Is English a phunny language anymore?

I know this has been discussed to death earlier.... However I encountered with the following news.... This way they are creating Call center job as another option for the graduates who cant get into their regular feature job.... But the biggest question is

1. Can a crash course help to teach what so many year's school course could not?

2. How important is English in the era of globalisation?

3. I have seen thais with english knowledge are working at double the salary of those without english knowledge.... Why has english attained such an important status in life of human beings from other countries?

4. What is the difference in written and spoken english.... only confidence level... if the 15-16 years courses in english could not improve your confidence, how will the crash course help it??

5. Is it possible to teach spoken english to a class of over 100 students as is the case in India?

The news is given below.... I would appreciate your comments on above questions and your own inputs on other issues😃

IT'S COSTING JOBS HERE

Originally posted by: kabhi_21

IT'S COSTING JOBS HERE

State introduces certificate courses in spoken English at graduate level

English is a phunny language. When Amitabh Bachchan poked fun at the Queen's language in Namak Halal, we all had a laugh. But now, it turns out, the joke was on us. Alarmed that poor knowledge of English is preventing educated youth from grabbing employment opportunities spawned by an increasingly global economy, the Maharashtra government has decided to introduce a certificate course in spoken English at the graduate level in 80 colleges in Mumbai and the rest of the state. The three-year certificate course will initially be available with BA, B.Com and almost 120 vocational courses. At a later stage, the government could introduce it at all engineering colleges too. "Spoken English is a major stumbling block for our youth in bagging new economy jobs. The situation is so bad that even a BA in English does not have the confidence to apply for a job in a call centre because of his/her lack of command over spoken English," Director, higher education, K M Kulkarni😉😉, told Mumbai Mirror on Monday. (ooohhh that's why this article is more interesting that other similar ones? 😆 ) Kulkarni said engineers and graduates from other professional courses too lose out in the job market because of their poor command over English. There were 40 lakh graduates registered with employment guidance centres in 2005-06. These included 1.51 graduates of Industrial Training Institutes and 47,528 engineering degree and diploma holders. The spoken English certificate course, for which colleges will hire dedicated staff, will be focused on phonetics, presentation and other aspects of spoken English. "Our students have good knowledge of English as far as reading and writing in concerned, but conversing in English is a problem. Studies conducted by the department have revealed that thousands of well-qualified students have missed employment opportunities solely because of this weakness. The certificate course will address this," Kulkarni said. Among the 80 colleges selected for the certificate course, at least 10 will be from Mumbai, he added. Initially, colleges in bigger cities and district headquarters, where English teachers are available, will run the course, said Kulkarni. The fee charged for the course would range between Rs 3,000 to 7,000.

I know this has been discussed to death earlier (To me, it is still better than discussing traditional values! so thanks 👍🏼 ) .... However I encountered with the following news.... This way they are creating Call center job as another option for the graduates who cant get into their regular feature job.... But the biggest question is

1. Can a crash course help to teach what so many year's school course could not?

the school course taught them "to talk english and to walk english.. 😆"

the school course as the other Mr. Kulkarni😉 concurs, teaches usage of grammatically correct english- reading and writing comprehention. whereas, the crash course is all about pronounciating the words American way. Actually, most of the Davids and Tinas and Julias 😆 I have spoken with from mumbai, chennai, tiruchinapalli, were pretty darn good! I guess the crash course does help many. They also must practice speaking the same way in India and probably it is the "IN ACCENT" seemingly. I am noticing that everyone in India speaks a little bit of American lately. In old times, only us sophiates did that 😳.

2. How important is English in the era of globalisation?

very very important in terms of call-center business and we are reaping benefits right now. very many people also believe that chinese is something children should learn as a foreign language anticipating the economic growth of china in future.

3. I have seen thais with english knowledge are working at double the salary of those without english knowledge.... Why has english attained such an important status in life of human beings from other countries?

globalization and majority english speaking corporate culture in the technologically advanced countries is using it for their profit, that's why!

4. What is the difference in written and spoken english.... only confidence level... if the 15-16 years courses in english could not improve your confidence, how will the crash course help it??

Spoken English crash course doesn;t build confidence. It teaches you trendy expression while assisting an american customer. For example, instead of "I beg your pardon", saying "Could you repeat that please" route - RAAOOT, not root, schedule - skejule, not shedule.. things like that.

5. Is it possible to teach spoken english to a class of over 100 students as is the case in India?

😆😆 If everything else is taught that way, why not spoken english.. 😆

The news is given below.... I would appreciate your comments on above questions and your own inputs on other issues😃

Rs. 7000 is nominal fee amount given how much money these people will make once appointed at a call center! There muct be many such Americanization institutes!

mqt

Knowledge is inherent in man; no knowledge comes from outside; it is all inside.
We say Newton discovered gravitation. Was it sitting anywhere waiting for him?
It was in his own mind; the time came and he found it out.
All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind;
the infinite library of the universe is in our own mind.
The external world is simply the suggestion, the occasion, which sets you to study your own mind." Swami Vivekananda

***********************************************************

The above quotation does'nt suit for learning English or anyother course which is a "necessity" for our livelihood or career.Whether we agree or not good English makes a difference.Only good english does'nt fetch anything!!

BTW Knowlege comes like a spark(Valmiki of Ramayana,Kalidas -famous Indian Sanskrit poet acquired knowledge in a spark),may be people can learn English in prescribed days if learnt in a proper manner.The method of learning is important:

cheers,
Mythili

Originally posted by: kabhi_21

I know this has been discussed to death earlier.... However I encountered with the following news.... This way they are creating Call center job as another option for the graduates who cant get into their regular feature job.... But the biggest question is

1. Can a crash course help to teach what so many year's school course could not?

If you observer carefully most of the grown-ups use a fraction of their vocabulary and rampant usage of slangs and idioms makes the crash course relevant.. the call-center guys arent learning the difference bet' plu-perfect tense and the subjunctive form...😆

2. How important is English in the era of globalisation?

Learn english or perish....😆

3. I have seen thais with english knowledge are working at double the salary of those without english knowledge.... Why has english attained such an important status in life of human beings from other countries?

cos of US/Canada/England/Australia/South Africa/New Zealand.. together they form some Queens juggernaut of English.. others dont have a choice..but to accept it.😆

4. What is the difference in written and spoken english.... only confidence level... if the 15-16 years courses in english could not improve your confidence, how will the crash course help it??

As grown-ups you have a less steeper learning curve so.. it might be easy to learn a new language because of your other info

5. Is it possible to teach spoken english to a class of over 100 students as is the case in India?

yes

The news is given below.... I would appreciate your comments on above questions and your own inputs on other issues😃

IT'S COSTING JOBS HERE

State introduces certificate courses in spoken English at graduate level Back to Section Stories

Mail this Article Print this Article Search View Comments Rate this Article Comments Ravikiran Deshmukh <LINK href="https://cms.mumbaimirror.com/tools/bubble.css" type=text/css rel=stylesheet target="_blank"> < src="https://cms.mumbaimirror.com/tools/BubbleTooltips.js" =text/> < =text/>window.onload=function(){enableTooltips()}; English is a phunny language. When Amitabh Bachchan poked fun at the Queen's language in Namak Halal, we all had a laugh. But now, it turns out, the joke was on us. Alarmed that poor knowledge of English is preventing educated youth from grabbing employment opportunities spawned by an increasingly global economy, the Maharashtra government has decided to introduce a certificate course in spoken English at the graduate level in 80 colleges in Mumbai and the rest of the state. The three-year certificate course will initially be available with BA, B.Com and almost 120 vocational courses. At a later stage, the government could introduce it at all engineering colleges too. "Spoken English is a major stumbling block for our youth in bagging new economy jobs. The situation is so bad that even a BA in English does not have the confidence to apply for a job in a call centre because of his/her lack of command over spoken English," Director, higher education, K M Kulkarni, told Mumbai Mirror on Monday. Kulkarni said engineers and graduates from other professional courses too lose out in the job market because of their poor command over English. There were 40 lakh graduates registered with employment guidance centres in 2005-06. These included 1.51 graduates of Industrial Training Institutes and 47,528 engineering degree and diploma holders. The spoken English certificate course, for which colleges will hire dedicated staff, will be focused on phonetics, presentation and other aspects of spoken English. "Our students have good knowledge of English as far as reading and writing in concerned, but conversing in English is a problem. Studies conducted by the department have revealed that thousands of well-qualified students have missed employment opportunities solely because of this weakness. The certificate course will address this," Kulkarni said. Among the 80 colleges selected for the certificate course, at least 10 will be from Mumbai, he added. Initially, colleges in bigger cities and district headquarters, where English teachers are available, will run the course, said Kulkarni. The fee charged for the course would range between Rs 3,000 to 7,000.

Originally posted by: mythili_Kiran

Knowledge is inherent in man; no knowledge comes from outside; it is all inside.
We say Newton discovered gravitation. Was it sitting anywhere waiting for him?
It was in his own mind; the time came and he found it out.
All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind;
the infinite library of the universe is in our own mind.
The external world is simply the suggestion, the occasion, which sets you to study your own mind." Swami Vivekananda

***********************************************************

The above quotation does'nt suit for learning English or anyother course which is a "necessity" for our livelihood or career.Whether we agree or not good English makes a difference.Only good english does'nt fetch anything!!

BTW Knowlege comes like a spark(Valmiki of Ramayana,Kalidas -famous Indian Sanskrit poet acquired knowledge in a spark),may be people can learn English in prescribed days if learnt in a proper manner.The method of learning is important:

cheers,
Mythili

thats not knowledge - thats intelligence and ability to think...😊

Originally posted by: qwertyesque

thats not knowledge - thats intelligence and ability to think...😊

What is Knowledge??

What is Wisdom?

What is intelligence?

inlelligence + Knowlege = wisdom ????????????????????

Originally posted by: mermaid_QT

mqt

😆 Kulkarnis thode alag kisam ke log hote hain.... out of the box thinking wale😆....

Thanks for your views.... but one thing is unclear.... Even with unemployment, 80% of students in Maharashtra dont attend the college seriously.... how many will attend a crash course seriously😆😆😆

Originally posted by: ishan2003

I'll give my take on it in a different way, sorry about not following your method of questions...

As I said.... I wanted more input than my stereotype thinking... so u hv made me happy by giving me just that 😃

Spoken English is a huge necessity in today's world...specially with jobs which are available in the corporate world which includes call centres...one of the major reasons its such a drawback is because most students in schools and colleges converse in their mother tongue rather than English, this hinders their communication skills in English.

Perfectly agree with this😃 In fact I had been communicating in my mother tongue till college level.... so I know how important it is to speak in english to gain the confidence level😃

When I was back in India, we always had to communicate in English while at school...and therfore our grasp of the language was better...the only time I remember I used to speak Bengali was during our third language classes...which was twice a week.

But at home we spoke our language so we had a good balance of both the languages...but most schools and colleges don't look at the way students speak English and they are never corrected when they make gramatical errors while speaking...

That is quite true.... In reverse the teachers tell the students that u need not be gramatically correct while speaking as it is called casual language then😕

There are people who speak really well but their written English is horrible, but there are also people whose written English is brilliant but can hardly speak it as you mentioned before.

Very true indeed as experienced by me

At a later stage of life its always difficult to learn certain pronounciations if it hasn't been drilled into the head from when you are a child...this is a major reason why a lot of people get fake accents when they try to copy their non-Indian peers.

Well, every country has a different accent.... English for british is different than that for Americans.... so which standard you should take for global accent??

There is a huge difference in written and spoken English...when you speak well and people appreciate it it boosts your confidence levels a lot. I am saying this with first hand experience after working in a market research company and carrying out surveys over the phone, the way you speak makes a huge difference.

Completely agree.... een I had similar experience when I was applauded for my reporting skills for a project😃 and it did boost my confidence to go ahead in front of crowd and talk😃

English has attained a huge part in almost every country's existence because its an easy language to learn. It's something which you can easily grasp.

Rather it was language of the country, that ruled most of the world.... that is why it is somewhat easy😃

I have rambled on a lot...so to sum it up

Indeed I liked your points as they are based on personal experiences thanks😃

English is a very important part in our lives which a lot of people have not accepted yet. But its best to accept facts sooner than later...as it will only cause hindrance to people who don't.

Very true.... Indeed I would say that many people fear that the national language will change and thats why they are protective about regional languages.... Many people still think that a person cant have command on more than one languages....

But I feel really sorry when I see small children of Indians speaking in english only even in public gatherings....

thanks for the views Ishaan 😃