Indian college graduates need some training in English

I came to India in order to access its workforce and I expected that all college graduates have strong language skills in English. After I spent a couple of months, I found that Indian college graduates have a lot of potential to become great workforce; however, they need some training when jobs require them to speak and write in English especially when they work for companies headquartered in US, UK, Australia and Canada(and other English speaking countries). The followings are areas in which they need some training.

Indian college graduates tend to write incomplete sentences and make many grammatical mistakes. Also they omit commas, periods and apostrophes. They often forget to capitalize certain letters, too. When they are instructed to not make those mistakes, they make a lot less mistakes. Also in most cases, they can find mistakes that they make. However, some training is definitely needed in this area so that they write properly subconsciously. All courses in college are taught in English expect for language courses like Hindi, Chinese and Spanish, but after all, they are not used to speak and write in English as a part of their daily life; this is probably the reason why they make mistakes that even they recognize.

Another common problem is spelling; more specifically, too many words are spelled in the way that they are often used in chartrooms and text messaging. While they understand that they cannot use spellings used in chartrooms and text messaging when they write official documents, they subconsciously use those spellings because it is a habit. Some training is needed in this area also.

Also Indian college graduates have a recognizable accent. It it not absolutely necessary for them to change their accent, but they should learn how to speak slightly differently. For example, they can speak slowly. They can imitate Americans and British (and other English speaking people). While having an accent is not a technical problem, it can result in a communication problem. It is rather important that they recognize that they are not making any technical mistakes in this regard, but it is also important that they need to change the way in which they speak slightly when they speak with Americans and British (and other English speaking people).

Over all, Indian college graduates have good language skills in English, but they are a bit rough. They have a lot of potential, but if they want to become competitive, some training in English is needed.

Edit: This article is written by J. Watanabe.

US education system gets something right

Many criticize US education system for right reasons, but US education system gets something right. It is a kind of education system that everyone has a chance to get education. Some might argue that the average college tuition is too high; others might argue that minority groups such as African Americans do not get equal opportunities in education. They are all correct, but it is very possible for everyone to get at least a Bachelor degree in US education system. This becomes very apparently when US education system is compared to education systems in other countries.

US education system does not really have a mandatory selection process applied to young students (e.g., students in 9th grade or 10th grade); many young students in US get K-12 education at private schools in order to enter top universities, but private school education is not necessary to get a Bachelor degree. They can even get degrees from top universities even if they do not go to private schools. This is because no university requires you to be younger than a certain age in order to apply or select a subject to study. It is totally up to you to decide when you want to enter a university. It is also totally up to you to decide what subject to study. All choices are more or less up to individuals. This is not exactly the case in countries like India. Students take an exam in 10th grade; the result of the exam is a part of mandatory selection process, and this more or less determines their future career. For example, if a student does well on the exam, he/she can study science and engineering. If he does modestly, then he can study practical subjects such as accounting and business. If he does not do well, he can only study one of remaining subjects such as History. There is nothing wrong with studying History, but the point is that there is a very rigid selection process, and students have to go through that process at a very young age. There are alternative paths, but the whole education system is definitely not as flexible as US education system.

Student loans are easily available in US. I do not encourage anyone to get any loan, but student loans are easily available. In other words, not having any money does not prevent anyone from getting education in US. Furthermore, number of scholarships are available; scholarships essentially give out free money. It takes a certain effort to get a scholarship, but every student has a fair chance to get a scholarship or two. There are ways to get around the problem of lack of finance to get education in US. This is not exactly the case in many countries. For example, in Japan, the word "scholarship" does not mean free money; it is simply another loan. More specifically, student loans are generally not available; one needs to get a scholarship in order to borrow money. There is a tremendous difference between (real) "scholarship" in US and "scholarship" in Japan.

Finally, there is virtually no discrimination in US education system. I am quite certain that many people in US disagree with the statement, but being compared to the education system in India, US education system has virtually no discrimination. For example, IIT, India Institution of Technology is the top university in India. It is a fine university, but it only accepts students from certain classes (castes). Is there anything like this in US? Not exactly. Anyone can get a degree from Cal Tech, MIT, Stanford or Princeton as long as he/she studies hard enough.

The current administration is not making a great effort to improve US education system, and I do not disagree with critics of the current administration in this regard. However, by comparison, few education systems in the world can match the flexibility of US education system. US education system gets something right.