LearnEd Blog

Tried Deconstructed Burgers? Now Try Deconstructed Conversations!

When you smile, you don’t realise just how many muscles in the body come together to produce that smile. Just like that, when we speak at a mile a minute, we don’t realise just how much the brain works to produce that perfect sentence. Today, take a few minutes to deconstruct that.

Our mastery of language, as we know it, depends on two primary factors:

The Mechanics

This is the bit that most of us think we have difficulty in mastering. Those countless hours spent struggling to understand cases, tenses, voices, phrases and clauses, and yet they often elude us when we need them. Trust me, for some of us, the Wren and Martins are just as scary as those monstrous Math textbooks. Fear aside, my point being that the mechanics of language (grammar, spelling and syntax) form the skeleton of the written language. These help us put our ideas into a tangible thought through simple or complex sentences. The ‘correctness’ of these is elementary, especially in the written form as you may not be able to use any other verbal or cultural cues to further elaborate your point.

Communication Strategy

If you’ve followed us so far, you are clearly equipped with the basic language mechanics that help you read and write fairly well. However, what holds us back, contrary to popular belief, is not grammatical skills or a poor vocabulary, but the second element of language- effective communication strategy. When we find the right impact that we wish to get across, the right vocabulary usage comes to you even more easily than you’d imagine.  Communication strategy is a combination of skillful listening, awareness, and appropriate language use to thus clearly explain what you so passionately wish to say.  Listening to the other person, not just hearing them, will help with enough social and linguistic clues to help with this. It is the ability to use your language in a way that you can move closer to your desired outcome.

Think of the burgers again. If you have to order food at a restaurant, you look at the menu and then begin ordering, right? The menu is where you find your cues. Communication strategy works in the same way.

For example, if you have to sell a product to a certain buyer just by speaking to them, where would you begin?

A. Listen to them. The more you know about the person you’re persuading – her personality, values, general profile, way of communicating, etc. – the better you can tailor your conversation to get closer to persuading her.

B. Think through the best convincing arguments. This is strategy. Even if you think in a regional language, and translate it into English before uttering it, using the right communication strategy is a huge advantage for you.

C. Put the language you know to use. Now, figure out which part of the conversation you want to pursue, and introduce your point from there onwards. You need a variety of sentences and words for this, but if the direction of your approach is clear, your words and ideas will flow smoother.

With LeapOn, we aim to help polish this latter element, which in turn will bring enough systematic practice, and hence automatically improve the mechanics of your language too. Start today, and let the game take over all your worries about communicating effectively!

Ever heard a famous person speak and thought “Wow! I want to sound that good when I speak too”? Have you looked at a celebrity’s interview and admired their command over their answers?

If you have, time to take a minute and think about why!

One of the biggest challenges for any celebrity is, of course, to hone their art- be it acting, dance, sports or anything else. That is the first and foremost requirement. However, along with championing their craft, they also need to master the gift of gab. Celebrities often take lessons on how to communicate effectively, use the correct language, and be charming in whatever they have to say. It is this habit of theirs that we often label as charisma.

A lot of cricketers, especially ones from small towns in India and Pakistan are ridiculed for their lack of expertise when it comes to speaking in English. Hardik Pandya, a national cricketer from a small town in Gujarat talks about how he tackled this very dilemma. At 22, he credits the instant messaging app Whatsapp for achieving fluency in using English. For the last two years, he has extensively been using only English when texting. This is an innovative way of practicing, without it seeming like an added burden on your day!

Another famous cricketer, Virat Kohli, has also spoken publicly about how he worked very hard to change the image that had formed about him, as a ruffian on the field. He consciously switched to expressing himself more clearly and gently, and surrounded himself with people who do the same. He believes that he can now represent himself, his sport and his country at a world stage by speaking in English.

Kangana Ranaut is yet another case-study in this same pattern. She was notoriously picked at, because her English wasn’t in line with what most of us from metro cities believed to be correct. Over the years however, she has trained herself at length, and today she is a spokesperson for so many causes, all over the country and the world. Her hard work has paid off. Similarly. Michael Jordan says “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

At LearnEd, we wish to provide you with this same kind of boost and presentability. Your communication can make you stand out from the crowd- be it at work, at a party or just in a public place. Think of where good communication has brought these personalities today, and imagine how far it can take you! Let your practice begin today. Pick one channel, as Hardik Pandya did, maybe Whatsapp, but keep at it till you succeed!

“Whenever I have free time, I go to educational institutes to see what short courses they are offering that I can take.” Romit Vaghela tells me, rather freely. He works with raw material purchase and packaging for a major tea company, and has been with them for nearly nine years. Immediately, it amazed me that a man as senior as him was working so consciously on never stopping the learning process. When speaking to him, I’d never have realised that he had needed classes to help with communication.

“My job requires me to communicate with supplies all over India, so I need to be fluent in local languages as well as English, when speaking to clients and superiors.” With a job like Romit’s, extensive communication is a must- interaction with external partners, team members as well as prospective clients. The job also needs a lot of email to be sent back and forth, and fluency in English becomes a must. The apprehensions about acing these emails are huge, because any corporate or any company requires all communication to be put down in writing, and getting a mail right is the key to getting a lot of work done. With these same apprehensions, Romit too decided to find a way to help himself.

I asked him why he felt lacking in communication skills, and he gave me a reason that I have heard from so many people. He has a degree in commerce, and excelled at school, but his medium of education at school was Gujarati. “It isn’t like I don’t know English, I do, but most of us who have studied in the Gujarati medium have this innate fear of speaking in English which doesn’t allow us to be comfortable with ourselves.” About LearnEd, he said that he loved the fact that the course was not for absolute beginners, but for people who would be at 5-6 band score on an IELTS exam- people with the drive to learn more and excel.

Has LearnEd helped him on his path?

“Absolutely!”, he says, “Tarana and Neesha have been so kind and practical with me, helping me along in the course patiently. With the webinars and the game, Romit believes that his self-confidence has gone up a few notches now!

When asked about what he enjoyed about Project LeapOn, our mobile-learning platform, Romit had an interesting anecdote to share. “One of the printers in our office doesn’t work, and we have been trying for a while to get it replaced, but to no response from the IT team. Our communication with them was just orders, and they weren’t doing any good. After seeing the impact of forming personal connections with the characters in the app, I decided to try the same here. We invited the IT team over, sat with them for tea and conversation, personally showed them the malfunctioning printer, the way I’d seen it happen on the app.” Did it work, I asked. “The new printer should reach our office by next week!”

When asked about how else the course can benefit clients other than his personal experience, Romit spoke at length about how it can help one become more comfortable when preparing for English proficiency exams like GRE, IELTS and PTE. “The way the tutors give you advice, and the kind of exercises they give you, if you implement it regularly, you will see good scores for sure! However, for any kind of improvement, practice is necessary for you!” With this adage, Romit signs off.

I truly think that Romit is one of our favorite clients, having established his skill levels at work, he continues to demonstrate a will to learn, and to remain disciplined at it.

This could be you too, contact LearnEd today to see how we can help your communication skills!

Have you ever wondered how India ranks when it comes to English proficiency, as compared to the other countries of the world? Your curiosity ends here, because a lot of others have wondered the same too. The answer lies in EF’s EPI – an English Proficiency Index.

The EPI is calculated on the basis of an extensive, free English proficiency test. The test is free and open to all, the results of which are mapped to create the biggest ranking of regions as per the scores obtained by its people who appear for the test. Not only is the index dynamic, it also takes into account age, improvement and learning initiatives. It also balances the gender skew, and over 80 regions have been tested, with over one million test takers this year.

India is ranked at number 27 this year. The average proficiency score for India is 56.12, and India is the fourth on the list of all Asian countries! What is interesting is that India’s rank has been fluctuating, starting at number 30 out of 40 countries in 2011, to number 25 of 63 in 2014, to its current ranking of number 27 of 80 countries.

This growth can be attributed to an increase in education and communication skill-building opportunities for people of all ages, as well as more frequent practice at conversing in English, both in business and social situations. You can read more about India’s performance in this index here, and more about the index itself here.

LearnEd’s team strives to put India at the top of this index in the next few years. You can join our mission to, by working with LearnEd to improve your communication skills, today!

SEO- CALIBRATION SAMPLE

India is on the precipice of global business and communications. We all aspire to let our work reach out all over the world. One of the key reasons holding Indian businesses back currently from making our mark as much as we’d like is our English skill and proficiency level. Have you ever wondered how India ranks when it comes to English proficiency, as compared to the other countries of the world? Your curiosity ends here, because a lot of others have wondered the same too. The answer lies in EF’s EPI – an English Proficiency Index.

The EPI is calculated on the basis of an extensive, free English proficiency test, the results of which are mapped to create the biggest ranking of regions as per the scores obtained by its people who appear for the test. Not only is the index dynamic, it also takes into account age, improvement and learning initiatives. It also balances the gender skew, and over 80 regions have been tested, with over one million test takers this year.

India is ranked at number 27 this year. The average proficiency score for India is 56.12, and India is the fourth on the list of all Asian countries! What is interesting is that India’s rank has been fluctuating, starting at number 30 out of 40 countries in 2011, to number 25 of 63 in 2014, to its current ranking of number 27 of 80 countries.This growth can be attributed to an increase in education and communication skill-building opportunities for people of all ages, as well as more frequent practice at conversing in English, both in business and social situations. You can read more about India’s performance in this index here, and more about the index itself here. We recognise the trend now wherein companies are consciously investing in spoken English and business communication training to ensure that their employees up their skills, hence bringing up the performance of the company significantly. Yes, you can contribute to India’s growth on this index, and do it by pushing your own performance in English at all levels!

LearnEd’s team strives to put India at the top of this index in the next few years. You can join our mission too, by working with LearnEd to improve your communication skills, today! Our ten day accelerator program is designed to give your and your employees an intensive practice routine. You will be trained in English fluency by international facilitators and will have access to our specially designed communication strategy game app too! Team LearnEd will support you to achieve your  English goals and confidence boost in ten days flat! Contact us know to see how your business can benefit starting today!