Yesterday was the
last day of yet another term at our English Language Centre. For seven weeks, I
worked with a group of 20 students, from under-eighteens to over-fifties, but most
of them in their early twenties. If you are around twenty, you are in that
wonderful phase of life when you haven’t lost the innocence of childhood, yet you’re
ready to explore the myriad possibilities that life offers. It is always a
great experience to work with them, and in this particular group too, there were
some chirpy exciting people I loved to work with.
They were all
brought together – not by fate, but by their common desire to learn English. As
the term drifted to its inevitable end, there was a tinge of sadness, and
everyone would have asked in their head, ‘What next?’
As we all know, a
second language – like cooking, driving, computers, or any other skill – is not
taught, it has to be learned. And there are these four steps that people
normally follow.
(A) Listen to and
read good speakers / writers of that language,
(B) Note new
language,
(C) “Think” about
the new language you’ve come across, and
(D) Use the new
language when you speak or write.
Unfortunately, most
Indians learning English do not get the opportunity to interact with good
speakers. On the contrary, they get to listen to and read a lot of inaccurate
language everywhere. So it may be a good idea to add one more step to the list
above: have a grasp of the basic grammar. This will help you to check and
analyse the English you hear or read. And it is essential that you speak and
write English.
Yesterday, one of
my students told me she had no problem speaking English; but when she got round
to writing something, she didn’t know how to begin and what to write. Let me
try to answer her.
First, what to
write? My answer would be: anything. You can write about people, places, things,
and of course, your thoughts and feelings. Think of a person, anyone, maybe,
your mother. What kind of a person is she? What has been her life experience?
What has she tried to achieve? How far has she been successful? What qualities
in her do you admire? Would you like her to be different?
Think of the first
school you were in. Think of the first day in your office. What thoughts went
through your mind when you started working? What dreams did you have? What
fears? And how has reality panned out? Are you happy about what life has had to
offer you?
Or you can just
look out of the window. If you sit back and think, you will see there are
stories all around us. Look at that man in a funny yellow shirt carrying an
umbrella, observe him minutely. What is he? What kind of house does he live in?
Can you imagine the story of his life?
So you can write
on anything, but HOW will you write? My answer to this is quite simple. Just
begin. Pen and paper have their own dynamics. And so do key-board, computer screen,
and your fingers. When I began typing this in, I knew what I wanted to write,
but I had no idea how I would go about it. As it happened, first I wrote about
an entirely different topic. I completed it and then came back to this. I don’t
know what I have written; I don’t know whether it’s good or intolerable. But I
know that as I was writing this, I was having a virtual dialogue with a chirpy
young girl with bright eyes and curly hair.
In a few minutes,
I will print this out and read it closely, maybe twice or even three times. If
I think it’s rubbish, I would crumple the sheet of paper and throw it into the
bin under my table.
If I think it’s
tolerable, I would pester my wife to read it. I would also polish it and then
upload it on my blog. If it’s readable, I would derive a kind of pleasure that
nothing else in the world gives me.
So, Dear Student, WRITE.
Writing is its own reward.
Kolkata
Monday, 11 May
2015
