You may have known about the Sanskrit language under many contexts like yogic mantras, religious texts, and so on. If you grew up in India, you may have even learned the basics of the language in school. Yet, a very small number of people in the world know the incredibly beneficial effects Sanskrit language learning can have on you, and it goes far beyond just yoga and religion. These positive impacts are shown to be even more on kids as their brains are still in the developing stage.
Sanskrit language learning has been crippled so far mostly by bad teaching. It is one of the most structured languages in the world and resembles Mathematics in many ways. Its grammatical rules and sentence structures are more like mathematical equations which are to be derived from learned formulas, and not memorized. Therefore, the correct teaching method of Sanskrit for beginners will mostly differ from the teaching procedure of other languages. So if you have learned Sanskrit in school and hated it, it was probably because of the bad teaching, rather than the language itself.
Sanskrit, when learned in the right way, ceases to be just a language, but becomes a way of life; giving rise to several advantageous consequences for your child:
Sanskrit itself is an amazing language. Just by learning it, a kid develops better linguistic capabilities.
Sanskrit is known as "the perfect language" for being one of the world's most organized languages. No other language in the world has alphabets that follow as scientific a pattern as this, and no other language has grammatical rules that are so well-structured. Words and their contexts guide the language. Each word is aware of its roots and often refers back to them, resulting in a smooth relation between the word and its context. As a result, each word conveys an expression without ambiguity when used correctly in a sentence. This linguistic clarity is critical in the formative years.
Almost all Indian languages, as well as a significant number of South Asian and Southeast Asian languages, have their roots in Sanskrit. What is more, Sanskrit has several phonetic, grammatical, and even scriptural similarities with archaic European languages like Greek and Latin. Thus numerous words in the languages derived from these, such as English, French, Spanish, etc. also demonstrate parallels with Sanskrit. According to many scholars, an expert in Sanskrit can understand and master every other language easily. So if someone learns Sanskrit well as a child, not only will he/she be better at other languages in school, but will also be quicker to grasp languages as an adult.
Ancient India produced many of the world's greatest writers, authors, scientists, astronomers, mathematicians, historians, health practitioners, philosophers, and other great minds. Since Sanskrit was the official language of the land at the time, their pioneering ideas were compiled in this language. Unfortunately, only a small portion of these have been deciphered to date due to an insufficient number of Sanskrit scholars. Worse still, some of these scriptures have been incorrectly translated or even twisted.
A kid will be able to grow up learning about the vast inventions and wisdom of the land by understanding these themselves. This will help in the following ways-
As stated earlier, Sanskrit is one of the world's most systematic languages. At its base, it has a few fundamental formulas that must be understood and everything else can be deduced using them. To speak or write Sanskrit, one must make quick decisions and perform these grammatical derivations in one's head. Furthermore, students must memorize a large number of shlokas and stotras for learning to create Sanskrit literature.
The benefits of the abovementioned type of learning extend beyond the ability to write and communicate in Sanskrit. Some scientists have reported a strong correlation between learning the language and the development and maturation of a child’s brain. Improved critical thought, language comprehension, verbal memory retention skills, and decision-making have all been linked to the process of gaining a better command of the language. It has also been suggested that learning Sanskrit, particularly at a young age, improves a child's reading comprehension and speed.
Sanskrit alphabets originate directly from the chakras in the human body. This makes it the ideal language for creating "mantras", or sound tools that invoke energy vibrations, which have a long history of having calming and meditative effects on one’s mind. A child that grows up chanting Sanskrit mantras is seen to have a higher concentration power than its peers.
As previously mentioned, kids may grow an aversion towards Sanskrit because of bad teachers. Moreover, misinformation, wrongly being associated with a particular religion, other languages being more prevalent, and many such reasons have made a major portion of the world believe that Sanskrit is a dead language and there is no future scope for it. Both of these drive parents not to give Sanskrit language learning much importance.
However, the reality lies poles apart from this. With the right teaching techniques, the language will become simple and clear for you; you won’t have to worry about how to learn Sanskrit easily ever again. Furthermore, the advancement in technology has also made it possible for several learn Sanskrit apps to emerge which have embraced several innovative techniques, including gamification, to teach Sanskrit so that both children and adults can enjoy the process of learning the language. Besides, contrary to popular belief, a kid who chooses to be an expert in the language, has a long list of brilliant career options before him/her after graduation.
Anthropologists learn about different cultures, languages, and social groups from all over the world. They could look at antiques and documents to gain a deeper understanding of the past. Knowing Sanskrit will be beneficial to an anthropologist working in an area of the world where the language is spoken or studied, especially ancient India. They can come across old writings or objects containing Sanskrit, which they will need to decipher. Anthropologists typically require a master's or doctoral degree in the field.
Being in academia is certainly one of the best choices for a Sanskrit graduate. One can purely be involved in researching the language, its derivatives, its history, and many such areas. They can teach the language in universities, colleges, and schools as well. An additional degree in Education along with Sanskrit is recommended for a higher-paid teaching position.
When it comes to dubbing/translating something from one language to another, interpreters and translators play a critical role. They are extremely important because they can translate scriptures, books, and articles to reach out to a larger audience. When it comes to Sanskrit, these scholars are highly in demand for reasons discussed earlier.
Technical writers are in charge of writing technical documents, instruction manuals, and how-to guides, among other things. Sometimes they are even required to write books, question papers in Sanskrit for teaching in schools, colleges, or tuitions. Academic content writers may be needed to solve a huge pile of assignments for a Sanskrit language course as well. These writers are paid pretty well and rarely need a professional degree in the language. So a kid can learn the language via the previously mentioned learn Sanskrit apps after growing up too, and get these jobs.
The Sanskrit speaking population in the world has somewhat increased in the past few years and sometimes companies receive such clients. So BPOs now include candidates who can communicate in Sanskrit, for voice profiles. In most cases, such profiles include answering questions and resolving problems for the Sanskrit-speaking population.
As you can see, the notion that a kid doesn’t need Sanskrit education is completely false, along with the other common belief that Sanskrit language learning is difficult. If after learning about the benefits, you are wondering how to learn Sanskrit easily yourself, or you want your kid to learn it, but his/her school lacks the facilities; you don’t need to search very hard. You will find many Sanskrit training courses available as well as plenty of learning Sanskrit apps that teach Sanskrit for all ages and levels - Sanskrit for beginners as well as intermediate and advanced.
