Why "Spoken English Course” is important?:

Why "Spoken English Course” is important?:

On 1st of April 2022, I had an opportunity to share my experiences on "Spoken English" with 1st-7th class students of Sri Vidya Bodhini aided Hr. Pry. School Kedinje, which is a Kannada medium School in Udupi District. I am grateful to the President and members of Makkala Kshemabhivridhi Samithi in particular Rtn. Sri Thukarama Shetty Sir for the invitation and Mr. U. Sheshagiri Kamath-Correspondent and Old Students Association member Mr. Venugopal R Acharya and to Mr. Prathviraj Ballal, Head Master.

(May be a bit overdose to the students!)

Why English language is so important? Yes, English is very important for the reasons I am narrating next, which is based purely on my personal experience. If my mother tongue is Tulu, and I learn only in Tulu, my job prospects are limited to erstwhile Dakshina Kannada district only, i.e. local. In contrast, if I learn Kannada, my work area expands to the state level and I may get job or higher studies or business opportunity in the state of Karnataka i.e., at the regional level. Further, if I learn Hindi, I will have job prospects or business opportunities in several states of India i.e., at the National level. In contrast, if I learn English, my reach is simply global in terms of job prospects, higher studies or business opportunities. Hence it is a movement from local to regional to national to global level.

Now let us come to the point of which language is used by maximum people on the globe. As per 2021 report, English is the language used by 20% of global population for business and other purposes. However, when seen as a mother tongue, the first place goes to Mandarin Chinese, the second is Spanish, the third is English, the fourth is Hindi-Urdu and so on. Now you understand why learning English is so important. Although English is not the preferred language in some European countries, however, now they have made it a medium of instruction in some identified programmes to attract foreign students. So much is the importance of the English language due to the globalized world.

Now let us try to understand about the impact of language on school education. It is essential to have the school education in one’s own mother tongue. It would be easy to understand science and mathematics in mother tongue provided books are available in mother tongue. Let me tell you the difficulty of learning courses in other than mother tongue. As I did part of my PhD work in Europe it was really difficult to suddenly understand the technical words in a foreign language and to have the high proficiency because the schooling in Kannada and English was over a long period of understanding and digesting.

Is it that English everywhere required?:

Let me also tell you, is it necessary to learn a language other than English if you happen to go to a country where English is not the spoken language but is the medium of instruction. Then also, yes, it is very much required to learn the language of that country in which you are the guest for your day-to-day transactions and making your life comfortable there. Let me narrate a funny experience from a European country. In the early nineties, one of the Researchers - an introvert and not mingling with others had faced a problem. As a pre-requisite in that country for making life easy, the first 4 months are devoted for learning the language of that country and then next 1-2 years for research. He was staying alone in some part of the city and used to meet his peers during the intensive language class hours only. During the class break and while on casual discussions, all Indians in the class discussed about breakfast and generally how did they manage their food in that country?. The person, who stayed alone, had vociferously suggested that he had found a delicious item for breakfast and he invited his peers. When they went to his room/house, he served them the breakfast item. They asked for its container. When he brought, there was a big size dog’s picture on the box. Hence he was eating the dog meal for so long. Early nineties, in the absence of Internet (except for email) and at the verge of globalization when mall culture was hardly any in India which was found only in Cosmopolitan cities like Mumbai that also on a very minor scale. Hence when anyone went to an advanced country during those days, it was more like getting used to the self-service in the malls and as the language was not known couldn’t distinguish the food kept in the animal section.

One more thing to be kept in mind is that, if you, as a non-native English speaker when speak to another country citizen in English where English is not the mother tongue, he/she will be more annoyed because they know that your mother tongue is not English, then why are you speaking in English?, which they can’t understand. Hence the antipathy will increase.

Learn Proficiently, Error-free:

Moreover, learning a language error-free is like a connecting bridge. People get connected quickly if we speak their language. The life becomes so easy. If we maintain good body language along with the spoken language, it creates special attraction and the people get much closer to us. Long back there was news in a newspaper quoting Prince Charles that only some Indians and some British speak good English. Learning proficiently will make you bold and create confidence in you to ask questions; Why, How etc. And you will reach greater heights. For all this, hard work is required.

Hence, learn the language with good efforts to minimize the errors. Otherwise you may be embarrassed or others may tease you. Don’t think that those who tease you are experts. Those who tease you, will also have impact of accent of their mother tongue on English/other languages although they think that they are 100% correct in verbal and written English as even some grammar changes or word additions are done in due course by the language experts, which the former may not be aware. This is not to undermine them but to give a realistic assessment. Certainly they are better than others. Hence you are not supposed to make errors or do visible mistakes and become fools in public. That is why you have to set aside all your inhibitions, and give maximum importance to your goal, that is learning the Spoken English.