The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Accent trouble: Tharoor has a way out

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Saturday, Apr 19, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Accent trouble: Tharoor has a way out

G. Anand

His training facility will not make Malayalis sound like Americans. The aim is clarity in communication.

Shashi Tharoor

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala’s youth need to express themselves better in English if they are to do the kind of work the 21st century world needs, says Shashi Tharoor, former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and acclaimed writer.

Mr. Tharoor, who is starting a modern business communication skills training facility at the Technopark here in May, told The Hindu that young graduates from Kerala (the main recruitment pool for global businesses based in Technopark) were “very good in science but not so good in expressing themselves in English.”

Tongue-tied

Quoting heads of Technopark-based firms with whom he interacted recently, Mr. Tharoor said most young employees “had a book knowledge of English.” They could write a paper, but could not articulate their ideas confidently in English. Their accent was incomprehensible to most non-Keralites. Hence, such employees, even though highly talented, could not be presented before foreign clients.

Kerala’s future lies in the serious development of its knowledge industry. Most global employers rated employees with good communication skills higher than those with just professional abilities. “If this is the trend in management today, Keralites cannot afford to be left behind,” he said.

Expert at work

Mr. Tharoor has hired eminent U.S.-based speech language pathologist Tina L. Parson as executive director (training) for his Afras Academy for Business Communication (AABC). She has designed the course which uses the latest computer-based interactive voice recognition software for training students.

Mr. Tharoor said the idea was not to make Malayalis sound like Americans. The objective is to help them communicate clearly. It does not matter if this clarity comes with a particular sort of word pronunciation. “Not everybody attending the course will sound alike at the end of it. They will just sound better,” he said.

Scholarship and fee

The academy will offer a limited number of scholarships for trainees from poor families.

The two-month course will cost a student approximately Rs.30,000. A batch will consist of less than 15 students.

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