As most of you must have realised, knowing English does not automatically mean you can speak or write English fluently. And the importance of being fluent in English cannot be underestimated if you are reaching for a place in the top levels of international business or trade. Today’s world is totally communication-oriented and most business and social interaction is transacted instantaneously no matter the people involved are thousands of miles apart in different countries, thanks to the rapid development of communications technology. And the global language, as we all know, is English.
Knowing English is extremely important and this is why Asian, African,South American and Eastern European countries place so much stress on learning and studying English. The language has crept into every country to an astonishing extent. In India, even semi-illiterate rural and urban dwellers use thousands of English words without even knowing they are doing it. Some of them are kerosene, machine, car, highway, doctor, teacher, principal, apartment, complex, quarter, road, bridge. You will be able to come up with many such words.
What is fluency? What does it mean? Fluency means getting into the habit of being able to respond quickly following the grammar and syntax of a language so that others knowing the language can immediately understand what you say or write. And how do you become fluent in a language? That’s easy to understand. Aren’t you fluent in your mother tongue: Odia, Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, whatever? And how did you, even as a child, become fluent in the local language? Because you were in an environment where everybody spoke the language! It just came naturally!
This does not mean you have to go and stay in England, America or any other English-speaking country to become fluent in the language. In India, as in other countries, there are English medium schools, and if you are a student in such a school your task is half done already. But don’t despair if you are in a local medium school. If you have English-speaking friends, tell them you want to be fluent in English and ask them to help you by talking to you in that language. They will be happy to help you. Try to respond in English. At first, you will be hesitant, but will soon fall into the habit. Besides friends, there are hundreds of English channels on TV. Watch them and listen to them talk. Watch English movies and try to follow them. Fluency is a habit that can be acquired. Today when somebody talks to you in English your brain reacts in the local language and you consciously translate in your mind and then utter the words. The more you listen to English, especially among friends, the more your brain will tend to respond in English. After some time, you will be surprised how quickly you become fluent in English once you start trying to respond in that language. As your vocabulary increases the response will be automatic—your brain will take over.
Many software packets are available on the Net that you will find helpful, among them audio tutorials. Some of these packets will even test your fluency. You just have to record a passage on the software and it will tell you how well you have done, even changing the order of some words. You will also learn to pronounce the words as the software will repeat the passage.
All that we have said above requires that you understand the basics of English grammar and syntax. But since you are reading this article and understand it, you already have the basics. Your ability to join a company at the higher levels will expand in sync with how fluent you are in the global language—English. It’s not easy. But it gets progressively simpler as you continue.
Start now!
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