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To firstly introduce myself, I am born and raised in a tier-3 city where speaking English wasn't modus operandi, growing around with people that had little to no exposure to english as a language wasn't uncommon. This environment has plagued me to the point that I lag behind my peers when it comes to my communication skills. I in my first year believed this issue to be trivial in nature but interning at big law firms has revealed to me the damage it has done to my job prospects or my carrier in corporate law itself. The reason why I am writing this post here at LI is to welcome any advice from people who have went through this and have rose above it or any advice from people who have seen their loved ones go through it. Please no trolls as it is matter of my entry into the corporate world. We already know how tough is to get into the legal corporate considering the huge competition but limited jobs. Thank you
to misquote JSD we are burdened by the language of the foreigners
before someone rages, just check the wiki page of the origin of these languages, sure they are outside of the akahnd bharat
sanskrit, at least the earliest bits (all proto-indo aryan languages), were made for pastoral popu, they had several dozen words for grass, why would settled people need so many names for grass, once sanskrit entered the peshawar basin it slowly dropped all those earlier words and repurposed them for plains
The only way to get good at it is first to be exposed to a LOT of it - so (if you don't already) watch lots of stuff in English - news, movies, podcasts, whatever. Hundreds and thousands of hours (yes it will take time).
In conjunction with that, just speak a lot - speak as much as you can, to other people but also just to yourself when alone etc. The more you do this, the better you will become and the more you will start thinking in English instead of thinking in Hindi and translating to English (which is the biggest barrier for most people when moving towards fluency - you can't sound fluent if you are thinking in Hindi and translating into English).
Look into the "Comprehensible Input" theory of language learning - there's lots on YouTube. But basically all you need is lots of exposure (until you can comfortably understand English movies without strain or missing anything - if you're already at that level you can go to speaking) and then speak as much as possible. Don't waste your time studying grammar and things like that - it's like learning to play tennis by watching tennis videos instead of actually swinging a racket. Just learn like babies learn their mother tongue.
I did a couple of things from age 18-25 years:1. Memorize lyrics and sing along with Bryan Adams or other slower and regular English singers while reading the song lyrics off the cassette insert (yes, I'm old) - this helped the most along with micro exposures explained below.
2. Go to McDonalds and other similar chains and place orders in English to get micro exposures.
3. Seeing things and then describing it to myself mentally in English. Basically, talking to myself mentally in English.
4. Wishing strangers in public settings, Hello How are you! Good morning etc. - again micro exposures.
5. Talking to my sibling and close friends in (broken) English - another micro exposure.
6. Reading random articles on Wikipedia and opening the dictionary for each new word I'd encounter and then memorizing the usage and spelling.
7. Reading English newspapers aloud.
8. Typing randomly in Microsoft Word and learning from the corrections (grammar) feature.
9. Writing randomly on paper to become better at writing (not just speaking).
10. Doing the above repeatedly for a few years to become passable at it.