inlingua bangalore celebrates International Womens`s Day the whole week by offering a discount of 20% on all courses for women’s.

Every week we will be sharing cultural practices of the various countries. This will the do’s and don’ts of cultural norms in various countries around the world.

Foreign language programs requires students to learn about the cultural practices of the countries in which their language of study is spoken. These tips and videos could be helpful for introducing or reminding students of some of those lessons. These videos could also be very valuable if you are going on a trip outside of their native country

You may be genuinely using it to say:
“I respect you as a person, but I’m about to disagree with you“

which is fine, but you could also be saying:

“I’m pretending to be respectful because you are in a position of authority and I have to, but actually I think you’re a fool. As long as I keep pretending, though, you can’t do anything about it.”
The difficulty, of course, lies in the fact that the other person has no way of knowing what you really meant; they might assume it’s the latter, when really it wasn’t. Students could find themselves unexpectedly in the doghouse, simply because they tried to be a bit ambitious in their language choice.

Two-thirds of Europeans can now speak English, a survey shows.

More than 300million use English as their first foreign language and half of these regard themselves as fluent.

The research marks the eclipse of French, historically the language of diplomacy.

Fewer than one in eight European adults can make themselves understood in it.

And it raises questions about the £1billion a year spent by Brussels translating every official document and speech by EU politicians and bureaucrats into the 23 recognised languages of the bloc.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘It’s only right that the EU institutions think carefully about every penny they spend to ensure that they’re getting the most from their money.

‘Governments across the EU are reining in their spending  -  EU institutions should do exactly the same.’

The survey by Eurostat, the EU’s statistics arm, found that English is the first foreign language studied in primary schools in every country outside Britain and Ireland except Luxembourg, where children study German. In secondary schools, English is the first choice in every EU country.

German is the second most common language in Europe, with one in five saying they can speak it, the survey found.

The report said knowledge of French was ‘low’ compared with English, German and Russian.

We often interpret the world around us through the prism of our cultural roots and language categorises our experiences. For example, in Dyirbal, an Australian aboriginal language, balan is a lexical category coined to refer to women, fire and other dangerous things, as well as exceptional animals. This illustrates the fact that languages reflect communicational needs specific to their people and learning a language implies embarking on a long and exciting journey that will enhance your communicational skills and raise your cultural awareness and sensibility.

We know by now that language, defined by the people it serves, shapes their interactions with each other and the world around them. It is clear then that language training is not only a matter of memorizing a series grammar rules and repeating topical vocabulary. Although these are key activities that should not be overlooked, acquiring a new language equals learning a new skill for life. You need to understand surface concepts and structures but also have to discover aspects you can connect with. Familiarise yourself with its culture, food, people, places… Connect with your new language and discover a new passion. Give yourself the chance to use your new skills as often as possible to make the language learning process as effective as it can be.

Here is a list of tips to help you during your language training course:

Study out loud: by doing this, you engage your auditory memory. You may be used to relying on your visual memory when reviewing notes and reading textbooks. As strange as it sounds, this new form will keep you motivated and help you with pronunciation at the same time.

Do little and often: do not be tempted to go through your notes at the last minute. Learning a foreign language requires perseverance. It is more effective if you practise a few minutes each day as it is easy to lose a new skill due to lack of use.

Take intensive courses regularly: by treating yourself to a few intensive language training sessions every now and then, you will see results faster and have the chance to recycle and consolidate the areas you have learnt in your extensive training.

Enjoy the cultural experience: whether it is eating typical food, watching local movies, following a sports team or visiting the country whenever you can, make an effort to include aspects of your new language in your everyday life.

Recycle: try to review old material and combine familiar information with new topics. Language learning is a cumulative process.

Keep your perfectionist side at bay: too much attention to detail can hinder your progress. Aim for communicative competence rather than lexico-grammatical perfection. Mistakes are part of learning. Accept them and focus on getting your message across, understanding what happens around you and – above all – enjoying a journey of discovery.

Bearing in mind and applying these advices during your language training course will greatly help you to learn quickly and efficiently.

1. How attractive is teaching as a career in India in general?
2. What is the reason behind the English graduates choosing fields other than teaching as profession?
3. Is there any appropriate formulated initiative in India to raise the number of English teachers in training?
4. Has the government decided what the probable number of teachers required to be trained is in order to meet the demand in, maybe, the next 10 years?
5. Are there enough institutions training teachers?

Some others, about the quality of English teachers/education, are below.

1. What is the minimum qualification for school teachers? Is there any standardisation of qualification for the primary school teachers teaching English across India?
2. In some states the minimum qualification set for the teachers of English is far lower than the others. So is bad English being perpetuated through the system?
3. What type of pre-service training do they undergo?
4. What kind of training is going on in pre-service level and how practical is it?
5. Are the pre-service training institutions calibrated completely against the needs of the teachers?
6. Are the skills of the teacher educator the skills which are needed to produce methodologically and linguistically competent teachers?

What is your opinion on these issues? Please write in your comments, would love to hear your ideas.