Mastering Telugu is a challenge even to native users of the language.
Telugu has some unique features. For instance, every word ends in a vowel. The language has 57 alphabets, of which five are in disuse. Even so, it is ahead of most other Indian languages in terms of the total number of alphabets.
But for the 2000-strong Telugu -speaking diaspora spread across the Greater Wellington region, this is no deterrent.
The Wellington Telugu Pathasala opened on Telugu New Year Day (Ugaadi) on 6 April 2019 in Lower Hutt, with eight students. The school was an initiative launched by Kameswari and Srikanth Vanka as well as other trustees of the Sanatana Dharma Paripalana Seva Trust of the Venkateswara Swamy temple, located in Wainuiomata, Wellington.
Currently, the school holds hourly online classes every Saturday evening.
At present, the school’s running costs are met by the temple trust. The teachers are volunteers and the students pay no fees.
“We used to have two permanent teachers, including myself,” says Murthy Manchiraju, Principal. “After that teacher left, I’m managing with two relievers.”
Manchiraju says the teaching comprises three 20- minute segments. “The first 20 minutes focus on teaching alphabets and words, the next 20 minutes on stories from the Puranas and major festivals of India and the last 20 minutes are spent on learning padyams or shlokas based on the scriptures.”
As in the case of the Hindi and Tamil language schools previously highlighted by IWK, the Telugu school also uses English as a learning tool to help students born and raised in New Zealand to gain basic proficiency in their mother tongue.
“We ask the students to write the word or letter in English first before moving to the Telugu alphabets. For instance, they learn to write “Amma” (mother) in English before learning to write it in Telugu,” Manchiraju explains.
Adopting the classroom practice followed by its Hindi and Tamil counterparts in Wellington, the Telugu school too encourages its students to consult their parents about popular festivals and share the information in class.
The students actively participate in contests and community events.
In July 2021, the school fielded one of its students in the Bhagavata Padyamula (padyam recitation) competition conducted by the New Zealand Telugu Association, Auckland.
The schoolchildren also sang at the Sri Venkateswara Temple inaugural function in Wellington in 2020.
Manchiraju has earned laurels for the school based on his own credentials.
In 2019, he was recognised as one of the Telugu teaching gurus of New Zealand at a major Telugu literary event held in Auckland.
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