2 days ago
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From a non-native, who once struggled to speak Kannada, to building an online community that helps thousands learn the language, 24-year-old Sakshi Baid’s journey is all about ‘More Than Kannada Gottilla’.
Originally from Mumbai, Ms. Baid moved to Bengaluru three years ago to pursue her engineering degree. Fluent in six languages already- Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, English, French, and German, she assumed Kannada too would come easily. But once she arrived, the city felt like a new world and conversations at markets, bus stops, and shops seemed out of reach. Language, she said, became the first wall between her and the city she wanted to know better.
Her curiosity about Karnataka began with everyday questions - why so many localities in Bengaluru ended with ‘halli’, how Karnataka got its name, and what made Kannada sound so distinct. Gradually, that curiosity turned into determination to learn the language. In the beginning, she said there were no simple resources for beginners, so she decided to teach herself.
Speaking to The Hindu, Ms. Baid said she ordered nearly 20 Kannada books such as learning Indian and regional languages and began studying Kannada on her own. But most of what she found was too formal to use in daily life. Written Kannada, she said, was as different from spoken Kannada as Shakespearean English is from everyday English. So, she turned the language into her everyday habits - watching Kannada films with subtitles, listening to how people spoke while buying vegetables or travelling by autorickshaw, and noting down phrases she could use later.
However, confidence and not grammar or pronunciation, she said, was the hardest part of learning a language. “Speaking in front of native speakers felt more challenging than memorising grammar or pronunciation. While a few laughed at early attempts, most people encouraged to keep going, an experience that made me understand the warmth and pride Kannadigas felt for their language,” Ms. Baid added.
In February 2024, Ms. Baid launched her Instagram page, ‘More Than Kannada Gottilla’, as a way to share simple, conversational Kannada lessons with other non-Kannadigas. Her videos were short and practical - teaching the phrases one might need to talk to a neighbour, a shopkeeper, or a cab driver and help people feel at home in a city that may feel foreign because of language barriers.
The idea struck a chord. Within months, her page grew to over 3.9 lakh followers, attracting not just newcomers to Bengaluru but also native Kannadigas who appreciated her efforts to promote their language. Many began helping her correct pronunciations and suggest better phrases, making the page a small online community of learners and teachers, she said.
Over time, the page became more than a hobby, when Ms. Baid realised there was a genuine need for structured, accessible learning tools for Indian languages. She has now recently registered her own company in Bengaluru, ‘Bolo Boli’, which is an ed-tech venture that aims to create learning platforms for regional languages.
‘Bolo’ means speak, and ‘Boli’ means dialect, she said.
Through Bolo Boli, she plans to formalise what began on social media into proper online and offline courses. The first module, a foundation-level Kannada course, will cover vocabulary, self-introductions, pronunciation, and numbers. If funding works out, she intends to bring local Kannada experts on board and open physical learning centres for the language.
The long-term plan is to expand the model to other regional languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia, and Bengali, she said.
“The divide between English and regional languages needs to fade. Speaking English is not a symbol of pride, and speaking a local language should never be seen as a limitation,” she said, adding that through her work, she hopes to make regional languages accessible, modern, and equally valued in public spaces and workplaces.
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