"I suck at English..:(" - Here's one idea.
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@prototype-G9Gn5k
•
Oct 22, 2024
Oct 22, 2024
1.0K
Hey CEans
English seems to be problem to most of us. It used to be better but with the emergence of the sms lingo, it has became just worst. This is problem ONLY with Indians. You can just recognize an Indian between the group of people just by looking at the quality of the text. Unfortunately, its pathetic. However, this is not what I am about to discuss. My main intention to create this thread is to discuss about the spoken English.
Lets discuss why our English is actually poor?
Well, lets keep English aside for a second and go back our your mother tongue. Every one of you must be fluent with it, I suppose. I want to ask how many books have you read to learn your mother tongue? For me, despite we had these languages in our syllabus till SSC, but I think I was pretty fluent with my spoken mother tongue till age of 5.
On the other hand, we're learning English from class 1, still learning and will keep it learning in future as well but when it comes to actually speak English, we just get dumb and speechless. Why is it so with English when you were able to speak your mother tongue fluently at very young age? Is English that tough?
Now, lets move from India and talk about USA or Canada or UK. Is it the same scenario with the small kids there? Its sure that a 5 years old kid will speak better English than most of us. Now you'll say, "So what? Its his mother tongue". Exactly! It is. So what actually made him to learn it better than you? Just because his family knows it?
You speaking your mother tongue well and they speaking their mother tongue well is just based on the fact of PRACTICE. You're fluent with your mother tongue because you're practicing that language like 24/7 while for you English has just became an formality inside books.
Yes, you're also practicing English from class 1, and most of us are very good in English, but in written English which is what we're practicing since then if you notice. I am embarrassed to say that despite I am fluent with my mother tongue, I cannot even write a sentence in it with without mistake, why? Its because I don't practice writing but just speaking.
So the conclusion is, unless we don't practice spoken English, we cannot get better at it. But another problem is, the clap won't sound with one hand. Your willingness alone is not sufficient to practice it as you would need people to interact with you in the same language. For this reason, I've thought an idea.
Lets have a daily session of spoken English amongst CEans on some instant messenger like Skype. We can decide a topic to speak every day and everyone can participate there and try to speak a little.
I am sure many of you would be hesitant due to the awkwardness you would feel to speak inferior English than others, but hey, we don't know each other. Your image in front of me or my image in front of you would barely make any difference in our life for most of us. So take out that thought out of your mind and just try. If you just give up for an invalid reason, you would surely loose something that you could've gained.
I am no way great in English. It might be possible that I've made bunch of mistakes in this small post itself, but I am not ashamed of it. At least I am trying which itself is making me better every time. On the side note, I strong suggest to quit the sms lingo. If you think it makes you look cool, it doesn't. To me, the first thought is , "Illiterate INDIAN!". May sound harsh, but that's what I feel.
What are your thoughts? I've intense feeling that proper participation would surely make take this concept to great success.
Sorry, for long speech, but it was necessary. No TL;DR version possible.
English seems to be problem to most of us. It used to be better but with the emergence of the sms lingo, it has became just worst. This is problem ONLY with Indians. You can just recognize an Indian between the group of people just by looking at the quality of the text. Unfortunately, its pathetic. However, this is not what I am about to discuss. My main intention to create this thread is to discuss about the spoken English.
Lets discuss why our English is actually poor?
Well, lets keep English aside for a second and go back our your mother tongue. Every one of you must be fluent with it, I suppose. I want to ask how many books have you read to learn your mother tongue? For me, despite we had these languages in our syllabus till SSC, but I think I was pretty fluent with my spoken mother tongue till age of 5.
On the other hand, we're learning English from class 1, still learning and will keep it learning in future as well but when it comes to actually speak English, we just get dumb and speechless. Why is it so with English when you were able to speak your mother tongue fluently at very young age? Is English that tough?
Now, lets move from India and talk about USA or Canada or UK. Is it the same scenario with the small kids there? Its sure that a 5 years old kid will speak better English than most of us. Now you'll say, "So what? Its his mother tongue". Exactly! It is. So what actually made him to learn it better than you? Just because his family knows it?
You speaking your mother tongue well and they speaking their mother tongue well is just based on the fact of PRACTICE. You're fluent with your mother tongue because you're practicing that language like 24/7 while for you English has just became an formality inside books.
Yes, you're also practicing English from class 1, and most of us are very good in English, but in written English which is what we're practicing since then if you notice. I am embarrassed to say that despite I am fluent with my mother tongue, I cannot even write a sentence in it with without mistake, why? Its because I don't practice writing but just speaking.
So the conclusion is, unless we don't practice spoken English, we cannot get better at it. But another problem is, the clap won't sound with one hand. Your willingness alone is not sufficient to practice it as you would need people to interact with you in the same language. For this reason, I've thought an idea.
Lets have a daily session of spoken English amongst CEans on some instant messenger like Skype. We can decide a topic to speak every day and everyone can participate there and try to speak a little.
I am sure many of you would be hesitant due to the awkwardness you would feel to speak inferior English than others, but hey, we don't know each other. Your image in front of me or my image in front of you would barely make any difference in our life for most of us. So take out that thought out of your mind and just try. If you just give up for an invalid reason, you would surely loose something that you could've gained.
I am no way great in English. It might be possible that I've made bunch of mistakes in this small post itself, but I am not ashamed of it. At least I am trying which itself is making me better every time. On the side note, I strong suggest to quit the sms lingo. If you think it makes you look cool, it doesn't. To me, the first thought is , "Illiterate INDIAN!". May sound harsh, but that's what I feel.
What are your thoughts? I've intense feeling that proper participation would surely make take this concept to great success.
Sorry, for long speech, but it was necessary. No TL;DR version possible.
