Indian education system is quite different from that of the foreign nations. The
curriculum in the western countries is known to be quite light and based on practical knowledge whereas in India the focus is on theoretical knowledge and acquiring marks
by hook or by crook.
Students are expected to mug up chapter after chapter and fetch good grades in the
class. The marking system in the Indian schools begins from the primary classes thereby
burdening little kids. The competition is growing by the day. Parents want their children
to outperform their peers and teachers want their class to do better than the other
classes.
They are so blinded by the urge of staying ahead in the competition that they do not
realize that they are pushing the children in the wrong direction. At an age when the
students should be given the chance to explore their interests and hone their creative
side, they are pressurized to follow a set curriculum and slog day and night to get good
marks.
Instead of making the students understand various concepts of mathematics, physics
and other subjects so that they can use them at different stages in their life, the focus is
on learning the chapters blindly, whether or not the concepts are understood; so that
one can get good marks. So, the very basis of the Indian education system is
inappropriate.
An average person ranks the concern of speech beyond the fear of death. The reality is, this worry might pain your professional and private life. Unless you’re a gregarious extrovert, you might feel nervous, your palms sweat, and your abdomen ties itself into knots before talking to a bunch or getting up before of the audience.
The fear of public speaking is extremely real. However, there are techniques to assist you to overcome your concern. There are even ways to assist to harness your energy in a very positive approach.
Get organized
When you organize all of your thoughts and material it helps you to become rather more relaxed and calm. After you have clear, organized thoughts; it will greatly scale back your anxiety and fear of speaking; as a result, you’ll be able to be higher targeted on the one issue at hand, giving an excellent speech.
Practice, Practice, and Practice.
Observe nothing takes the place of practising and getting ready for your speech. Write out a script of your key points, however, don’t scan from the script word for word. Indurate your speech so well that you simply may answer any attainable question thrown at you.
Give your speech to a different person
There are lots of individuals you’ll apply on. Take care to inform the person to be fully honest with you in their critique.
Examples of individuals you’ll apply on:
Your friends
Your folks
Your girlfriend/wife
Your boyfriend/husband
PowerPoint- build or break
Sometimes, having a PowerPoint is often your relief. It will assist you if you lose your train of thought, keeps your audience engaged, and provides individuals an honest place to grab notes and the small print from. However, don’t place paragraphs on one slide.
Focus on the fabric, not the audience
Focus on delivering your material within the best approach attainable. Don’t worry regarding audience reactions.
Keep a check on the rate of speech
Talking quick throughout a speech interferes along with your respiration patterns. If you speak too quickly you may breathe less. Feeling wanting breath can cause you to panic-struck and additional prone to worry. Practice brings retardation down after you speak, and you may be additionally calm and relaxed.
Practice before a mirror
If time and cash are problems, there’s perpetually the free mirror in your restroom. Begin with merely smiling at yourself. You’d be shocked by however onerous that’s for a few individuals. Build eye contact with yourself. See? You’re doing nice.
Watch for feedback and adapt to that
Keep the main focus on the audience. Gauge their reactions, modify your message, and keep it versatile. Delivering a canned speech can guarantee that you simply lose the eyes of or confuse even the foremost devoted listeners.
Dreams of millions and destinations of billions have been achieved only through one window called English.
No matter what was the position of the English and English centuries ago; but now it is not only a call, but also a demand for every individual’s up-skilling.
One can be a man- healthy, wealthy and wise; but one’s health suffers mental anguish, wealth suffers constancy, and wisdom to is crippled from somewhere; and the root cause of all the above-mentioned problems is nothing but, a seven lettered word- “ENGLISH”.
There are many- numerous institutions, thousands of online English learning platforms; and no doubt, millions and billions of books heaped; either in bookstalls or in some libraries.
Yet; the lion-like problem, of speaking English without any hesitation, is roaring within. You may be sitting in a godown of English learning resources. Yet the call annoys you. Most often, the sentences that you hear within are the following ones only:
- To whom should I talk in English?
- Who is there to correct me?
- If I speak, people will disgust me.
- People will call me- ‘Angrez’, ‘Firangi’ and some other swear words.
- Why do I speak before my friends and English teacher only?
- Why can I not speak at home or in my locality?
- What if I speak grammatically incorrect?
- What if my pronunciation is poor?
- Am I able to try my English in a mall, a cinema hall, or at a restaurant?
- Why can I not try my English at the places where I visit very often?
If not all, but some of the above-mentioned sentences must be torturing you, despite all your efforts.
So, let’s cast away all your worries and walk a few steps with me, it can take you to the destination that has always been a dream for you.
Do walk! Don’t run! And while walking, don’t forget the mile stones.
The following steps seem a little weird, will help you get a level of confidence in English speaking.
- Record: Mind it, here record does not mean keeping record of words and grammar rules.
Today every individual has a mobile and that mobile has a recorder. This facility is available even in the cheapest phone today. Make that recorder your friend, spend some time with it, talk to it, make it listen to something in your voice. So, ‘record’ and listen to yourself.
Oh! How nice it is to listen to one’s own voice! This practice alone can help you correct your own pronunciation and grammar. You can also try for sound modulations, intonation and tonal variations.
- Insert: You are right, it’s ‘insert’. But not that; that you see on your mobile screen, when there is no sim card in it.
For an individual, desirous of gaining fluency in English speaking, insert should mean only one thing- “Use at least one English word in every Hindi sentence”.
The game of insertion can be played well at any place, may it be an office, a mall, a cinema hall, or even a crowded road, where you have got to tell or ask something. Even an illiterate person won’t mind your insertion.
And this insertion will prepare a comfortable surroundings for your fluency. You won’t forget also, the words or phrases that you learn.
- Make a call: Wait! … Wait! You don’t have to make a call to any of your relatives, because no one is going to give ears to your problems, even for a minute or two.
If you are really craving that somebody should listen to your English carefully, and should let you know directly or indirectly that, your English is whether expressive or not. For this fulfillment, someday make a call to any customer care service and deliberately choose the English medium, and just keep on talking.
But be careful, this act must be well planned. I mean, confiscate a reason for the call, make it a product inquiry or complaint, network issues, or anything else that you can plan.
Prepare the whole story and just do it. As long as your call is not hung up before you finish your story, you come to know that your level of English is good enough to express something. Some more calls will make you frank in English.
- English visit: This can take you to another level of confidence and will open many ways for practicing English, you just have to alter the way you pay a visit to places like- restaurants, malls, and different types of offices.
The alteration that you have to make is to make it an ‘English visit’ by using English only. In the beginning, you can use some phrases and small sentences; and later, you can take it to a higher level. In the very practice, your listener would not know that you are just a novice and still, your work is done.
The above-mentioned practices can easily lead you to a world where you will be capable enough, to receive your call in English; and to prepare your own world of English where nobody, but only you speak English, and enjoy others’ Hindi with your English- whether a tuition master or a school principal, hardly matters. And, you will always get a kind of temptation for speaking a few words and some sentences in English.
Teaching for a handful number years enabled me to quote some of the noble thoughts for the betterment of the new learners. Many a times, my students keep asking how to maintain the flair of English communication, after we have learnt the language in a modest sized batch for over half a year period. To be honest, the foremost vibe my brain exhibits is… “How can one retain the cooking expertise without entering the kitchen exactly?” or say… “How can a cricketer maintain his form without going to the nets?”
As a matter of fact, when the world turns misty and there is none to usher the right move, …… “Go to the basics”. That’s what my educators during my professional studies have taught. Quoting the ‘Whatapp’ query of one of my old students- “How to revise English without coaching or teacher?” You can buy my statement I mentioned above regarding ‘Cooking expertise’ and ‘Cricketing form’, will you? But as suggested, I am going to the Basics.
The followings are the four pillars for building communication, one should work towards them; when he/ she starts, while he/ she continues learning, and even after he/ she has finished a proficiently crafted courseware:
Input | Output |
Listening Lectures at school/ college, News on TV, Conversations of family/ friends, Songs, etc. | Speaking Talking to others, Occasional speeches, Making enquiries, etc. |
Reading Course Books, Mails, Messages, Articles, Magazines, etc. | Writing Subject notes, letters, applications, personal diaries, etc. |
Understanding
As known, ‘Input’ controls the ‘Output’. If there is no input, never expect any output. When we don’t fill the overhead tank in the morning, we can’t get water in the tap the whole day. So, we need to understand, “Speaking” as well as “Writing” is ‘output’, and one shouldn’t expect a desired output without qualitative and quantitative inputs.
“Listening” and “Reading” are the real inputs for the remaining two pillars of communication building. Surprisingly, we all are already into it. As mentioned in the respective boxes, that’s what we actually do, just for the heck of it. Then how come our dreams are yet to be true? The reason lies beneath. Let me elaborate it. Whatever we listen to, that is ‘how’ we usually speak, and even write as well. The other way round, whatever we read, that is ‘what’ we tend to speak or write.
Henceforth, it is feasible to evaluate the ‘quality’ and ‘quantity’ of our listening and reading. Then only we can control out outputs- speaking and writing. When we listen to a lecture in our school or college that helps us to speak or write, but only the answer to the subjective questions., and not at all in our day- to day communication. When we listen to the conversation taking place in front of us, it makes us aware of certain social issues, which may help us to some extent in speaking at few occasions, but not everyone around us is a good orator or impeccable in communication that we get much benefited. In fact, there is hardly anyone in our personal life who speaks in such a nice accent that we may learn something. News and other English programmes on TV might help little more, but here again, our focus is mostly on the content and, means “What” they are speaking and we are least concerned about “How” they are speaking, so again less productive. So there is an overhaul required in our listening practice.
Same goes with our reading habits. We intend to spend majority of our time in reading our course or career related books, which can help us mainly in writing exam papers, but don’t suffice our objective of honing up our oral communication. Mails and messages are too short to teach us something considerable or substantial. Reading newspaper articles or magazines is worthwhile to help us improve speaking and whiting, but honestly asking—“how many of us focus on vocabularies and sentence constructions?” Rather, we love to concentrate just on the story line. Then how can our overall communication in spoken and written forms improve?
Tricks of the trade:
‘To rob Peter to pay Paul.’ Borrow 60 minutes from your everyday engagements and do lend it to English, on a regular basis, and as regular as clock work. There should not be any Sunday or festival break in between. You need not do it for whole life. Our experience says, an average learner needs to spare hardly 6- 8 months, and an above average learner requires 4- 6 months of uninterrupted practice. I have purposefully ignored the below average learners, as they are strongly advised to visit such institutions for making them capable first, to utilize these tricks being discussed.
The bifurcation of 60 minute is a key to succeed here-
- Spend 15 minute time to listen to English news channels, and I reiterate to opt Indian News channels, as they are more neutral in sound. The focus should not be on the information, but the accent of those words, which are known to you. Find out how many of them you correctly pronounce, and where you are correct. Make sure to pick up minimum 1 word a day and maximum 3. Remember- “Eat what you can chew”. Such commonly used words are, Government, Environment, President, Parliament, Development, Vehicle, etc. Frankly speaking, things will never change from the day one, but will surely improve after continuous listening over a period of time. We pronounce wrong because we have listened wrong, so learn from the most trusted resource.
- Next 15 minute you need to read, but ‘reading aloud’, means reading in speaking mode. Read any newspaper or magazine in English, no matter new or old, but read aloud. You may not be able to pronounce a few words; chill! And just skip them. Speaking actually gives a required oral exercise to our lips, teeth, tongue and jaws, that on future when we want to pronounce a word correct, we will have no problem. Many of us don’t have ‘z’ or/ and ‘sh’ sound with us. We need to have sufficient practice. Reading this way has proved to increase our speed of speech, which is called ‘fluency’.
So, the both activities will directly help you in speaking with proper accent, and rhythm. Further we can change the mode of our speaking and writing practice as well. Again for 15 minute, talk to our alter ego, talk to the wall, talk to yourself in the mirror. This helps immensely. Even develop a habit of writing every night for the remaining 15 minute. This gives you a place where you can park your newly learnt vocabularies, nice readymade expression that you came across while reading something. This is how you can maintain and improvise the level of communication you possess. Keep reading our designated blogs for more pertinent suggestions from our institution. Your feedback is highly anticipated. Keep doing so. Have a nice day to all concerned.
Regional languages play a very crucial role in maintaining harmony and integrity in society. As, the time passes and the modernization or the fake influence of other cultures immerses. The importance of a local tongue begins to fade away and we turn towards adopting entirely different languages for the sake of looking contemporary. So, time to time a reminder has to be set in the system not to let our heritage lose its richness.
Hence, comes the heightened responsibility of each individual and the government to keep alive our legacy and the true spirit of our culture.
Realizing the fatality on time India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has come up with various amendments and modifications in itself to rejuvenate the eroding languages from our lives. Under the policy, it is mandatory for the schools to have the curriculum in the mother tongue. This execution has to be followed until class 5. After that, the subject matter will be made available in regional language as well as in English. Important to mention, the students will continue to learn three languages alongside, out of which two of them have to be indigenous to India.
Besides regional languages, the major charter also emphasizes upon inclusion of Early Childhood and Care Education (ECCE). According to which the folk music and art, local games, and regional stories are the elements of the development of the children up to the age of eight and must hold an inevitable part in the learning structure.
A complete revolution has been promised in the status of the languages stated in the eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution under the purview of this NEP2020 policy. Following the same guidelines, each institution is supposed to have academies for the languages separately. The driving forces or the major participants will be either the greatest scholars of the field or the native speakers of that particular language.
This is not as easy as said and formulated. Hence; the execution, rather proper implementation is necessary to bring tangible results. For the same, the official portals are going to be upgraded, making them more learning-friendly, more committees are to be formed and provisions regarding education are moulded accordingly.
Still, there are people deprived of basic elementary education because of their economic status. To remove this hurdle and make education accessible to all, the NEP has brought more scholarships for the children of underprivileged people, tribal communities, and backward classes.
Overall, we can conclude that this change is going to make a positive impact on the education system of India and will foster comprehensive learning amongst each child.
You should learn English at Oxbridge because it enables you to expand the boundaries of your world. This gives you an opportunity to learn with more and more intellectual people from across the country and allows you to do more useful things in your life. English is the language of the world and you want to speak it perfectly!
Writing skills are an important part of communication. At Oxbridge, you learn good writing skills too, which allow you to communicate your message with clarity and ease to a far larger reader than through face-to-face or telephone conversations.
You also learn at Oxbridge the sounds of English and know how to make them correctly. You will learn the proper way of speaking, use of intonation, use of stress, relaxed pronunciation etc. This is going to make a huge difference to the way you speak. People will understand you better.
Also, our Personality development programme helps you develop an impressive personality and makes you stand apart from the rest. Personality development also plays an essential role in improving your communication skills. Our learners master the art of expressing their thoughts and feelings in the most desired way.
All you inculcate in just one comprehensive curriculum. And yes, and that’s no exaggeration.
The beginning of human life was meaningless and void but their search for rhymes and reasons in every existence started adding meaning to the same meaninglessness.
Those meanings, that were added, were also inscribed and engraved upon numerous things. Some upon stones, some upon metal plates, some upon polished skins and some upon different types of leaves too, finally that all inscriptions materialized into a pile of tightly pressed and bound pieces of papers called books. The whole thing was done just for the sake of ‘would be change’ that they desired. For centuries and up till now those pieces of papers only have brought about many enormous changes in the world.
The creation, the first man and woman, their offsprings and all that things that happened on this earth lies only at one place that is books.
A book even contains a beggar’s happiness with a penny in the bowl and a king’s stress with a silver glass full of fine wine.
Nothing more than this can be said in favour of books that, the almighty too uses a book to record our lives.
Such a lofty one and thing of glory seems to be losing its charm now.
There has always been a battle between books and wines for the sake of position and glory. But the scene, that presents the change of last five of six decades, shows that books are soon to lose their glory and charm. They are to lose the battle with wine.
A book has always been a mixed taste dish as FRANSIS BACON says- “‘some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly”.
But now the same taste has been stolen and added to wine thus a wine is tastier than a book.
The dearest subject to many writers and wise people used to be books only, but now the one who loves wine is proclaimed wise and offered the best honour.
We called books a humble contradict, a base of belief, light of every heart, an object of paradise, a loyal friend and a maker of a complete man.
The present form of the above sentence has replaced the noun ‘book’ with ‘wine’ and all that glorious adjectives that we added to books have gone to wine.
Earlier, almost every individual housed either a heap of books or a library. Today every individual desires to house some bottles of fine wine or cupboard full of wine bottles.
Our walk with book has turned into walk with wine. We visited every place with a book in our hands or after reaching our destination we used to pick a book from the nearby self, which was deliberately exhibited. Now- a- days, a guest patiently waits for the moment when the self of wine would be exposed and some drops of that would be poured into his throat.
That was a day of knowledge sharing; now it’s a day of wine sharing. Those days a man with health, wealth and power but without books was poor; today a poor sharing wine is no less than a king.
I don’t know when someone was found lying in bed with a book on or upon the face or the chest but many are found lying with broken glasses and wine bottle lying around.
That was a time when wine used to be part of poem and stories, now it is the time when book has become a story.
Wine shops are now a holy temple where the seller is the priest, wine is the LORD; and every morning at nine AM, devotees knock the door to get the earliest blessing.
Whereas, the book shops are a kind of museum which house some rugged and some fine antique relics, people come, see and go.
Everybody is rich at a wine shop but nobody has money at a book shop. Wine sellers are known to all and visited by many noble men frequently, but a books seller craves for two times meal.
Wine lies comfortably in fine showrooms and books on roadside footpaths.
Popping sound of beer bottle is dearer to ears than the flipping sound of pages.
Today on an average, people buy wine once or twice a week but when it comes to books it is hardly bought once or twice in a year.
We must not forget that people like CHANAKYA and KALAM had only one loyal friend they spent life with; AMBEDKAR remained hungry for several days for, was books only.
We must know that it is not the battle of books only against wine but it’s our battle, a battle of conscience, hope, belief, progress, change and of eternal happiness. We must not let wine conquer over books. For, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE said so- “O thou invisible spirit of wine if thou has no name to be known by, let us call thee Devil.”
A question always arises in my mind that- “How would be our life without the access of internet?” Perhaps, it is too difficult to survive in this advanced era. Every morning we leave our bed and start looking for our most loving gizmo to check the freshest notifications delivered to this latest version gadget through various media of this fast- growing world. In fact, the invention of internet brought us much closer to this globe.
The day we have no access to internet means, we are severed to this planet unwillingly, even after we have our handy gadgets near us.
We are unable to visit any of the social media like; Facebook, Whats app Twitter, Instagram and so on. Many of us have been fascinated to post a few newly-clicked photographs in some most attractive postures on our most frequently used media, which we really can’t help ourselves posting any time or any day.
It helps me to connect with my friends and long- lost relatives with perfect ease. I can talk to my parents over video calling through various applications and send them pictures and emails which reaches them in a flash. When we want to visit some new places, we just log in to a number of sites to allocate the location a few more details about that place. Thanks, to the Internet for providing the fastest information.
The day it is switched off, I also feel much relaxed and free from stress and anxieties. It may be easier for me to have other priorities and spend more time in a productive way. It doesn’t make me realize that internet can be the most essential tool.
It is an essential tool which is utilized for collecting information and data all day long, but we are somewhere losing our common sense, we are forgetting how to coordinate with our family and friends.
Today, we all go through You-tube videos, just to entertain ourselves, either it is 5 years young child or 50 years elderly.
We human beings have a false perception that we rule over the world, but; in fact, we are being made slave to a number of national and international internet applications, which is really shocking news to this world. Our dependency towards these apps, which provide us solutions in second, is growing as fast as anything else. Either mom is searching for the newest recipe or her son is looking for the latest mobile game in the app store.
We have now begun to ignore ourselves, our most valuable health, our powerful mental abilities, our precious family and many more like these.
Eventually, I can express that, we have stopped breathing without the utilization of devices connected to Internet. Have a consideration over this complex issue.
So, here is my open suggestion to all:
Just choose a day, turn off your devices connected to the internet, spend valuable time with your dear and near ones, and cultivate some mirthful moments and let the laughter come across your bright face, without any restriction.
March was aging towards its end. The financial and academic year was tending to prepare the appraisal of the yearlong journey as well. Students were all set to advance for a new and more productive session towards their aspirations. But … Hold! Hold on! A deterrent strikes. “Nationwide Lockdown” in the wake of COVID attack. The life, that gained pace and rhythm ever since the advent of 21st century, was paused, that too, for an indefinite future. Thanks to all the motivation and positivity that have ever been inculcated in us, which led us to take it as an opportunity and do wonders in our life ahead. It also opened floodgates for a variety of hobbies & interests to have been pursued. Majority of us brought our childhood back again. We got closer and closer to the nature, relationships and the humanity.
Having been from the fraternity of pedagogy, we helplessly witnessed the pyre of consistency in the most sought after sphere- Education. Prohibition everywhere, be it a school or college, any institution for academic or professional coaching. Everything came to a halt. Educators and academician let their knowledge go stale; learners and aspirants set their mind free from the conceptual learning and acquired knowledge. It happened to be a forced choice, and never a chosen one, for all and sundry.
Not to forget though; ‘Every cloud has a silver lining’; and “Educational Renaissance- 2020 makes it happen. There are opportunities galore for everyone. It first enabled us, both pupil and his preceptor, to be gizmo- savvy; then to explore our potential even better. Dexterous learners and adept educators have not got left behind, rather toiled upward to realize one another’s dreams. Our conventional studies were never so hi-tech. Teachers were hardly acquainted with the modern educational tools. Students were prone to under-utilization of their academic weapons. But find now, we are well versed with internet, smart phone applications, laptop & desktop operations. A newer Sun in the horizon- E- learning, E- education, Online teaching, Live- class. These terms compete to be equally popular as – Lockdown, Quarantine, Social distancing, Sanitizer etc., in Corona age, of late. It has thoroughly changed the dynamics of educational patterns. The most interesting fact attached to it is that, teachers are finding it far easier to illustrate a critical lesson than it used to be during the classroom sessions. Students are getting better comprehension of topics with figurative display of theories that are dull as ditch- water.
As a matter of fact, it is scores highly to stand parallel to Italian or British ‘Renaissance’; awakening of people, enlightening mental ambiguity. When the future of billions of students across the globe was marching by and by to a dead end, there came the ‘Zoom’ and ‘G- meet’ and likewise trending in each and every household. While doctors started combating for the survival of virus infected bodies; teachers asserted their battle to prevent knowledge and wisdom from extinction. To be honest, one must say that the prevailing pandemic opened new avenues, not only for students, but also for the teachers worldwide. They all could explore their inherent potential to come of age. E- Education has brought a new but most pertinent methodology in its segment. This is destined to be the future of education world over. Teachers get undivided attention from the students, students get clearer perception like never before. EDB board satiates the requirement of classroom board. There is quality listening both for teacher as well as students. A much easier explanation through pictorial description is highly possible. And last, but never the least, the best teacher for a sincere student from around the world is just a click away, maintaining social distancing, to refrain from hellacious traffic around. So, stay home stay safe- Educational Renaissance arrives, go and get online, way before your counterparts do.