Dear Friends, I am sure that some of you were expecting this. I am really appalled at the lack of any semblance of proficiency in the use of English language among many librarians. I wonder how one could pass through some 17 years of schooling and even after that manage not to learn basics of English Language. It is regrettable that our present system of Education does not emphasize the importance of Language abilities. Because of selfish politicians promoting their own agendas at the cost of the nation and because of a tendency to promote or put up with mediocrity everywhere -- the necessity for striving for excellence is once in a way heard from our president, though -- students do not look at Language skills with any concern. Recently we had to recruit an Information Officer for our VIC. Out of about fifteen persons we considered, hardly two or three could measure up as far as basic English Language skills are concerned. On one hand we find the Indian librarians community in India to be prolific writers - even an entry level resume mentions two or three 'papers' published and on the other hand we find that their presentation and communication skills at horribly very low levels. What are reasons? How can this be changed? Who should take action? Is it OK to be where & how we are? What do LIS teachers have to say? In this lamentation I am not bothered about typing errors (may be you are just lazy - not that you do not know), spelling mistakes (heavy dependence on spell checkers), occasional slippages (it happens to everyone), unheard of abbreviations being thrust on everyone by cell phone (or email?) culture and the like. I am concerned with basic English Language skills expected of a tenth class student. Kindly do not take recourse to "It is the same everywhere - in all other preofessions too" type of argument. Dr.P.Vyasamoorthy, Advisor, Virtual Information Centre, ICICI Knowledge Park, Genome Valley, Turkapally, Shameerpet Mandal, RR District, Hyderabad 500078 INDIA Email: vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com Phone - Office: +91(40)23480053 Fax: +91(40)23480007 Phone Residence: +91(40)27846631
How many Librarians in East Europe, Japan, France, China and Russia
and many other countries know English. Haven't these countries
progressed ? If the Librarian has studied in Vernacular upto high
school, is it his fault ? Library Science teacher's are there to teach
Library Science and not English Language skills.
When you were recruiting an Information Officer, what was the basic
requirement ? Was it his skills in Information Management or English
language ?
You have a done a great disservice by writing highly unwarranted
mail. This will dissuade many Librarians from writing to this forum.
They all will develop inferiotity complex. Itis a national shame that
when two Indians...Librarians.... from different parts of the country
meet they have to communicate in English language. Have you ever
thought about conversing in Hindi ?
I jolly well know the importance of English language in the world. But
that doesn't mean that we have to look down upon our fellow
professionals who are not proficient in English. We have all become
slaves to English language and take great pride in being so.
I as a customer, have received many e-mails from your Organization and
I don't think ICICI as such attaches much importance to English
language skills and rightly so. Why is it that only you are so keen
about it when it is not an Institutional policy. Working knowledge of
the languages is more that sufficient for providing the services.
Unless ofcourse you are going to write a treatise.
Jayadev P Hiremath
On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 12:36:38 +0530, Vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com
Dear Friends,
I am sure that some of you were expecting this. I am really appalled at the lack of any semblance of proficiency in the use of English language among many librarians. I wonder how one could pass through some 17 years of schooling and even after that manage not to learn basics of English Language. It is regrettable that our present system of Education does not emphasize the importance of Language abilities. Because of selfish politicians promoting their own agendas at the cost of the nation and because of a tendency to promote or put up with mediocrity everywhere -- the necessity for striving for excellence is once in a way heard from our president, though -- students do not look at Language skills with any concern.
Recently we had to recruit an Information Officer for our VIC. Out of about fifteen persons we considered, hardly two or three could measure up as far as basic English Language skills are concerned.
On one hand we find the Indian librarians community in India to be prolific writers - even an entry level resume mentions two or three 'papers' published and on the other hand we find that their presentation and communication skills at horribly very low levels. What are reasons? How can this be changed? Who should take action? Is it OK to be where & how we are? What do LIS teachers have to say?
In this lamentation I am not bothered about typing errors (may be you are just lazy - not that you do not know), spelling mistakes (heavy dependence on spell checkers), occasional slippages (it happens to everyone), unheard of abbreviations being thrust on everyone by cell phone (or email?) culture and the like. I am concerned with basic English Language skills expected of a tenth class student. Kindly do not take recourse to "It is the same everywhere - in all other preofessions too" type of argument.
Dr.P.Vyasamoorthy, Advisor, Virtual Information Centre, ICICI Knowledge Park, Genome Valley, Turkapally, Shameerpet Mandal, RR District, Hyderabad 500078 INDIA Email: vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com Phone - Office: +91(40)23480053 Fax: +91(40)23480007 Phone Residence: +91(40)27846631
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Mr. Hiremath has a point about the fact that in many other countries, people do not speak such good English. But...................as far as I have noticed librarians from these countries presenting in International conferences, their presentation matter is something of absolutely high standards. So, I dont think we are then talking of a lack of only English. It may be one lack, but reality is that a majority of our people lack communication skills and presentation skills. I know exactly what Dr. Vyasamoorthy means. The problem today is not of any great English skills, but of the lack of the ability to write a "plain and simple covering letter" for a document. And incidentally, this is not restricted to librarians, but across the bunch of graduates. And - while I am sure all of us would be proud of having colleagues who speak excellent Hindi / Marathi / Gujarati / Tamil - or whichever of our innumerable languages, the harsh reality is that in India, the business language is English. If we wish to excel in our profession, then good, plain, simple English - written correctly is all that we need. Learning it is no big deal. All that is required is to kill two birds with one stone. While reading the newspaper or any English magazine article / stroy , focus on the correct use of language, in addition to absorbing the news. Do the same while watching the TV news / any English serial. I know of a librarian who studied upto BA in Tamil medium, in a small town in Tamil Nadu. She then moved to Mumbai, and learnt English to a level higher than what I am defining as minimum expectation, simply because she decided to do it. All it takes is "wanting to". Once one wants to - there are a million simple ways to do it. I am sure each of us who has written about the importance of English, is very willing to teach and help our colleagues working with us, to improve. If they want to Regards Vasumathi Sriganesh Director, QMed Services Pvt. Ltd. A-3, Shubham Centre, Cardinal Gracious Road Chakala, Andheri East, Mumbai 400099, India Ph: 91-22-28229223 Fax: 91-22-28224358 Mobile: 98211-14510 Email: vasu@qmedin.com, Web: www.qmedin.com
Dear All,
Why do we need high proficiency in English language ?
Keep aside why we are not so much comfortable and the reasons, the
history.
What action we are going to take for the same is important and think about
the benefits of doing so.
The world is becoming a global village.
So think globally.
Most of the people in world communicate in English, most of the literature
published is in English, all of us want to communicate with many people,
want to acquire more knowledge, want to do some thing creative and get
some award in life.
Librarian is not just a person who is handling books, he/ she has to
handle the people, has to play a role as a manager many times. So there
comes the importance of communication. A better communication can solve
many problems and gaps. So English is used as a medium for communication.
A step in our career ladder to grow further.
The ultimate purpose is to be satisfied, successful in our profession.
Thanks and regards
Shubhada Apte
TCS Library, Pune
Tata Consultancy Services Limited
1st Floor, Godrej Millennium,
9, Koregaon Park Road,
Pune - 411 001,Maharashtra
India
Mailto: shubhada.apte@tcs.com
Website: http://www.tcs.com
"Vasumathi Sriganesh"
Dear Friends,
I am sure that some of you were expecting this. I am really appalled at
Thanks Jayadev for your valuable remark.
I'd like to add that the attitude of the most of Indian is
"whoever speaks english fluently considered to be an erudite". Dr.
Vyasmurthy or Aman Jha is not an exception.
As Aman Jha pointed out that this is problem (so called problem) of Bimaru
States. But the fact is that it's Pan-Indian Problem (so called).
I also belong to same place (Saharsa, Bihar) where from Aman Jha is. I did
my graduation from the same place. I never had problem understanding or
writing english. As far as speaking is concerned I still talk to my
employees in Hindi though I work in MNC. Reason is most of employees
understand Hindi.
The Problem (real problem) is that we relate communication to English
language.
Thanks & Regards,
Farooque Shaheen,
Caritor India Pvt Ltd.
Bangalore-560004
Tel. 080-26678388 # 4105
Mobile-9342507449
Jayadev P Hiremath
Recently we had to recruit an Information Officer for our VIC. Out of
about fifteen persons we considered, hardly two or three could measure up as far as basic English Language skills are concerned.
On one hand we find the Indian librarians community in India to be
prolific writers - even an entry level resume mentions two or three 'papers' published and on the other hand we find that their presentation and communication skills at horribly very low levels. What are reasons? How can this be changed? Who should take action? Is it OK to be where & how we are? What do LIS teachers have to say?
In this lamentation I am not bothered about typing errors (may be you
are just lazy - not that you do not know), spelling mistakes (heavy dependence on spell checkers), occasional slippages (it happens to everyone), unheard of abbreviations being thrust on everyone by cell phone (or email?) culture and the like. I am concerned with basic English Language skills expected of a tenth class student. Kindly do not take recourse to "It is the same everywhere - in all other preofessions too" type of argument.
Dr.P.Vyasamoorthy, Advisor, Virtual Information Centre, ICICI Knowledge Park, Genome Valley, Turkapally, Shameerpet Mandal, RR District, Hyderabad 500078 INDIA Email: vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com Phone - Office: +91(40)23480053 Fax: +91(40)23480007 Phone Residence:
+91(40)27846631
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http://ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/mailman/listinfo/lis-forum
Thanks Jayadev for your valuable remark.
� � � � I'd like to add that the attitude of the most of Indian is "whoever speaks english fluently considered to be an erudite". Dr. Vyasmurthy or Aman Jha is � � � � not �an exception.
As Aman Jha pointed out that this is problem (so called problem) of Bimaru States. But the fact is that it's Pan-Indian Problem (so called).
I also belong to same place (Saharsa, Bihar) where from Aman Jha is. I did my graduation from the same place. I never had problem understanding or writing english. As far as speaking is concerned I still talk to my employees �in Hindi though I work in MNC. Reason is most of employees understand Hindi.
The Problem (real problem) is that we relate communication to English language.
Thanks & Regards,
Farooque Shaheen,
Caritor India Pvt Ltd.
Bangalore-560004
Tel. 080-26678388 # 4105
Mobile-9342507449
Jayadev P Hiremath
Dear Friends,
I am sure that some of you were expecting this. I am really appalled at the lack of any semblance of proficiency in the use of English language among many librarians. I wonder how one could pass through some 17 years of schooling and even after that manage not to learn basics of English Language. It is regrettable that our present system of Education does not emphasize the importance of Language abilities. Because of selfish politicians promoting their own agendas at the cost of the nation and because of a tendency to promote or put up with mediocrity everywhere -- the necessity �for striving for excellence is once in a way heard from our president, though -- students do not look at Language skills with any concern.
Recently we had to recruit an Information Officer for our VIC. Out of about fifteen persons we considered, hardly two or three could measure up as far as basic English Language skills are concerned.
On one hand we find the Indian librarians community in India to be prolific writers - even an entry level resume mentions two or three 'papers' published and on the other hand we find that their presentation and communication skills at horribly very low levels. What are reasons? How can this be changed? Who should take action? Is it OK to be where & how we are? What do LIS teachers have to say?
In this lamentation I am not bothered about typing errors (may be you are just lazy - not that you do not know), spelling mistakes (heavy dependence on spell checkers), occasional slippages (it happens to everyone), unheard of abbreviations being thrust on everyone by cell phone (or email?) culture and the like. I am concerned with basic English Language skills expected of a tenth class student. Kindly do not take recourse to "It is the same everywhere - in all other preofessions too" type of argument.
Dr.P.Vyasamoorthy, Advisor, Virtual Information Centre, ICICI Knowledge Park, Genome Valley, Turkapally, Shameerpet Mandal, RR District, Hyderabad 500078 INDIA Email: vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com Phone - Office: +91(40)23480053 Fax: +91(40)23480007 Phone Residence: +91(40)27846631
_______________________________________________ LIS-Forum mailing list LIS-Forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in http://ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/mailman/listinfo/lis-forum
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Dear All,
I agree with the views expressed by Dr Vyasamoorthy. He has
thrown up a major agenda item for Indian LIS teachers to think
about and take up urgent remedial steps: ENGLISH FOR
LIBRARIANS!
The logic is simple: A CONFIDENT LIBRARIAN IS A BETTER
LIBRARIAN. One of the major reasons for lack of confidence and
low self-esteem is poor communication and language skills. For
twenty-five years, I have witnessed emotions of annoyance, dismay,
frustration, anger, disgust, etc. on the faces of thousands of library
users when they couldn't comprehend what the LIS professional at
the issue counter was communicating. It's not that LIS professional
was unwilling to help; he (including myself) just couldn't
communicate properly.
I feel that adequate competency in spoken and written English is an
essential skill which Indian LIS professionals may find worthwhile to
acquire.
I do not know whether I like the tone of Mr Hiremath's email. Do we
need to be rude and impolite to express our point of view?
In our Company, every propective LIS professional has to appear
for a test in LIS as well as in English Language.
While I was pursuing Master of Communication and Journalism
course at Osmania Univ, my teacher Prof Bashiruddin used to
deduct half a mark for every speller in our test papers. He used to
say, "If you can't spell a word right, how you are going to be a good
editor?" Now, after twenty five years, while correcting the Master's
answer scripts of journalism students of Indian students, I find most
of them unable to construct sentences correctly and there are lot of
spellers. In fact, I found those students who were answering in their
mother tongue (Telugu) writing in beautiful, idiomatic language with
very few errors. The point I wish to make is that lack of English
competency skills is a problem which is not just limited to LIS
students but it is widespread in other disciplines as well.
There is no harm in offering a full Paper on Communication and
Social Skills for CLSc/BLISc students including topics like
communication concepts, organisational communication, public
relations, English for Librarians, presentation skills, conflict
management, ethical values, etc.
The question is not whether teaching of English falls within the
scope of LIS teachers' responsbility. The crucial point is to provide
the LIS manpower which is highly skilled and articulate.
Shall we recollect the beautiful examples of dialogues between a
reference librarian and the user provided by Dr S.R. Ranganathan in
his classic work titled "Reference Service". If we are to have such
professionally satisfying interactions with our users, then language
skills are an essential requirement. I feel that in the present days of
globalisation and market-driven economy, an Indian LIS
professional who is competent in spoken and written English is
likely to have better career options and growth.
Thank you
Sincerely
T.V. Prafulla Chandra
Senior Editor
Date sent: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param>Wed, 23 Feb 2005 12:50:38 +0300</color>
From: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param>Jayadev P Hiremath <
I am sure that some of you were expecting this. I am really appalled at the lack of any semblance of proficiency in the use of English language among many librarians. I wonder how one could pass t
hrough some 17 years of schooling and even after that m </color>anage not to learn basics of English Language. It is regrettable that our present system of Educati on does not emphasize the importance of Language abilities. Because of selfish politicians promotin g their own agendas at the cost of the nation and becau se of a tendency to promote or put up with mediocrity everywhere -- the necessity for striving for exce llence is once in a way heard from our president, though -- students do not look at Language skills with any concern. <color><param>7F00,0000,0000</param>>
Recently we had to recruit an Information Officer for our VIC. Out of about fifteen persons we co nsidered, hardly two or three could measure up as far as basic English Language skills are concerne d.
On one hand we find the Indian librarians community in India to be prolific writers - even an ent ry level resume mentions two or three 'papers' published and on the other hand we find that their p resentation and communication skills at horribly very l
In this lamentation I am not bothered about typing errors (may be you are just lazy - not that yo u do not know), spelling mistakes (heavy dependence on spell checkers), occasional slippages (it ha
</color>ow levels. What are reasons? How can this be changed? Who should take action? Is it OK to be where & how we are? What do LIS teachers have to say? <color><param>7F00,0000,0000</param>> ppens to everyone), unheard of abbreviations being thru </color>st on everyone by cell phone (or email?) culture and the like. I am concerned with basic English La nguage skills expected of a tenth class student. Kindly do not take recourse to "It is the same eve rywhere - in all other preofessions too" type of argume nt. <color><param>7F00,0000,0000</param>>
Dr.P.Vyasamoorthy, Advisor, Virtual Information Centre,
ICICI Knowledge Park, Genome Valley, Turkapally, Shameerpet Mandal,
RR District, Hyderabad 500078 INDIA
Email: vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com
Phone - Office: +91(40)23480053 Fax: +91(40)23480007 Phone Residence: +91(40)27846631
_______________________________________________
LIS-Forum mailing list
LIS-Forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in
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Dear Vyasamoorthy and Professionals It is good you spoken regarding this issue. I am very happy that you shown some loop holes in our education system. I wanted to illuminate that in MLISC course MA English professors can be invited to talk on english language and classes can be conducted regularly.This will help the students to recullect their grammer and other basics of the english language. I felt that English Language is as important as IT skills in Librarianship. Thanks Ishwar Bandi Librarian ATEC, Central Library Vashi, NaviMumbai Vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com wrote: Dear Friends, I am sure that some of you were expecting this. I am really appalled at the lack of any semblance of proficiency in the use of English language among many librarians. I wonder how one could pass through some 17 years of schooling and even after that manage not to learn basics of English Language. It is regrettable that our present system of Education does not emphasize the importance of Language abilities. Because of selfish politicians promoting their own agendas at the cost of the nation and because of a tendency to promote or put up with mediocrity everywhere -- the necessity for striving for excellence is once in a way heard from our president, though -- students do not look at Language skills with any concern. Recently we had to recruit an Information Officer for our VIC. Out of about fifteen persons we considered, hardly two or three could measure up as far as basic English Language skills are concerned. On one hand we find the Indian librarians community in India to be prolific writers - even an entry level resume mentions two or three 'papers' published and on the other hand we find that their presentation and communication skills at horribly very low levels. What are reasons? How can this be changed? Who should take action? Is it OK to be where & how we are? What do LIS teachers have to say? In this lamentation I am not bothered about typing errors (may be you are just lazy - not that you do not know), spelling mistakes (heavy dependence on spell checkers), occasional slippages (it happens to everyone), unheard of abbreviations being thrust on everyone by cell phone (or email?) culture and the like. I am concerned with basic English Language skills expected of a tenth class student. Kindly do not take recourse to "It is the same everywhere - in all other preofessions too" type of argument. Dr.P.Vyasamoorthy, Advisor, Virtual Information Centre, ICICI Knowledge Park, Genome Valley, Turkapally, Shameerpet Mandal, RR District, Hyderabad 500078 INDIA Email: vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com Phone - Office: +91(40)23480053 Fax: +91(40)23480007 Phone Residence: +91(40)27846631 _______________________________________________ LIS-Forum mailing list LIS-Forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in http://ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/mailman/listinfo/lis-forum Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partneronline. Dear Vyasamoorthy and Professionals It is good you spoken regarding this issue. I am very happy that you shown some loop holes in our education system. I wanted to illuminate that in MLISC course MA English professors can be invited to talk on english language and classes can be conducted regularly.This will help the students to recullect their grammer and other basics of the english language. I felt that English Language is as important as IT skills in Librarianship. Thanks Ishwar Bandi Librarian ATEC, Central Library Vashi, NaviMumbai Vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com wrote: Dear Friends, I am sure that some of you were expecting this. I am really appalled at the lack of any semblance of proficiency in the use of English language among many librarians. I wonder how one could pass through some 17 years of schooling and even after that manage not to learn basics of English Language. It is regrettable that our present system of Education does not emphasize the importance of Language abilities. Because of selfish politicians promoting their own agendas at the cost of the nation and because of a tendency to promote or put up with mediocrity everywhere -- the necessity for striving for excellence is once in a way heard from our president, though -- students do not look at Language skills with any concern. Recently we had to recruit an Information Officer for our VIC. Out of about fifteen persons we considered, hardly two or three could m! easure up as far as basic English Language skills are concerned. On one hand we find the Indian librarians community in India to be prolific writers - even an entry level resume mentions two or three 'papers' published and on the other hand we find that their presentation and communication skills at horribly very low levels. What are reasons? How can this be changed? Who should take action? Is it OK to be where & how we are? What do LIS teachers have to say? In this lamentation I am not bothered about typing errors (may be you are just lazy - not that you do not know), spelling mistakes (heavy dependence on spell checkers), occasional slippages (it happens to everyone), unheard of abbreviations being thrust on everyone by cell phone (or email?) culture and the like. I am concerned with basic English Language skills expected of a tenth class student. Kindly do not take recourse to "It is the same everywhere - in all other preofessions too" type of argument. Dr.P.Vyasamoorthy, Advisor, Virtual Information Centre, ICICI Knowledge Park, Genome Valley, Turkapally, Shameerpet Mandal, RR District, Hyderabad 500078 INDIA Email: vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com Phone - Office: +91(40)23480053 Fax: +91(40)23480007 Phone Residence: +91(40)27846631 _______________________________________________ LIS-Forum mailing list LIS-Forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in http://ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/mailman/listinfo/lis-forum http://in.rd.yahoo.com/specials/mailtg/*http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrim... Yahoo! India Matrimony : Find your life partner http://in.rd.yahoo.com/specials/mailtg2/*http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matri... online .
participants (7)
-
Farooque Shaheen -
ishwar bandi -
Jayadev P Hiremath -
Prafulla Chandra -
shubhada.apte＠tcs.com -
Vasumathi Sriganesh -
Vyasamoorthy＠icicikp.com