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A recent newspaper report said that out of every hundred candidates called for job interviews, only five were found qualified for the jobs. It is not that they were technically not sound, but that they lacked in communicative skills in English. Is
English killing their careers?

Many a CEO would agree that it is indeed a sorry state of affairs that young men and women who walk out of colleges and universities speak little English. For them, it has been a subject to pass, not a language to master. And the focus was more on the technical subjects.

If things continue this way, India may lose out on the BPO and software industries.

What's Wrong?

The pressure today on youth is to complete a B.E. or an M.B.B.S., and become a professional. The subjects that they have to study to obtain these degrees are many and vast. They hardly find time to complete the recommended books of their subjects - forget reading general books. Reading for pleasure is becoming a rare thing. And the text-books are not a good source material for acquiring skills in spoken English.

Demographic patterns too are changing. A lot of youth from small towns and villages are moving to cities to study or work. Only when they come to a professional environment do they feel that their communicative skills in English need a total dressing up.

TV and movies offer no help. The language they dish out is Indianised English, and sometimes downright hybrid English that you find in popular music channels and Bollywood films.

With exposure to such kind of language, what kind of English can you expect from the youth?

The Ghost of 'Raj English'

English, as it is spoken and written today in India, is not free from the British who left us six decades ago. We still find phrases and usage such as 'residence', 'government servant', 'for your kind perusal' and 'my superior' in every Indian English. Surely, these are not good examples of English as it is today.

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* Contributed by -
R. Ganesh,
National Chief Trainer,
Veta.