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A place to polish English skills

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A professional training academy with state-of the-art-facilities focusing on intonation, accent modification and other language skills that enable candidates to speak and understand English with ease — that is what Shashi Tharoor’s newly inaugurated Afras Academy for Business Communication aims at. “This is not a finishing school,” said Mr. Tharoor, the former UN Under-Secretary General and chairman of the Dubai-based Afras Ventures, at the academy’s launch at the Technopark on Wednesday.

“Our aim is to make graduates and professionals more employable by honing their English speaking skills,” he said. According to Mr. Tharoor, graduates from the State, though competent in technical knowledge, lags behind when it comes to speaking English fluently.

The academy plans to improve language skills with its interactive vocal instruction technologies, speech analysis systems, graphic representation of speech patterns and combinations of written and oral techniques.

The eight-week course, beginning from June, is divided into four modules: Language and grammar, accent modification, presentation skills and business etiquette. Tina L. Parsons, a speech pathologist and voice specialist from New York, will be the executive director, training, of the academy. Each batch will have 20 students. The fee is Rs.30,000 plus taxes.

Governor R.L. Bhatia inaugurated the academy. Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan presided over the function.

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