Smartness and eloquence

By S. A. Mansoor, Gulshan, Dhaka
10 May 2005, 18:00 PM
I was intrigued reading Shoaib Siddiqui's letter (DS: May 3) on the subject. Let me reassure you, Mr. Siddiqui, that some faux pas in English pronunciation will not greatly affect communication skills and smartness. Look at the Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Thai, Singaporean and Malaysian people. Their English intonation is not any better than the average Bangladeshi's, but it does not stop them from being smart and effective sales persons using their style of English speaking as the lingua franca! Of more importance is to improve verbal comprehension skill and try to use correct grammar when speaking as far as possible.

What is more worrying is the skill(or lack of it) in the use of correct grammar, especially in written communication where grammar acquires more importance. Misuse of a few appropriate prepositions is also very common. Why I saw this is that I know some teachers involved in teaching English communication skills in the ever growing crowd of private universities in Dhaka whose English, both spoken and written, leaves much to be desired grammar wise! I wonder what sort of product they will produce! Here I would like to conclude with my old engineering college principal's wise observation "If the students have not learnt, then the teachers have not taught." However for Siddiqui and his fellow students there is a ray of sunshine and hope. Please supplement your knowledge by utilising the exhaustive high quality information available in the Internet. After all, it is only a click away!