39

English-language Skills

“Ï am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.”

–Oscar Wilde

Often equated to communication skills (and sometimes even to soft skills in general), English-language skills occupy a vaunted position in the skills list of any modern day Indian professional. In fact, in many of the so-called ‘soft skills training institutes’ that have mushroomed across India, ‘soft skills’ is taken to simply mean ‘spoken English’ and nothing more. Some of them also go at length into basic English grammar elements like articles, propositions, pronouns and so on. We have stressed throughout the book that while English-language skills are indeed essential in today’s globalized business world, they are not stand-alone skills to be acquired in isolation. Rather, they should nicely complement the other skills in your portfolio. They should offer a window into your personality and reveal how well you articulate and verbalize your relationship with your environment.

Keeping all of the above in mind, this chapter looks at some of the simple pointers on how to improve your proficiency in English. It also takes a close look at some of the main distinguishing features of American English and how some of them are tightly coupled with American cultural/business norms. This is why we have included this chapter in the etiquette section of the book and fittingly, kept it as the last element before the concluding chapter. We expect it to serve it as a garnish to the rest of the array of soft skills. We don’t intend this chapter to be a training manual on English-language skills. Nor do we want to dwell on things from a pedagogic point of view. We also want to reiterate that as important as language skills are, it is much more important to have good communication skills first, and the foundation for that is a solid attitude. There are many, many cultures in the world which lack in English-language skills but do a great job in business communication.

39.1 ‘Our’ English and ‘Their’ English

The good news is that we in India don’t have to start from scratch. We have a long history of English in Indian schools. Even the ones in remote villages teach some amount of English. And there are several elite high schools which impart very specialized and high level of English education to its students. A large number of people are familiar with rudiments of grammar and have a basic vocabulary of several hundred words. India generates a lot of material and content in English, like newspapers and TV channels. One gets many opportunities to practice spoken English and there are many avenues available if one wants to improve one’s language skills. When comparing the strengths of India vis-à-vis other nations like China, English-language competency is projected as a competitive advantage for India. Not merely in communicating with our international business partners, good English skills can also help us to communicate better among Indian colleagues from various regions of India. In fact, in many cases, English is the only common language that people from different regions of India can use to communicate with one another. So in principle, most of us should be able to sit down in business meetings with, say, the Americans and communicate effectively.

But the bad news is that despite all this emphasis on English education, exposure to and knowledge of English in various media, there is still a significant gap in the English-language skills of most professionals. Our frequent boast that we have a large pool of English-savvy professionals isn’t entirely accurate. The raw English-language skills that most Indians have at the end of college are by and large inadequate to effectively communicate with our global business partners. Our basic language skills and our knowledge of modern business communication are woefully lacking and need to improve vastly. It is no wonder then that new recruits in several call centres and multinational firms are coached not only in the business processes, but also in language skills for several months before they are let loose on the phones or before they are allowed to communicate with their foreign stakeholders.

Why is this apparent contradiction there?

• English education in India is very archaic and even somewhat irrelevant to modern-day business communication. Indian English is plagued with hackneyed usage and a very formal style. Vestiges from the British Raj-era are still being used in modern-day conversations. The highly colonial ‘Respected Sir’ type English that is taught in schools, seldom cuts ice with the modern informal American way of doing business.
• Indian English has evolved on its own over time and quite often uses its own syntax, vocabulary and slangs instead of what is used in English-speaking countries. For example, when an Indian says ‘Where you are going, yaar?’ a non-Indian might blink, but this sentence will be understood perfectly by other Indians around him. Good communication, this maybe. But it is bad English.
• In addition to the Indian English lingo, there is a strong regional influence in the way we speak English and consequently, we have Hignlish, Tanglish, Benglish and many other flavours of Indian English which come in the way of learning proper English.
• There is not sufficient emphasis on spoken communication at the school or college level. There are inadequate numbers of audio language laboratories to train listening and spoken skills.
• Finally, the kind of skills that are taught about English do not cover important issues like writing good e-mails. Rather they address arcane issues like writing leave letters and permission letters.

Also, over the past few decades, American English has emerged as the de facto lingua franca of the business community the world over and English-language skills have now largely come to mean English, the American way. (And we are saying this despite this book itself being in British English!). While the purist English connoisseur like Professor Higgins of My Fair Lady will not take a favourable viewof‘American English’, a premium is now placed on being able to speak it, write it and understand it perfectly. We may never be able to convert our Indian English accent to an American accent, but a lot of us certainly hope to acquire a degree of mastery over American English—right from the prevailing business jargon, down to the latest slangs. It is the dream of many young Indian professionals to be able to sit across the table from an American delegation and transact business with them on an equal footing—in chaste English. The net result is that now there is not only a clamour for acquiring generic English-language skills, but also to orient those efforts toward American English and put it to good use, whether it is in a call centre or in a board room. But unfortunately, there is a serious shortage of American English teachers in India.

39.2 How Can You Try to Improve?

Here are some tips on how you can get better in English. Some of it calls for a behavioural change and some other tips are simply good practice and craftsmanship.

Simple things first: The first thing you should concentrate on is to get rid of your ‘heavy’ regional Indian accent (if you have one) and acquire what is called a ‘neutral accent’. This may be easier said than done because some language habits can be very difficult to unlearn or get rid of. Next, try to speak a bit slower and with intonation—trying to put stress at the appropriate places. Similarly, try to be more ‘fluent’ or talk in a ‘running’ manner, minimizing the pauses and the gaps. All this comes with practice. So whether you make mistakes or not, stick to practising your diction. If you have a serious problem with your accent, and if you can afford it, consider having a language coach and remedy the problem. Lastly, don’t try to acquire an American accent overnight. It might take a very long time—and in some cases even years of immersion in American culture may not help. The idea is not to necessarily speak like an American, but to speak like a generic native speaker.

Be actively interested in improving your English. Catch on to your mistakes as well as others’ mistakes and see what the right usage is. See if there is a pattern to your mistakes. Pay attention to grammar and learn a new grammatical point every week. Learn to think in English and avoid translating idioms and phrases from your native language.

Build your vocabulary by reading newspapers, magazines and blogs. Don’t just include words—also include phrases and metaphors. Try to find out the subtle differences between words with similar meanings. Search the Internet for English resources. Read up business speeches in newspapers or websites and see if you can glean the business/technical parlance.

Change from being vague, general and abrupt to being specific and effective:

One of the complaints about Indian spoken English is that speakers often tend to be vague and general. Just imagine if someone walked into your office and said ‘That is done sir.’ Unless you are familiar with the context, you will never guess what ‘that’ means. One has to learn to express things more clearly and elaborately on potentially confusing things.

Don’t be abrupt when you start to talk. Give the context first and build a prelude. Likewise, don’t think a matter is closed just because you have understood it. Bring it to a logical and complete conclusion. This is in line with the ‘tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them and tell them what you told them’ concept we discussed in Chapter 21.

Give yourself exercises on how to be precise in your expression. If you are happy, can you explain ‘exactly’ how happy you are? On a scale of one to ten, if your happiness ranks a five, how can you describe it? How is a rank four different from rank five? Can you describe the difference clearly and without ambiguity? Since it takes two people to communicate, can you be more sensitive to your listener and be listener-centric instead of being ‘you-centric’?

And finally, in business meetings if there is anything that is half-way confusing, it is best to write it down and send an e-mail about it to the person who said it, just to make sure that you and the other person are on the same page of the book. (And by the way, what does one mean by being on the ‘same page of the book’?)

Don’t sink into a ‘defensive’ or ‘minimal’ mode: Sometimes, when you are overwhelmed by the person(s) in front of you, your may feel that your jaw is locked and you may find yourself only able to utter simple sentences and phrases. By behaving thus, you are telling the people in front that you are being submissive and acknowledging defeat. You also convey the message that they should end the conversation and leave you alone. But even if you feel like you have marbles in your mouth, just try hard and keep the conversation going. Struggle out of this gridlock situation and recover. The last thing you want is to stop cold in the middle of a communication and let the other person think poorly of you.

Integrate all the communication skills: Move to the next level in your language skills—from being a simple user of a language to being a proficient, articulate communicator. Try to talk like a native. This means that you will have to know how the native speaker uses certain words, combination of words and metaphors. For example, he might say ‘I beg to differ’. This usage has been around for years and to a non-native, this might sound like a strange use of the word ‘beg’.

Remember that communication is holistic. Make your pitch colourful. Use a lot of humour. Making jokes in a new language can be quite challenging and you might have to practice it extensively to be good at it in front of your American business partners. Get into the habit of conducting small talk in English.

And finally, incorporate effective non-verbal communication as a part of your English training. Get to know the non-verbal sounds, body language, laughs, grunts, smirks, etc. And use them in conjunction with spoken English.

39.3 Some Sources to Improve Your English

• Reading magazines, newspaper and Internet blogs: Nothing improves English like reading. Magazines, especially those with modern and informally written articles, are ideal. Equally good are some of the blogs and websites. But beware of sources that are either very high-brow or use a lot of slang.
• Watching TV shows, movies, etc.: These are ideal sources for listening comprehension. Although you may not learn much from popular shows in terms of business communication, you may still find them useful in building your accent and pronunciation
• Listening to people: Listening and talking to other people, especially at work, is a nice way to improve your English. Choose people either at your level or slightly higher.
• Getting feedback from friends and colleagues.
• Getting a language coach: There are professional services which will tutor you on your English problems and try to remedy them. They are perfect for neutralizing your accent, effective small talk and so on.
• Attending Toastmasters meetings regularly to improve communication and leadership skills.
• And finally, immersion: The most effective way to learn American English (or for that matter, any language) is to actually be in the USA for some time and interact with the native speakers.

39.4 What Is So Different About American English?

There is a lack of awareness in India that the American English language is indeed a distinctly different entity, with its own rich history, heritage, literature–and of course, quirks. Learning this brand of English involves not merely rolling your ‘r’s or emulating that nasal twang, but also involves grasping a bit of the American cultural and business etiquette.

American English has several distinct characteristics. If you want to master it, you should pay particular attention these points—and this will be in addition to your efforts to improve your general language skills like fluency, vocabulary and idiomatic usage.

Accent, stress, pronunciation, spelling, etc.: Accent, pronunciation and related elements are perhaps the most distinguishing features of American English. When Americans say words like ‘car’ or ‘pay’, they aspirate the first syllable (and let a bit of air come out) and pronounce them as ‘khar’ and ‘phay’ (note: not just Americans, but several other native English speakers also aspirate their first syllables). American pronunciation can also be unique—like the word ‘schedule’ is pronounced ‘skejool’ and so on.

When Americans speak, they lay stress on different syllables of the sentence as appropriate. For example, they might say ‘WHERE are you going?’ to find out which place you are going to. Or they may emphasize ‘He has gone to school. Now, where are YOU going?’ This kind of stressing gives a special cadence to their speech and the sing-song feel (we discussed some of these in Chapter 19 on vocal variety). Such intonation is usually very similar among all native English speakers, whether they are British or American. Indian English, on the other hand, tends to roll out the syllables at a constant rate, instead of stressing particular syllables.

Syntax and grammar can be different, but are mostly the same: Grammar and syntax are reasonably similar across the various native English speakers of the world, although American English does have its quota of peculiarities. For example, they often use double prepositions like ‘I live across from Ram’ or ‘Up until now …’. (By the way, prepositions are also the weak points of many Indians and we often get confused whether it is ‘Shyam met Ram in London’ or ‘Shyam met Ram at London’. The good thing is that prepositions have less weightage in a sentence and even if one gets it wrong, the meaning is pretty much conveyed to the listener.)

Non-natives of English—like the people in India—can sometimes subconsciously use regional language syntax in English. For example, we may say, ‘Look! In that cage, a tiger is there’ (insteadof‘Look! There is a tiger in that cage’). So take the time to learn the American syntax—even if they adjectivize their adverbs on occasion! (‘His suitcase is fully loaded’ is an example of an adverb ‘fully’ being used like an adjective)

American usage of words can be different: As is well-known, American spelling, usage of words and so on, have their own oddities. Some words may mean diametrically opposite things in India and in the USA. Make sure you are aware of such differences, lest there be confusion or misinterpretation (see Box 39.1 for some examples).

Moving to informalism and colloquialism: Americans generally tend to be very informal and use straight-talk and direct questions to communicate. They even address the other persons by their first names (or their nicknames, if that is okay with the other persons). This inevitably results in informalism and colloquialism even in business settings and a liberal use of prevailing slangs. Americans are wont to use such colloquial phrases like ‘give me a holler’ (meaning, ‘give me a call’) or ‘that is a no-brainer’ (meaning ‘that is simple’). If you are in a meeting with Americans, observe and register such informal and slang terms and ask them for their meanings if you don’t understand what they mean.

In comparison, Indian business English tends to be much more formal and devoid off amiliarity. For example, starting a letter with ‘Respected Sir’ and concluding it with ‘Yours obediently’(or even, ‘I remain, yours obediently’) is not something that an American would use. In American context, these are usually replaced by ‘Dear Sir’ and ‘Sincerely/Cordially’). Also, ‘I kindly request you to send me the document’¹ is arcane. It is more common to use the phrase ‘I would appreciate it if you could send the document.’ The idea behind any effective business correspondence is to quickly come to the point and not get stuck in the structure of the niceties. Refer to Chapter 32 on e-mail etiquette on pointers on e-mail greetings.

The mood—the use of modal (auxiliary) verbs, conditionals and expressions of doubt: Spoken American English is peppered with the clever use of verbs that accurately express subtle shades in the speaker’s moods and his assessment of the situation. This is achieved through the use of what are called modal or auxiliary verbs that go with other verbs to alter their meanings as appropriate. For example, an American may say, ‘I ought to write that report’ or ‘I might write that report’ implying different moods—necessity in the first instance and hesitation in the second case. In Box 39.2, we give some more examples.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Americans use a whole slew of words expressing doubt, uncertainty and hope. They may say ‘I guess Shyam will be the one to write the report’. Or they may make a qualified statement like ‘I may be wrong, but I think Shyam will write the report.’ If you carefully look at the last sentence, you will find that it is actually a loaded statement. At one level it implies that the report will be done by Shyam, no problems. But at another level it implies a measure of doubt and Shyam writing the report is only the speaker’s interpretation of things. Basically, the speaker is safe-guarding himself while passing on information, just in case trouble occurs over the report tomorrow.

Similarly, Americans frequently use what are called conditionals that express desires, wishes, hopes and in the extreme case, the so-called subjunctive mood. For example, ‘I would write that report if I had time’ or ‘I can write that report if my boss wants, although I doubt if he would want me to.’ Things are basically couched in a lot of iffy possibilities, resulting in several subtly differing scenarios. Such usage gives Americans latitude and a huge space to operate out of when expressing their observations or viewpoints. In India we are not very well versed in using auxiliary verbs and often end up talking in yes or no kind of definitives, not conveying the shades of meanings in between.

In addition, Americans tend to be very precise about using the right words to bring out what exactly is on their mind—especially if there are several closely-related words. This is a natural advantage of being a native speaker, but it is more due to an emphasis on vocabulary building. For example, an elderly American might say ‘I listen very well, but I don’t hear too well.’ Articulation and accuracy are important to Americans in speaking and that is why they get confused when an Indian gets mixed up between weather and climate or doesn’t understand the difference between tactical and strategic. If you want to really speak like an American, start with a bagful of auxiliary verbs and figure out how to express yourself effectively with them.

The business/Technical lexicon: Americans seem to have a special vocabulary for business and technical communication (see Box 39.3). Not only do they have specific buzzwords, they also seem to use a specific subset of English words to describe business happenings. Because of the proliferation of American business language and style around the world, much of this lingo has entered the business lexicon everywhere and is beginning to penetrate even the general population. Here are some examples.

Similarly, document writers and technical people also converse in a different space, fraught with buzzwords and extremely well-defined jargon. One has to develop a complete vocabulary of such business and technical terminology to be able to talk to the Americans effectively. The use of jargon and technical terms ensures that the meanings and scenarios are understood very clearly. American tech-talk is definitely not ornamental, but is very expressive, informative and specific.

The use of metaphors: American speakers also use a lot of metaphors to supplement their standard words and phrases (Box 39.4). It might seem like almost each of their sentences is loaded with such metaphors. The purpose of using metaphors is to nail a point and to clearly bring out the context in a nutshell. For example, the speaker might say, ‘This is where the rubber meets the road’ (meaning, this is the real test of the concept). To the uninitiated, this metaphor may not mean much and he might take it at its face value. But if you think about it, in one concise metaphor the entire context and situation are brought out. Besides, metaphors also make one’s speech very colourful. In American business usage, a lot of metaphors tend to be sports-related and many of this may be lost on the Indian professionals who don’t have much exposure to the American sports scene. We strongly suggest that you read up on American metaphors and become familiar with the ones used in business circles.

The unsaid and the unspoken: Non-verbal sounds and body language are big parts of American English. Interruptive sounds like ‘ammm’ (or ‘excuse me’ or ‘may I?’) or pauses or fillers are used effectively by the Americans in communicating. In any meeting with them, there is always a lot that is unsaid and unspoken, but occurs on the side (see Chapter 19 on vocal variety and the use of pauses and silences). There is a sub-text to the meeting and we need to watch out for any indications of tension, disagreement, dislike and so on. The eye contact (or lack thereof), the way they sit in the chair or the grimace on their faces can all be indicative of bigger things at play. Likewise, they are experts in observing our body language or any other clues we might transmit (see Chapter 18 on body language). Note that even body language can be culture-dependent. Don’t interpret an American gesture using Indian sensibilities and likewise, try to educate your American counterparts about some standard Indian body language components that may otherwise lead to wrong conclusions.

39.5 In Summary

English-language skills—on topo fall the other soft skills that we have described in this book—can be a powerful asset in your grab bag of soft skills. In a number of job interviews, a command of English can tilt the process in your favour. An ability to talk in English without a heavy accent is still considered a measure of your smartness in many circles. Whatever may be the conventional wisdom on English-language skills, it is definitely to your advantage to sport a good command of English if you want to thrive in today’s business world. So start today!

 

Fig. 39.1