trouble speaking ENGLISH? A story

 Ever since my childhood I have been quite confident. It was around 6 years ago, in my first year at engineering college, when I had kinda felt hostile and under-confident. Not because I had come out to a different city for studies; neither because of my family’s financial status.

 

I was under-confident because I felt, I was in a different country all together, since everyone around in the class was speaking in ENGLISH, even for a casual talk.

Moreover the lecturing was also in the same medium.

That was something new for me as I was one of few students in the class, who studied their schooling in vernacular language; even teachers in school, never spoke in English.

 

It occurs funny to me now but It was a big deal back then :-D

 

Like many I too received "spoken English" tips like- watch Hollywood movies, read news papers a loud, listen to POP-Rap and start thinking in English etc etc. Tried all of them but did not feel much of a difference and hadn't got much of confidence.

 

Then I reached out to one of my mentors at an educational camp, she asked me one simple question- “How did you learn your mother-tongue, Konkani?”

 

That question forced me to introspect and I asked to myself – “How did I learn it? In-fact, how does a child learn any language and start speaking it?”

 

Answer was simple—the child listens to others carefully; it mimics and most importantly It speaks to express its thoughts & emotions; it never bothers about it’s mistakes. But when the same child becomes an adult, he/she pays so much attention to his/her mistakes and worries “what others think about him/her”.

That is why most of us are scared of committing mistakes before even trying new things.

 

Post that I realized, I had never tried speaking out loud in English (communicated my thoughts in English), I had spent months of time in first year of college, thinking “what if I speak wrong?”

After that realization, things went smooth; I started speaking out my thoughts in English, paying least attention to beauty of expression rather than focusing more on communicating the message and also gotten rid of fear of “being judged”. It is then I gained my confidence back.

 

I believe some of my Kannada/Hindi medium friends can empathize with me here :-)

 

Last week when one of my friends/junior asked me for tips to improve his English communication skills. I started by asking same question – “How did you learn your mother-tongue?”

top 5 things I learnt from SSB preparation

I have been defense(Navy in specific) aspirant for a considerable period infact still I am its just that my age crossed the intake age of Indian Navy. Today I am a Data Analyst at a named MNC but the zeal to join armed forces is still intact. I still get goosebumps when I watch POP parades or RD parades. I feel blood rush when I listen to a soldier speaking with pride or I read a battle ops story. It reminds me of my NCC days and also awakes my imagination of being a part of Indian Navy donning white Crisp uniform with Nelson rings on my shoulders.

On the positive side I feel fortunate that I was able to crack exams and I was able to experience THE SSB interview and learn some bits from its preparation process and experience. At least I am not guilty of not trying. 

This blog is part of such reflections. In this blog I have listed top 5 learnings from my SSB preparation/journey which currently helping me in my professional life or life in general.

1)Story telling:

Most of us as a part of SSB preparation we spend time in writing PPDT,TAT, SRT and WAT responses.  For me this has been wired into my head that whatever I explain or whichever situation I explain in my personal or professional life I tend to follow a structured format of 

• setting premise(what lead to the situation), 
• explaining item of focus (what is currently happening)
• conclusion or action plan (what is the way forward)

essentially we follow the same or similar format in TAT or PPDT.

I would like to frame in a way that 'practicing TAT, PPDT and to some extent lecturette has helped me to inculcate art of story telling'.

2)Structured thinking while faced with practical problem:

Most of the people get tensed and startled when they are thrown with real life practical problem. they get tensed especially when it is time bound. 

SSB is essentially a test of personality involving problem solving - a lot of problem solving. It is a unique interview where a candidates responses are collected or observed while he was put in a problematic situations. The situation could be psychometric involving TAT, SRT and WAT or it could be ground tasks involving PGT, HGT and command tasks core agenda remains the same to find how sorted you are mentally.

while solving or practicing such time bound problems I observed that essentially muscle of structured thinking is getting trained. In way SSB preparation helped me to have a mindset of structured thinking. Today I find myself to be more calm and composed when I am faced with timebound practical problems.

NEXT 3 HABITS ARE SUCH WHICH ARE ESSENTIAL IN ANY CONSIDERABLE PURSUATIONS NOT ONLY SSB PREP THAT NEEDS. ITS JUST THAT I INCULCATED THEM WHILE PREPARING FOR ARMED FORCES.

 3)Consistency and habits:

Not only SSB, Preparation for anything for that matter needs consistency. Nothing significant can be achieved in a matter of few days - Its days of handwork and consistency in it which helps us achieve success of significance.

how someone can improve his/her fitness by matter of days? how will someone improve his/her GK by reading  a book for 4-5 days. but going for a run every day will help getting into better shape. reading news paper and books everyday will improve one's GK.

 Ultimately Its what you do every day that makes you what you are

This is how- I learnt the importance of  consistency and power of having good habits by my SSB/defense preparation.

4)Discipline:

Inline with earlier point about consistency and habit-  discipline is one such integral component of preparation cycle. discipline in simple word is doing things in right way at right time.

THE ABOVE 2 POINTS HAVE HELPED ME TO BE ORGANISED.

5)Planning and staying ahead:

This is not SSB preparation but working towards anything larger than yourself makes you well organized and well planned person. 

For me SSB preparation has taught planning and thinking steps ahead of current situation.  

and when you are planned you are calm, you are punctual and you are so many other things.

Bottom line:

Today when I reflect over my preparation to join Armed forces I feel not a single bit has gone waste. All the effort and hardwork have paid back in making me efficient in some or the other way. In other words all the preparation put towards has made me a better person otherwise it would have taken some time.