Within an arms reach!!!

Before the start of this pilot batch we spoke to a few people currently employed with call centres, and the common thread in all conversations was - Self Confidence & Ability to speak clear, simple and correct English are the most essential parameters to get employment in this field (this is obviously in addition to the required academic qualifications)

If this is all that is needed to get employment in call centres then there is no reason why anyone who is interested should be deprived of this opportunity.

Self confidence and the ability to speak good english are actually interlinked, one follows another and hence these issues need to be addressed parallely. When confidence goes up, unknowingly, clear english words flow and when this happens confidence in turn goes up further.

I was born in a Goan family, my parents converse in Konkani and we brothers in Marathi. We were raised in a predominantly Marathi background. So dominant is the influence of spoken Marathi that it is a great entertainment to hear my mother converse in Hindi with our Dhobi:).
On a more serious note,
despite going to a convent school, fluency in spoken English did not come very easy, all us friends spoke mostly either in Hindi or Marathi - so much was the non-english peer pressure that if someone tried speaking in English he would be a subject of great fun and ridicule.

And hence even though i managed to speak, it was a difficult task to converse in English at great length. The most common technique was to frame a sentence in Marathi, convert it in English and save face!!!

However looking back, i realise that this was the most potent method to learn conversing in English. NO doubt the reflexes were slow but more often than not the responses were gramatically correct. This makes me believe that Learning to speak Gramatically correct English in a time bound manner is absolutely possible subject to the following conditions:
a) The candidate is not alien to the English language i.e even though he cannot converse he can atleast partially make sense of what gets spoken.

b) The candidate is fluent in his mother tongue and is pretty confident about it. Medium of instruction during his education could have been anything!!!

c) He is genuinely interested in improving his spoken English skills thus implying that a serious effort in the stipulated time frame will be offered.

When i first moved out of school after my SSC, despite being fairly decent at conversing in English - situations which made fool of me were not uncommon. I would suddenly find myself at the loss of correct words at the wrong time and this would mostly happen when the person opposite me was either a girl or some hip- hop (I talk English, I walk english type characters) peer hailing from affluent families.
This was possibly the reason of my middle class Marathi speaking background. Lack of self confidence would keep me away from those people who could offer me a chance to improve my spoken skills and, would bring me closer to more me-likes thus strengthening my spoken Marathi!!!

However i have been lucky so far because i got the oppportunity to pursue engineering studies and later get a job thus offering me with ample opportunities to improve my spoken English.

However the candidates that our effort targets and intends to cater to in the long run are not so lucky. Firstly they get into jobs very early in their lives and most of these jobs do not give them any opportunity to speak in English. Back home there is no one to reciprocate in English, thus maintaining and reinforcing their status quo (English Phobia)

Whatever that gets taught and in effect gets learnt, is bound to be forgotten if not implemented regularly and quickly. Same with English - even though a person learns to converse in English if he does not get absorbed fast in an environment where the most common transactional language is English, he will fail miserably to leverage on what gets learned, and then what would stem from this failure is drop in self confidence, fear to face the public at large & inferiority complex.

Hence the key is Learn Effectively & Implement Quickly.

We realised the potency of this when taking Grammar sessions. If the candidates are encouraged to think in their mother tongue and then speak in English, the number of mistakes go down drastically, though this comes at the expense of speed. But again the key is if one learns CORRECT language, building speed is just a matter of more practice and hence time.

Most people who fumble speaking in Engilsh go wrong in the correct usage of verbs & tenses . One need not be an expert in all spheres of English to speak fluently, all that is required is perfection in essential Grammar topics, and the result will be clear & correct english.

It is an easy - to - implement skill if learnt effectively. The duration taken may vary depending on the individuals existing levels on the 3 conditions mentioned above however, it is by no means the fiefdom of any priveleged lot.

Most commercial outfits employ progressive techniques of language teaching. There are many which cater to BPO specific skills training, however there could possibly be two constraints
(a) The training expenses are high thus filtering most of the interested & desreving candidates (EVER WONDERED WHY A DESERVING GUY OR GIRL IS ALWAYS POOR???)

(b) There are institutes which train for free but they reserve the right to refusal i.e If they feel that the candidate cannot be trained in a pre-decided time frame, then he is not welcome.

What we intend is to offer Progressive training sans any strings attached. No interested candidate, should be turned down for either of the above reasons. If he is willing, then he is trainable. If he is deserving, then funding is not a problem!!!

By the virtue of being a not-profit outfit, we can afford not to turn down anyone!!!

Our effort is to bring into the opportunity zone those people who i refer to as "The Ignored Class". This ignored class is deserving, all they want is access to opportunity, which we intend to offer through our effort.

In a market economy, mediocrity dies early and what survives is good quality. We want this effort to live long hence, we cannot afford to be mediocre. Just because a person is a product of a not-profit effort will not ensure good employment opportunities, instead what is expected is, inspite of being a product of a not-profit effort he is best comapred to others.

We realise and acknowledge this fact,hence we arecompelled to run this effort with a non-profit heart and a for-profit brain. Its going to be really exciting,absolutely stimulating and immensely satisfying!!!

In my last post I had mentioned of the fast improvements that our students displayed. What is also observed is that they now appear more confident & forthcoming. Not sure what is the cause and what is the effect?

Thus, to cut the long story short - If spoken english & self confidence are the tickets to a fatter salary and hence a better life, then these ticket can be earned by any wiling one. The time taken and the efforts required may vary with individauls, but the desired result is absolutely achievable if the situation is addressed wisely.

I sign off for the day on this thought - Offer the "Right To Opportunity" and most men will cease mere surviving & start living!!!

Let Insanity Prevail.

You guys take good care & do well.

Regards,
Pranil