“When somebody speaks a language, we translate into our mother tongue to understand. Please stop doing that from today. When you listen to English, please listen and understand only English, not a translated version of English. Will you try this? Second Point: Listening. When we listen to anything, we listen only for the meaning. We don’t listen for language. When I’m talking to you, all of you are listening to the points which I’m making. How is English important? How to listen? You are able to understand the meaning, but meaning is not important for improvement. For improvement, what is important is language. What we require is language. When we listen for the first time, only meaning comes. You know, when I’m speaking to you, only meaning becomes clear. So when you are practicing listening, please listen to the same passage again and again and again. Same passage, not different one. Some speeches, you have so many speeches here. Listen to those speeches if they are in English again and again and again till it becomes a part of your memory. God has given us, you know, a super computer. It is called the head-top computer. Not desktop, not, you know, laptop, but head-top. Free computer, you don’t have to pay any money. It is there. How much space is inside? Endless GB, I can’t count. Not 30 GB, 50 GB, endless GB space. In that space, there are many files which you can create for English. Now, you plus start creating some files for English. English listening, you keep one file named English listening. Listen every day and store it in your mind by listening again and again.”
“These days, we have so much technology. You know, 10 years back, we didn’t have so much. Now, you can record anything which you hear, which is good. All of you have your cell phones; record it, listen to it 10 times. You know, today when I go to my MA class, you know how high tech Osmania has become. As soon as I enter my class, 20 phones are kept on the table. My lecture, they record, they go home, and they listen. They listen 10 times, and they write the exam. This is how high tech helps us to learn language. Whenever you listen to good English, record it in your cell phone. If you are recording songs, please record some English songs. The best way of learning a language is by learning rhythm. Keep by hurting, you know, many of you participate in antakshari. When you don’t know Hindi, they sing. My students sing 500 Hindi songs from memory. They don’t know Hindi. How did they learn? That is how English is learned. It is called as learning by imitation. Do you know what imitation means? To do what somebody else is doing. You know, suppose on the road, one fellow goes selling plantains, saying, ‘What does a small child do in the same voice, same tone?’ The small child repeats because the child is learning to speak. Now, we should become like those children. We should imitate good English whenever we listen.”
“So, I gave you two points about listening. One is listening to good, correct English. The second is listening to the same passage again and again and again. This you have to do every day. Can you do that? Only few can do. Every day you have to listen, you know. Now, you have put up Swami Vivekananda 150 years. If you go to Ram Krishna mat, you will get some CDs, you know, Vivekananda’s speeches and all. You buy one CD, 20 rupees or 40 rupees, that is enough for six months. You don’t have to buy anything else. That one hour CD, you listen only five minutes every day. But five minutes you listen for 10 times or 20 times, same five minutes till that excellent English becomes a part of your memory. Language is learned by imitation. So, listening for meaning, that is language, not only for content. And listening repeatedly, these two things if you do, then your source of English is developing. You know why we cannot speak English? You know why these students who spoke so beautifully, I was clapping all the time they were speaking? Why could they speak so well but not in English? Only two reasons. One is they never practiced English, they practiced Telugu. So, they are speaking beautiful Telugu. Their mind is full of ideas, they are putting it in Telugu. So, we don’t need ideas, we don’t need meaning, we don’t need subject, we need language. So, listening will give you the language.”
“The second thing that listening will give you is correctness. Today, we hear a lot of English which is not very good. Every week I go for interviews. Sir will know, you know all colleges in the Twin Cities, they call us as experts to interview English lecturers. They are going to teach English in engineering colleges. I find that although they have wonderful marks, 70 percent, they can’t speak fully correct English. They speak very stylish, very accented English. You’d hear it, you’d sound, ‘Oh, wonderful English,’ but they make mistakes. So, when you listen, your correctness also becomes good because when your teachers taught you in the class.”
“You could not make English correct. Now, you have to change. So, in the morning, as soon as you get up, just like you do Puja and you do bathing and all, please do English. Can you do that? Listening every morning, you know, we start with Vishnu Sahasranam. Now, your Vishnu Sahasranam is English speech. What did Krishna say? That whatever you do, you must do efficiently. If you’ve come to impact, then learn efficiently. Impact is going to make your life; it is going to make you successful. Therefore, now you sitting here for 12 days, congratulating and saying, ‘Oh, sir, you are excellent,’ then you go home, you forget gampanagaswara, you forget impact, everything. Nothing. No impact comes. Don’t be like that. Starting from 13th of May, you start one hour of practice, listening to good English, listening repeatedly, and listening for improvement. When you listen, your English becomes better. This is called as a foundation skill. Foundation, you know, if you want a big building, you need foundation. So, for your communication, listening is the foundation. Now, one more foundation is there, and that is reading.”
“Are you not reading English all your life? Is there anybody who does not know ABCD? All of you know the English alphabet, yes or no? Then how is it that we don’t read anything? Whenever you are asked, you know, what do you see outside? Many posters are there. How many of you read those posters? In eight days, whenever print comes, our eyes keep glossing over. We don’t see. Don’t be like that. Read everything which you find. Read everything which is English. But reading once is not enough. Read repeatedly. Again, I can give you example of Vivekananda. Have you read anything by Vivekananda? You know, everybody says, ‘Teacher, please give me a dictionary for learning vocabulary.’ You don’t need a dictionary. You read life of Vivekananda. It is so beautifully written that you will learn vocabulary. You can pass your GRE GMAT exam if you read that life. It is so beautifully written. Two volumes called life of Vivekananda by Eastern and Western disciples.”
“Those two volumes, if you read, your English will become excellent. But read doesn’t mean read for the exam. You know how you read for the exam; you learn it fully by heart. You know, Indians are very intelligent. Please remember, all the whole world tells us Indians are intelligent. But the whole world also tells another thing that Indians are very lazy. We know everything, but we don’t practice anything. Now, when you read this passage, anything, any book, read it repeatedly. Read it again and again. One page you read, but read ten times. First time for meaning, second, third, fourth, fifth time only for language. How are the sentences used? How is the language used? This is what we require because simple mistakes in English will make you not successful. Either you should do it well or don’t do it at all. Then you say we will not work in English; we will only do in Telugu. Unfortunately, when I asked my students, ‘Okay, tell me in Telugu how good is your Telugu?’ They say, ‘Teacher, we don’t know Telugu also. We don’t know good Telugu also. We don’t know good English also.’ What do you know then? Minimum, you know Indians. They have capability of language. Minimum, you can learn excellently five to six languages, it seems. That is the Indian capability. Are you Indians or not? [Applause] Is it enough? It is not. Show the qualities of being Indian. You know, we have so many capabilities. English is only one more capability. So, you either you learn, you know, English very well or you say, ‘I will not work in any job which needs English. I will look for a job which needs only Telugu.’ But then your Telugu has to be very good. That also is in doubt these days. Therefore, what you need, you know, what all of you require is listening and reading as foundation for your knowledge of English. But you have listened in your past, you have read in your past. That is not good enough. If you read and you listened every day, you read English.”
Thank You