspina

I'd like to go to LLS next February for a couple of weeks ... i wonder how cold it could be?

SHIMLA

Chilly !!! Mussoorie may experience snowfall during February. You must first find out if the school functions during winter(Dec. to Feb.)

To add to the above, LP's 10th edition of "India" mentions that the school is open from Feb. 9 to Dec.11.

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jgbrowning

Thanks for the information. Suzi and I were wondering about the school and couldn't get much information from the net. We're planning on being in Shimla around then and we could just as easily be near Mussoorie.

Thanks again!

joe b.

Erbaspina

D'oh!

But it should be open by February.
I found some useful information here

http://www.hindisite.com/

have a look!

Amrita

do you know if they teach sanskrit..
I want to learn sanskrit while in India but cannot find a place that teaches it.

?!

Erbaspina

I've no clue ... really sorry!

chappal

here are a few results from google:

http://imp.lss.wisc.edu/~gbuhnema/study.html#India

http://intcent.unipune.ernet.in/site/departments.htm

http://www.languages-on-the-web.com/...k-sanscrit.htm

CatRiddell

according to the language school text book, they do teach sanskrit here. i'm sure there'd be someone who could teach you

as for coming in feb, well we're in the last 3 weeks of term here now and it's b***dy freezing, but during the day the sun is pretty hot and lessons are outside (my nose is sunburnt), and even inside if you invest in a 100 rupee shawl from the market, it's like wearing a duvet so it's ok...

plus the cold months are good as the mountains are clearest, and they're stunning

the school reopens in feb, but i'm not sure when. if that doesn't suit, some of the teachers will do private lessons over the break, so it's best to ring Mr Dutt anyway.

i've been nothing but impressed!

Samsara

Wow, I really want to go there. How long do students usually stay? Is two months the recommended stay?

beebah

In terms of accomodation you might well be able to get private accomodation in some of the places I mentioned if you'll be staying a while but you might well have to go there to find out I would be very surprised if there is absolutely no accomodation available when you get there.

As far as lessons go, yes it is a pain when big groups of U.S. students show up but the school does it's best to squeeze everyone in. If they are REALLY full then you might be able to share a class with another student. Normally the classes are one to one but the American college students are divided up into small groups and I seem to remember they only had classes in the mornings.

Class allocation works like this: every wednesday you hand in a form saying how many classes you'd like a day for the next week, with which teachers and at which times. They will try to organise it so everybody gets at least some lessons. If you're more serios about your studies and ask for more lessons then I think they may take that into account. Let them know in advance when you're coming and ask whether it would be possible to take lessons when you arrive.

there are also one or two other people, not associated with the school, who do one to one basic conversation classes. The one lady I met was not a trained teacher but was very nice I didn't have any lessons with her so I don't know how good she is. I'm sure the people studying there will be able to tell you more.

On another point I should say that I rather liked the aloo paranthas from anil's tea stall, the pizzas made by Bikram at Devdat Woods and the cheese, cinnamon rolls (made by Bikram from a dough not entirely unlike that of the pizza base) and peanut butter at Prakash stores.

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sara45

Hi,

I going to Landour Language school for a 6 month stay. If anyone has been there recently can you tell me the good teachers, places to stay and what they offer. Is there shopping nearby (I'm not taking clothes). Also, what's the safest way to get there from Delhi airport. What type of students attend that school...Americans, Indians...? Are there many opportunities to practice my Hindi, or only with the tutor? Most importantly, are there lots of spiders there? Thanks

Lugubert

Not recently (1 month, 3 years ago). If you're lucky, Mr. Dinkar Rai will still be alive (he smoked an awful lot of bidis) and teaching. There was one woman teacher, slightly older than most others (Urmila?), who wasn't half bad, and one other woman who was useful. And a slew of kind but perfectly useless youngish boys. It would be an insult to the profession to call them teachers.

The nearby Rokeby guesthouse is very Christian, meal prayers etc. It should have been extensively renovated by now, but who knows. From where I stayed, the Ivy Bank Guest House, it was a very steep and not too short walk to the school. Nice rooms, lousy food.

Apart from us 8 university students from Sweden, there was a significant presence of Korean people in training for missionary work.

Shopping is avaliable, but far away from the school and the accomodations mentioned.

Locals were very friendly. Very soon, we were identified, and there was lots of namaste's when walking past shops. Good tailor brothers (but slow). You will probably have no problem in finding patient people for trying out your Hindi.

I can't remember having seen a spider.

There are good train connections from Delhi to Dehra Dun. From there, I suppose there are buses, or take a taxi.

beebah

I feel it's only fair to say that yes there are spiders. they're not dangerous, but they have long legs. I think it's quite likely you'll see one or two but you shouldn't be afraid of them.

I thkn it's inportant to point out that how useful the teachers are depends on how much Hindi you already know. They have a book from which they teach which starts fom absolute beginners level and all of the teachers know how to teach from this but outside tht only one or two are really good, but alot also has to do with how you get on with them.The only teacher I'd reccomend you don't opt for is Habib as he is a good table tennis player but pretty useless at teaching.

Mussoorie's is a honeymoon town so there are shops selling all sorts of fancy things as well as the local bazaar. That's all a little way from the school but as the bazaar is all one long road there's not much problems finding anyhting!

There's more about Landour on a previous thread - I posted a link to it in an earlier post in this thread.