In English, please...

I guess you can say that I have been fortunate enough with the gift of words. Speaking well both in Filipino and English always came naturally to me and I have been complimented more than once for it. Early on, I discovered a passion for writing and as I was growing up, an innate skill and love for public speaking. 

When I first started out in the world of business and knowledge process outsourcing, the constant dilemma was speaking in English. No, not that I wasn't good enough at it but its always a challenge to turn off your native tongue. Some Filipinisms in one's speech is a little too inconvenient at times. It was then I first entered EOZs (English Only Zones) and learned to embrace EOP (English Only Policy).

In general most Filipinos are also lucky - we are adaptable to changing our accents as easily as we adapted them. This is also the reason by BPO/KPO operations began flooding in from neighboring countries years back.

Coming back to English and its improvement, I did some online reading and digested some information which I think would be beneficial for those of you who wants to keep on improving their knowledge of the language.

But then you might ask, why is it important again?


All right, let's go through some quick facts. The origins of English began in the 5th century AD with the Anglo-Saxons. It is divided in to 3 periods: the Old English, Middle English and the Modern English. So as you can see, it is an old yet very much alive and equally rich and growing language.

Having been around for that long time, numerous historical and significant word has been uttered, written or expressed in this language. To date, about 1.5 billion speaks English making it one of the most widely used language worldwide.

The number one benefit of improving skills in speaking or writing in English is: efficiency. In this fast-phased world we live in, when we communicate, we want to make sure we understand what the other person or party is saying and of course, we also want to be understood. It saves time, builds people's confidence and boosts your morale.

So, how do we improve then?

Expand your vocabulary.

Writing this I am currently doing research on social media revolution. I saw this video on YouTube which stated that there are about 540,000 words in the English language, so when people tell you you should learn at least one word a day, its probably wise not to settle. Try going for 5 or 10 since the average person lives for only 25,000 days, figure might look a little too grim but 25,000 days roughly translates to 68.49 years.

So to help you get started, here are some tips I digested from some trusty sites:

• Be honest. Admit that you need improvement in some areas and be sure to identify them.
• Have a goal. This defines clearly what you want to achieve. Goals will help you get motivated and will determine whether you have succeeded or not.
• Study. You might say this is the oldest trick in the book but this is also the only one that works. Without that commitment to improve and actually working on it, you're not gonna make much progress not just in English, but in anything. Give it a few minutes a day, that's all there is to it.
• Read. Newspapers, books, blogs - reading different materials both printed and electronic widens your vocabulary. It also offers familiarity with the arrangement of words, grammar and colloquialisms.  
• Write. The written words are different from the spoken ones. When we speak most of the time we immediately blurt out what's on top of our heads. This is different in writing since you get time to choose the words and even edit them before sending, saving or printing. Start a blog - make it a personal journal, who knows you might enjoy it and find a niche.
• Listen. Music, conversations, radio programs and pod casts not only help in expanding your vocabulary it also helps your diction. It augments gap between knowing and using some words because most of the time, even if we are familiar with a word or words we avoid using them because we don't know how to say them properly.
• Speak. Practice makes perfect. Confidence will come only if you get used to speaking the language as if it were your native one. Speech is the most basic form of communication and everything you've learned in the last four bullets above is best put to test via execution - hence, speak.
• Review. Taking notes of what you've learned whether in detail or through codes and bullets, its always wise to review to make sure things are committed to memory - like the new words you learn and certain things are understood - like tenses of verbs or the plural form of some words.
• Get others involved. Make it an effort to get some sort of support group - your friends, family classmates or co-workers can contribute a lot to your progress if you let them know what you are working on. 
• Explore. There are a lot of mediums to choose from and the internet provides you with limitless resources you can use. Online subscriptions, tests, learners networks, podcasts and countless others. Take advantage of technology.
• Take it easy. Don't rush, it'll only make learning less effective. Allow yourself some mistakes, after all they are building blocks which will makeup your proficiency.

And the last 2 tips: practice and have fun!