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Learning foreign languages has become a priority
Staff Reporter
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Moving into another country provides another incentive to learn a new language. Whether on an assignment or a project, or a migration, or for study, people feel the need to learn the language of the country to which they are going.
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Bangalore:
With Bangalore's business process outsourcing companies, and software development and IT-enabled services firms increasingly dealing with clients in the non-English speaking world, learning foreign languages other than English has helped many to shape their careers well.
With this, foreign language teaching institutions have become an industry on their own. Be it French, German, Japanese, Chinese and even Russian, scores of people from all walks of life are heading towards such schools for a variety of reasons. "It will help me in my career," says Jaydeep, an automobile designer, who is learning German. With international customers interested in Bangalore as a potential market, learning foreign languages can be useful, he adds.
"It adds to that necessary edge," says Anuradha Narayan, Director, Alliance Francaise. Language barriers are torn down. There is no need for expensive mediators and an all round rapport is established with the customer, resulting in nothing but good for the company's reputation. "Companies encourage their employees to learn foreign languages," says Ms. Narayan. Jeyenthi Srinivasan, coordinator of languages, Max Mueller Bhavan, agrees with her. "With Germany being the third powerful economy in the world, learning German has become a useful thing for such professionals," she says. In fact, companies even offer higher salary and other perks to professionals who have at least one foreign language on their resumes. Moving into another country provides another incentive to learn a new language. Whether on an assignment or a project, or a migration, or for study, people feel the need to learn the language of the country to which they are going. "I am going to Germany after my marriage," says Sri Lakshmi. "That's why I am learning German," she adds.
Reshma, an architect, agrees with her. "I want to study in Germany," she says. "Learning the language of that country will help me in everyday conversations and interactions," she adds. With more people getting more assignments abroad, learning foreign languages becomes a priority for them. "It is impossible to live in Japan without knowing Japanese," says Akbar. "My assignments there are long, so learning the language of that country has become a necessity for me," he says.
And now with countries such as Germany offering postgraduate courses free of cost, more students are joining foreign language institutions. Such institutions offer several facilities, including library and use innovative interactive methods of teaching. They make sure that students have a good knowledge of the language and culture of the country before they go there. A good attendance is insisted upon and various levels have been instituted. A pass in the level-end examination is required to move up. While some institutions set the syllabus and conduct examinations, others, which exist more on the global scale, have their examinations conducted centrally, where students receive internationally valid certificates after the completion of each level.
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
|
