Try And Give A First Push And They Can Fly

I know how tough this can be for people who, for various reasons, haven't been able to pick up reasonably good English. In this large, English English English world. At the lower levels of achievement, one can get past with an okayish ability. But as people grow higher in the career, this can unnecessarily be a hindrance. People with real talents, like technical skills, management skills, creativity or even good communication skills in their native language, can get hampered by this little deficiency. In actual terms, this is a small part in their required skills kitty, but it's valued and viewed with great expectation by the world around. It's also not uncommon to see people with just English and some communication skills and no real productive talents get along forward for a while in life. This can be a setback to the ones with talents that see the untalented progress forward.
 
In some cases, it can also cause a bit of low self-esteem, unwarranted. But I have also seen small town guys being confident about what they are good at, say Organic Chemistry, even if they express it poorly in English. I like their irrepressible confidence. I have seen programmers with poor spelling crack a bug in minutes. I have also seen cases, where people with poor English, flaunt that they know English. It happens even in situations where they can perfectly convey the same in a better common language which they are comfortable with. That's a case of over-confidence or feeling low and covering it up with a flaunt. The best way to correct them will be help them to make what they fake. People get irritated at bad English. I get put off at times too. I crack some jokes and can be sarcastic on how they bungled up. At times, this can hurt if the person happens to be around and can't take it well. It's more important to correct its cause.
 
English shouldn't be a source of confidence, or its lack, a source of diffidence. A person's real character and talents should be. But  we live in a world that values these, sets the benchmarks based on those and expects the linguistically less endowed to compete with the rest,. So, it's good to equip yourself with good English. Take it as an investment in yourself and, believe me, the returns are more than what you can imagine.
 
The movie English Vinglish, starring the beautiful Sri Devi, captures some of these emotions, although the English learning part is less romanticised than the relationships part. The English classroom scenes seem a straight lift from the Mind Your English series, but the rest of the emotions are well-portrayed.
 
My English teacher in school was very patient, persistent but unrelenting to see that I pronounced and spelt words right. She also motivated me to participate in elocution competitions and debates in school. She encouraged me to write my own speeches offering to edit them. Even if they didn't contain anything much of fantastic value about topics like 'If I were the Prime Minister'. I feel funny when I think of those days. I remember her teaching me 5 different ways to say the dialog piece 'Cimber should be banished' from Julius Caesar.
 
I owe it to them for giving me a good English. My parents put me to the best school in town, although it was out of their means and they struggled during those years. They made me listen to the English news on the radio, even to my sulking at times. They made me read newspaper editorials in English atleast twice a week, even if neither they or me understood the difficult words and got only the "general picture" of a piece.
 
When I spot someone that needs help, I offer to help. True, sometimes, even the offer can be taken as "showing off", because you have to point out what they lack and where they err. In my case, even in a general conversation, I tend to get educative and preachy, like this. So, the person tends to think, 'Here goes the long lecture'.   But, if someone can get past that one hesitation and be tolerant to take advice or be corrected, it can be the start of a great learning journey.
 
If they are willing and if they are in my immediate environment, I have earlier offered to spare some time everyday or thrice a week to teach them. Results have been mixed, because of my own inconsistency or theirs. But where I have done, it has been of value to them and me. I had been able to help only four or five people personally by tutoring exclusively on this. For a few others, like strangers or acquaintances who can't spare the time or when I am not available, at the least, I buy and gift them a rapid English conversation tutorial book that comes with an accompanying disk. I order it from the nearest metro and have a couple of pieces in stock handy all the time. I also offer to enrol them in a full-time or part-time English-speaking course, but only two had taken it.
 
I really don't know how much is the impact and how many even keep up the consistent application of effort, because people come in and go out of our lives and move on. But, even if it's not dramatic, if it has helped them give a first thrust, or they got the seed idea which germinated into conscious effort many years later in conducive conditions, that much of a good thing still.
 
I don't do this kind of work much nowadays, but it was enjoyable when I did. Recently, I started a little home project to teach my Mom to improve her conversational English, everyday after dinner, for 30 minutes. I got some course material used by institutes that help with this and I am using that material as an aid as we go along. We also try to have a reading practice for 5 minutes after lunch. Her vocabulary is not an issue, the grammar needs improvement. She comes up with how things work in Sanskrit, so we don't know, I might end up improving my Sanskrit, LoL.  She likes it, but sometimes she is just tired at the end of the day and in wind-up mode, so we just mutually agree to bunk, LoL. We only have to try and make sure it doesn't happen too often.