I happened to see a scene while watching a movie titled Hridayam that was trending after the outbreak of pandemic. It was really funny to see a gang of students who stabbed the hero for talking to a girl, off course the heroine of the movie. Hero's friend heard some noise from the adjacent room of the hostel and he came running and saw his friend being beaten by a few other boys of the college. The friend was a North Indian and couldn't speak Malayalam. He just yelled at those boys in English a long, perhaps a very long sentence and the gang vanished as they heard his medium of communication.
Why didn't they reply? The simple reason was they knew only their Mother Tongue and couldn't retaliate in anyway as the one who spoke against was too fluent in English, which broke their confidence. The scene was funny. When I thought for a while, in real life too I could find many people who struggled a lot in society and in their profession as they couldn't handle the Universal language, English.
Some avoided clients who spoke in English and couldn't reap the benefits in their profession. A large percentage of population can't unfortunately express themselves in English. It is high time we understand the inevitability of the Universal language and bring to the notice of the Education system that institutions and teachers must be given the freedom to take necessary steps if one doesn't use or hesitates to speak in school and office in English language, especially in the developing nations. We must accept the truth that English is now widely used and has long back gained the position of the Universal language.
Imagine if we happen to move to another nation, what is the medium of language that connects people? What is the ultimate truth that we understand after getting humiliated by others just for not able to communicate in the target language effectively?
What we see is, however we try kids are hesitant to communicate in the target language especially in Kerala and many states in India. Teachers are helpless in this regard as however they try, students speak in MT. Even the adults in an office. The communication in English has to begin from a tender age. For that English communication must be made compulsory because the saddening fact is many talented and skillful people just roam around without a proper job though holding high degrees only due to the reason that they lack communication skill.
What do you think in this regard? What are the possible ways in which we can make students and also the professionals to speak in English effectively?