By : Bobo Khuraijam/IFP 8/14/2007 1:14:19 AM
They came, they reap and they left. Some of our boys and girls have also left for Chennai. A company came here not so long ago. It was a big-a big company. They took four/five rounds of interview. Around two hundred candidates applied. Twelve short listed. The day before, it was announced over the All India Radio, in its prime time seven thirty news. Big news. Because it was a ‘foreign’ company and it caught the editor’s sense of ‘newness’. Otherwise it would have been announced in the employment news – Thabak-ki pao (the kind of news which energises people to arrange money). The editor deserves a pat on the back. Our radio people at times display sluggish attitude when requested to announce for some important deliberation. Saying that the request is deem fit for advertisement section. Was the MPSC exam in the Seven thirty news? Was it in the Thabak-ki pao? Or was it in the advertisement section? Thanks heaven, it was in the Seven thirty news.
An official comment :
One of the Company’s official shared his disappointment. That they could not pick more applicant as most of them have a ‘heavy accent’. For that reason, he left an illuminating advice, “‘our boys and girls should watch English movies”. So get ready with your DVD players boys and girls. Watch more English movies and join the company that never sleeps. Now, what is this ‘accent’ all about? For them it is the English language spoken preferably in the urban pocket, mostly in the metropolitan cities. It is where English education started, imparted solely to serve the colonial administration. No wonder, it became the official language even after the independence. The language is now learned and taught, read and written, spoken and juggled with in this part of the world as well. Evidently, the mad rush for ‘English schooling’ the children by their parents is very much in prevalence and is racing up. To add two/three spice of English words in a native sentence is a STATUS. (The medium of this article is also subject to heartless scrutiny, CONDITION APPLY). But these are not the issues. The point is: the company’s want for a right accent. They have clearly pointed out from where we can get the right accent. Unfortunately, they were not precise in pointing out the kind of English movies to be watch. Let us check it out. Hong Kong made English movies. Thailand made English movies? Italian? Indian made? Oh yes! We may be getting closer. For a better approach, let’s imagine an Indian English movie with the following star cast: Apj Abdul Kalam, Sonia Gandhi, Murli Manohar Joshi, PA Sangma, Pranab Mukherjee and Jashpal Bhati. So far, from whom shall we start to catch the right accent? Surely, this one will also prove to be a misadventure. One simple wise thing the company could have done is that they should not have wasted time by taking rounds of interview. Only a sentence could have done the needful: “preference would be given to Hollywood movie buff!”
To put it straight, they need people who would answer to the frantic quarries of their customers calling from all way across the seas in their own glorious accent. Those selected candidates will be given ‘accent training’ by ‘accent expert’. We should say, it is in a way re-inventing the pedagogy of English language communication. Does it ring a warning bell to our ‘English schools’? Do they owe us an explanation for not producing students with the right English accent?
No, not at all. One must agree that our dialect and its intonation will always reflect on any language we speak. It’s nobody’s fault. Native English speakers have varied accent according to the area specific. In order to communicate well some basic learning is always necessary. After that, one needs to concentrate and give a little focus on the stress of the syllable. It is also true that we can learn a language from movies too. Very recently, we find some young girls experimenting with South Korean language over the cellular phone. Thanks to the satellite channel Arirang. The channel occupies a big space in the fashion domain of the youngsters. We also find regular students of ‘spoken English’ faking BBC accent. Most of them end up like a Chagem Pomba dish cooked without Hawaijaar. Anyway, we wish a happy accentuating journey to the accent company.
Employment Guaranteed Nowhere:
In the everydayness of the unemployment picture in the country, the IT sector and BPO is booming. It also brings worries about the lack of new breed of researches in other industries. Heavy industries like aeronautics and space technology are on the verge of downfall. It has swallowed many promising minds, may be because of the overwhelming scope of the information super highway and may be because of the lucrative nature of the work. A chemical engineering graduate shifts his job to a software company. May be this will explain something. Yet, IT is not able to absorb the huge army of unemployed. So to say, it has a saving grace. Companies like TCS, Infosis and Satyam are giving employment to many. On the other hand, some radical economist argues that the Indian model of growth is not only a jobless growth but a job loss growth. BPO adds another dimension in the job market. ‘Out source’ is a new popular vocabulary. Companies outsource their work to a different country. The logic of the operation is – maximum profit from bargain able worker. For instance, the salary of an Indian employee would not be much of an headache to the company, given that the same job in assigned to an American. It is for this simple reason that overseas companies are interested in out sourcing their work. They know that there are millions hunting for job. They know our human resources are lying untapped. Graduates, post graduates, undergraduates. Not by choice but by adversity, our youths are compelled to answer the call from call centres. It was not a long affair during the college break; we called that a summer jobs, a part-time job, for pocket money. Now that BPO has arrived, a full-time job, that look like a part time is in the offing. Though some of them employed in BPO profess to enjoy the work, over qualified individual (human resource) are amongst the population – MBA graduates, Post graduates in English literature. And some of them have also return back owing to health problem. To stay awake in the night and to sleep by the day must have done something strange to the body. Doctor knows! Their only place for socialisation is the work place. Their only friends are their work place colleague. However, there are lessons which a government servant, specially Manipuries can learn from a BPO employee - WORK ETHICS, NO BACK DOOR ENTRY, INTEGRITY and most above all POLITENESS.
Note the end :
The uninitiated establishment might consider this enough of an opportunity to find a job. Picture here at home is grimmer. The state government is at a perpetual lost to create Job Avenue. They have lost their vision compounded by their weak political eyesight. Half a million jobless youth, sickening dependency on the centre and exist at the mercy of the planning commission. And we display to the world our primal instinct by fighting over percentage cuts. We glorify our history in this inglorious present, we blow our cultural trumpets with Chauvinistic delight. Amidst this theatrics, BPO company steps in with glossy poster which read - CAREER CARNIVAL. They left with a promise to give employment to 0.0024% of the unemployed.
Others have travelled beyond the Moon and the Sun;
We are still tangled in the first ray of the rising sun.
– ABDUL HAMMED
They came, they reap and they left. Some of our boys and girls have also left for Chennai. A company came here not so long ago. It was a big-a big company. They took four/five rounds of interview. Around two hundred candidates applied. Twelve short listed. The day before, it was announced over the All India Radio, in its prime time seven thirty news. Big news. Because it was a ‘foreign’ company and it caught the editor’s sense of ‘newness’. Otherwise it would have been announced in the employment news – Thabak-ki pao (the kind of news which energises people to arrange money). The editor deserves a pat on the back. Our radio people at times display sluggish attitude when requested to announce for some important deliberation. Saying that the request is deem fit for advertisement section. Was the MPSC exam in the Seven thirty news? Was it in the Thabak-ki pao? Or was it in the advertisement section? Thanks heaven, it was in the Seven thirty news.
An official comment :
One of the Company’s official shared his disappointment. That they could not pick more applicant as most of them have a ‘heavy accent’. For that reason, he left an illuminating advice, “‘our boys and girls should watch English movies”. So get ready with your DVD players boys and girls. Watch more English movies and join the company that never sleeps. Now, what is this ‘accent’ all about? For them it is the English language spoken preferably in the urban pocket, mostly in the metropolitan cities. It is where English education started, imparted solely to serve the colonial administration. No wonder, it became the official language even after the independence. The language is now learned and taught, read and written, spoken and juggled with in this part of the world as well. Evidently, the mad rush for ‘English schooling’ the children by their parents is very much in prevalence and is racing up. To add two/three spice of English words in a native sentence is a STATUS. (The medium of this article is also subject to heartless scrutiny, CONDITION APPLY). But these are not the issues. The point is: the company’s want for a right accent. They have clearly pointed out from where we can get the right accent. Unfortunately, they were not precise in pointing out the kind of English movies to be watch. Let us check it out. Hong Kong made English movies. Thailand made English movies? Italian? Indian made? Oh yes! We may be getting closer. For a better approach, let’s imagine an Indian English movie with the following star cast: Apj Abdul Kalam, Sonia Gandhi, Murli Manohar Joshi, PA Sangma, Pranab Mukherjee and Jashpal Bhati. So far, from whom shall we start to catch the right accent? Surely, this one will also prove to be a misadventure. One simple wise thing the company could have done is that they should not have wasted time by taking rounds of interview. Only a sentence could have done the needful: “preference would be given to Hollywood movie buff!”
To put it straight, they need people who would answer to the frantic quarries of their customers calling from all way across the seas in their own glorious accent. Those selected candidates will be given ‘accent training’ by ‘accent expert’. We should say, it is in a way re-inventing the pedagogy of English language communication. Does it ring a warning bell to our ‘English schools’? Do they owe us an explanation for not producing students with the right English accent?
No, not at all. One must agree that our dialect and its intonation will always reflect on any language we speak. It’s nobody’s fault. Native English speakers have varied accent according to the area specific. In order to communicate well some basic learning is always necessary. After that, one needs to concentrate and give a little focus on the stress of the syllable. It is also true that we can learn a language from movies too. Very recently, we find some young girls experimenting with South Korean language over the cellular phone. Thanks to the satellite channel Arirang. The channel occupies a big space in the fashion domain of the youngsters. We also find regular students of ‘spoken English’ faking BBC accent. Most of them end up like a Chagem Pomba dish cooked without Hawaijaar. Anyway, we wish a happy accentuating journey to the accent company.
Employment Guaranteed Nowhere:
In the everydayness of the unemployment picture in the country, the IT sector and BPO is booming. It also brings worries about the lack of new breed of researches in other industries. Heavy industries like aeronautics and space technology are on the verge of downfall. It has swallowed many promising minds, may be because of the overwhelming scope of the information super highway and may be because of the lucrative nature of the work. A chemical engineering graduate shifts his job to a software company. May be this will explain something. Yet, IT is not able to absorb the huge army of unemployed. So to say, it has a saving grace. Companies like TCS, Infosis and Satyam are giving employment to many. On the other hand, some radical economist argues that the Indian model of growth is not only a jobless growth but a job loss growth. BPO adds another dimension in the job market. ‘Out source’ is a new popular vocabulary. Companies outsource their work to a different country. The logic of the operation is – maximum profit from bargain able worker. For instance, the salary of an Indian employee would not be much of an headache to the company, given that the same job in assigned to an American. It is for this simple reason that overseas companies are interested in out sourcing their work. They know that there are millions hunting for job. They know our human resources are lying untapped. Graduates, post graduates, undergraduates. Not by choice but by adversity, our youths are compelled to answer the call from call centres. It was not a long affair during the college break; we called that a summer jobs, a part-time job, for pocket money. Now that BPO has arrived, a full-time job, that look like a part time is in the offing. Though some of them employed in BPO profess to enjoy the work, over qualified individual (human resource) are amongst the population – MBA graduates, Post graduates in English literature. And some of them have also return back owing to health problem. To stay awake in the night and to sleep by the day must have done something strange to the body. Doctor knows! Their only place for socialisation is the work place. Their only friends are their work place colleague. However, there are lessons which a government servant, specially Manipuries can learn from a BPO employee - WORK ETHICS, NO BACK DOOR ENTRY, INTEGRITY and most above all POLITENESS.
Note the end :
The uninitiated establishment might consider this enough of an opportunity to find a job. Picture here at home is grimmer. The state government is at a perpetual lost to create Job Avenue. They have lost their vision compounded by their weak political eyesight. Half a million jobless youth, sickening dependency on the centre and exist at the mercy of the planning commission. And we display to the world our primal instinct by fighting over percentage cuts. We glorify our history in this inglorious present, we blow our cultural trumpets with Chauvinistic delight. Amidst this theatrics, BPO company steps in with glossy poster which read - CAREER CARNIVAL. They left with a promise to give employment to 0.0024% of the unemployed.
Others have travelled beyond the Moon and the Sun;
We are still tangled in the first ray of the rising sun.
– ABDUL HAMMED
Source: Imphal Free Press
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