MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale
South Asian Studies Council

Language Programs

Language Study

The South Asia Council houses a growing program in South Asian languages for undergraduate and graduate students. Currently, we offer instruction in two languages – Hindi and Sanskrit. Students can satisfy their Language requirements at Yale by taking any of these languages.

If there are South Asian languages you want to learn, but don’t see offered at Yale, contact us! We can help you find a teacher through the Center for Language Study, or a summer program where your needs will be met. We also maintain a database of intensive Summer Language programs for South Asian Languages in South Asia and the US.

We can offer some support for summer language programs. Please contact us for more information.

Contact:
Swapna Sharma
Language Program Director, South Asian Studies Council
swapna.sharma@yale.edu

Undergraduate
Graduate
Courses
Language Programs
Hindi
Sanskrit

Language Lectors

South Asian Studies Council
Swapna Sharma
Senior Lector in Hindi; Director, Language Program in South Asian Studies
Swapna Sharma
South Asian Studies Council, Buddhist Studies Initiative
Aleksandar Uskokov
Senior Lector in Sanskrit, South Asian Studies Council; Coordinator, Buddhist Studies Initiative
Aleksandar Uskokov
South Asian Studies Council
Mansi Bajaj
Lector in Hindi, South Asian Studies
Mansi Bajaj

Fulbright Language Teaching Assistant

MacMillan Center
Payal Saini
Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant - Hindi
Academic Year: 2024-25
Payal Saini Headshot

Shared Course Initiative

Columbia, Cornell, and Yale, through a collaborative arrangement to share less commonly taught languages, offer several languages that are not otherwise taught on our campuses via videoconferencing from a partner institution.  These are not “online” computer-based courses.  The courses are taught ‘live’ by an instructor at the sending institution, and students at the receiving institution will be expected to attend a regular class in a designated classroom which is outfitted with videoconferencing technology.  At the receiving end, students will see the teacher and be able to interact via videoconference with him/her and the other class of students.

South Asian languages frequently offered through the Shared Course Initiative include Bengali, Nepali, Punjabi, Sinhala, Tamil, and classical and modern Tibetan.

For further information on the Shared Course Initiative, including current offerings, please visit https://cls.yale.edu/shared-course-initiative.

Directed Independent Language Study

Students wishing to study South Asian languages not offered via Yale instructors or the Shared Course Initiative can consider applying to the Directed Independent Language Study (DILS) program hosted by the Center for Language Study. Through this program, students are connected with a language partner and other resources to pursue language study independently.

South Asian languages studied via DILS have included Urdu, Marathi, and Newari.

For more information on the Directed Independent Language Study program, please visit https://cls.yale.edu/programs/dils.