How to speak English well? What is real English?
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M. NASSER GORSI,
Linguistics expert and ESL lecturer
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The hegemony of the English language has grown up so much that it has become a global language. Those countries where England had its colonies, left the language as a legacy after independence.
Languages came into existence first, grammatical rules were created scientifically later on in order to teach and understand.
I believe, that one can succeed even if you don't have much knowledge about his/her subject, but provided that you know English well.
People in many countries like India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, middle east countries, etc. believe that English is the language of gentlemen and ladies. So, in the society, they manage to grab good respect.
I would like to classify English into two categories broadly:
1. Prescriptive English: This English is the actual language that is prescribed and is considered to be pure.
2. Descriptive English: It is the English that we manipulate according to our own mother tongue or you can say due to the mother tongue influence (MTI).
Never study grammar in depth.
When I was in school, I had always a bent towards languages. I always liked the Russians speaking Russian, Spanish by Spanish and French by French people.
Somehow, I started teaching English as a second language when I was in the college. Then after three years of teaching, I came across some books and changed my strategy of teaching with the passage of time.
During my MA in English, in 2007, I studied linguistics, which helped me study the language scientifically and my love for languages grew more.
In 2008, the next year, I joined a one-year course in French language. Fortunately, I realised that 60-70% of the English language has been derived from French. My passion for teaching kept growing and I had increased my batches, earned good money, paid college expenses and had bought a lovely jet black cruiser motorbike.
One day, one of my students told me to teach him basic tenses. I postponed the topic for the next day as I had to prepare for myself first. It occurred to me that I had forgotten almost all the tenses. But I never forgot English. It was probably once you learn the language by heart (unconsciously), you don't need to take care of grammatical rules. So,thereafter, I studied the grammar deeply to teach and realised that I had forgotten many rules.
I taught hundreds of students. All of them wanted a magic wand and learn speaking English like an English speaker in one day. Believe me fellas, Rome was not built in one day. If you are born, you don't start speaking the next day, you take two to three years to learn the language.
Golden Tips that I involve in teaching English.
1. Start reading a good newspaper for two-three hours every day. Every day means every day. This will teach you grammar unconsciously.
2. Write at least 10 pages of a notebook. This will not only improve your spellings, but will also improve your handwriting and some understanding of the language.
The level of our confidence keeps rising and diving. Sometimes, if you are in high spirits, you speak it boldly with confidence. At times, if the other person you are talking to, speaks fluently, you may lose confidence in yourself and get depressed. It happens, almost with every body.
There are people who speak fluently but do not know proper grammar even and there are some who write very well but can't speak. This is due to lack of practice and exposure.
Yes, exposure plays a vital role in speaking English. Ever wondered why do most Indians (any native of any country other than English) living in the English-speaking countries speak like English speakers? Yes, it is called exposure. Speaking and listening, both. Children who are brought up in the English-speaking countries speak just like any other English native. It is because they are the native, get 100 per cent exposure since their childhood.
What is Language Acquisition Device?
I am of the opinion that one can learn any language during his/her childhood because according to the Linguistics, there is something called LAD (Language Acquisition Device) in our brain. In the childhood, it is always easy to learn the languages because our LAD is empty and gets hold over the new things fast. As we grow, our use of the language, subjects starts limiting and we stop learning or learn at a slow pace after sometime. I know a few guys who were learning French language in my Panjab University class. They were in their early 60s and were retired from jobs. One of them had retired as a doctor, another one had retired from the education department. The doctor was very good a good learner. It is probably due to his hard work at home or he kept learning his whole life. On the other side, the other man, who had a Doctorate in Physics, told me in his Punjabi, "Zaar Nasser, mere ko ek baat samjh ni atti, man ghr mein bot meint karta hun, sali samjh ni atti French." (Dear Nasser, I don't understand one thing, I work hard on my French at home but can't understand it.)
Not everybody is same. There are many kinds of learners. Like some are new to a language and others know the basics like spellings, some pronunciation and can understand to some extent. The Golden Tips that I have mentioned above are beneficial for both. If you follow this schedule with full dedication and honesty for at least three months, I promise you that your language will drastically improve.
Many a time, there are people who know English but they cannot answer questions in IELTS. Reason, lack of confidence and knowledge. You must know about the topic to be spoken in order to speak.
In journalism, there is a common saying,
"READ TO WRITE". I always cite this example to my students and tell them to read as much as they can. This also improves their knowledge and they can speak on the issues they have read about.
Apart from that you can buy a grammar book and work on a few exercises every day to learn the rules.
I have been teaching English as a private tutor since 2003. I also worked as an ESL (English as a second language) lecturer at Chitkara University of Engineering and Technology, Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, India.
I had opened up an institute of English academy but due to some financial problems, my dream project had to be closed.
My passion for learning and teaching English has never stopped. Right now, I have been working as a Sub-Editor in The Tribune (English daily newspaper), for more than three years. But I still teach the whole day since morning for three reasons:
1.My newspaper job starts at 6 pm in the evening and I have the whole day.
2. Passion
3. Money
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Regards
My work shift was to start at 7 in the evening. I went to
gym for I had been planning for quite sometime. After workout, I went to a
nearby shop to buy an energy drink. I asked the shopkeeper, an old man, for a Gatorade.
In the meantime, a guy came running and breathing hard. He pleadingly told the
old man that he had forgotten to pay him for soya milk some minutes ago. I
recalled one of my friends telling me that once he left home on a motorbike. He
felt the striking air, his hair and had a great experience of riding as he had
never felt before. At a light point, he saw his face in the bike mirror and ran
his fingers through his hair. Suddenly, he realised that he had forgotten to
wear a helmet. I wonder why are people, sometimes, so careless or tend to
forget things. Perhaps, a day’s hard work and poor attention to one’s self is
the cause. Sometimes, the very thing people are looking for is just before them
but they fail to notice it. Probably, their unconscious mind is preoccupied in many
other thoughts. I know a friend who not only remembers 18 different houses in
various locations across the city, but also the timing to reach there. He
always remembers when he has to mow his lawn, date girls, etc. His claim of
being the most attentive man in the world seems to fall flat when he forgets
about the stuff he keeps in his room. Then he asks his mother, “Had you been my
pen, where could I have kept you?” He even asked me if I had been his bike key,
where would I be lying. Once a hundred-rupee note he was looking for, was found
atop a car parked outside his home. “Probably, I might have been talking on the
phone and put it there absentmindedly,” he made a hurried excuse. I wonder if
we, humans, have made our lives so complex that we often forget many things. A
guy, who bought an examination form from the university for an improvement exam
one month prior to the closing date, filled it on the last date. Of course, he
had forgotten the very form for which he had waited for one long year.
