Students and the importance of English

Is it really necessary to perfect your English accent and pronunciation to be successful in life? A lot of young students worry a lot about their ability to pronounce English words with the perfect accent even before learning how to speak well. I was speaking to this young Marwari boy who came and introduced himself this week. He was working, doing his undergrads and pursuing a professional course all at the same time. He wanted some guidance with language learning materials. He could converse in English but he wanted to reach a standard which would allow him to make excellent business presentations. In college he did not get any chance to converse in English, nobody spoke the language in private conversations. Since his friends were mostly Marwaris their medium of communication was their native language. Though the college had a cosmopolitan environment it was full of similar regional groups where students from each community stuck to their own groups. So the conversations amongst friends were in native languages with a mix of Hinglish/Benglish etc etc.

He spoke to me in English and I found he was able to get his message through pretty comfortably. On enquiry I discovered that his company was into automobile business and their clients were foreigners. He had discovered that his way of pronouncing English words was different from theirs. He was uncomfortable and wanted to perfect his speaking skills. While I guided him to resources that he could use I also tried to tell him that success in securing business deals does not depend on perfecting English accents. Most Indians including the President of India demonstrate very strong influences of MTI in their speech. That does not affect performance. I realised that the boy was after perfection and was ambitious.

In West Bengal many courses are taught in the vernacular medium at the higher level. While there is no harm in doing that the problem lies elsewhere. English being the link language in India students who are unable to communicate in English are clearly at a disadvantage when they have to face anything at the national level. Two young students writing a project on IP rules and libraries met me this week with a long questionnaire. Both looked equally bright but the conversation was carried out by one fellow only. The second fellow sat tongue-tied in front of me. The questionnaire was in English and I discovered soon that the second boy could barely frame a sentence in English. I had to intervene and tell him to ask his questions in the language he was comfortable in so that he could also participate in the discussions. He could read and write reasonably well but was unable to speak beyond rudimentary sentences. The students had to make a presentation at a university in Hyderabad .Though it was a joint paper only one contributor with English speaking ability would be able to face the mixed audience there while the other would have to stay behind. If only the boy could make his presentation in Bengali he would have been able to shine. I could feel the young man’s frustration when he spoke to me. Even students who came to study with an English medium schooling lose their speaking fluency during their term in college due to lack of practice. It is unfortunate that institutions expect students to perform in English at national forums while conducting lessons in the vernacular in regular classes.

Here in a week I witnessed two variations of the same problem. In the first case the boy was aspiring to acquire high level English speaking skills to face an international audience in order to make business presentations .In the second the boy had hardly any speaking ability and was unable to take his thoughts across to an external audience at the national level. In both the cases the academic institutions did not have anything to offer to help students to meet such practical requirements. Majority of our learners at institutions of higher education do not get any scope to practise existing skills or acquire skills required for the job market / professional world. Though it is not always necessary to have excellent language abilities to do well in life but the demands of the professional world are such that at times it can be really tough in India if a bright person who lacks the necessary skill wants to move on in life.  I feel sad when I imagine the scale of such lost opportunities in a country like ours.