Laughing at the language

 

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The most intriguing yet neglected psychological aspect of language learning.

Laughing at the language is the greatest deterrent to language learning. This hidden hence overlooked factor can adversely affect the learning effectiveness of an entire batch if the facilitator doesn't pay timely attention to it. 

Even after months of learning, it has been observed that the participants do not learn anything; it is because they continuously indulge in laughing at the language. Participants do invest time and money and they do want their B2 certificates but despite that, they fail in the examination. The percentage of failures far exceeds the percentage of successes in many language learning institutions. It is not uncommon to find the external candidates cracking the examination while the internal candidates flunking at the examination. 

It could just be because of this soft factor! Some bad apples in the class continuously laugh at the language. It hurts me to use the term bad apples, because they're not conscious of what they're doing; they hardly know they're lollygagging by judging the sounds, the grammar and delaying the process of learning.  These participants need counseling and need to be segregated from the rest of the class. 

They ruin the growth of the class. Laughing at the language happens primarily because it is effortlessly lazy and because it is also smart to laugh at the language in that it influences the crowd into not learning. 

Unless this psychological aspect is dealt with with proper care and vigilance, the finger is eventually pointed toward the competency of the facilitator in question. Therefore, it is the facilitator's job to ensure that learners laugh with the language and not laugh at the language. 

The language instructors' objective is to initiate the learners into a) an auto-learning mode and b) making themselves, the instructors, redundant. When the learners, from the A2 level, take charge of their own learning, even beyond the classroom hours, magic happens.  

This can only be brought about when there's acceptance of the differences the language in question offers.

A short note on CTOP

CTOP, a self-invented jargon that means to consider the other person, where 'person' is obviously a metaphor.

This is the key to integrating in any society or to any organisation, as the case may be. 

If an employee thinks like an employer, the employer like an employee and if a parent thinks like a child, the child like the parent, if the countries consider their neighbours, the world would automatically heal.

Consider coaching on CTOP on micro and macro platforms and see the difference it makes in creating a healthy atmosphere in the world.

I beg your pardon if it had surpassed any cringe threshold, but training on CTOP could help remove deleterious effects on children, of all ages, across the world.

Promoting our own brand

Introduction

The objective of this article is to highlight a counterproductive element that is killing our world and thereby explore some ways in which we can cope with it. I may be from Bengal. You may be from Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Bihar, or Mizoram. But we are Indians. It is disheartening to note this lack of consciousness in our workplace and at home. We invariably mock each other, either because of some difference in the way we speak, in the way we eat, in the way we dress, or in the way we look. We can come up with scores of examples that distance us from each other. This is the virus that’s preventing us from learning how to learn together. We don’t realize that this is the singular inimical factor that's preventing us from the spirit of being one nation.

Our ability to accept people from other parts of the country will go a long way in ushering in growth and stability in our part of the world. It can even help in removing prejudices against each other thus ensuring peace in our country. 

Once we are convinced of its potential, there could be various activities to promote and strengthen the belief that we are one; we may be 'eating'* water and fish, we may have this horrible image of doing black magic, some may put too much sour in their food, others may eat chickpeas or other kinds of pulses, some may look like our neighbors, but at the end of it all, we are one nation. We are all Indians, we are all Bharatvasis.

How does one promote a brand India or Brand Bharat

If we observe any advertisement, we will find that the constant depiction of a product or service in all forms of media sends a signal to the brain. When users see a product or service in the market, they immediately choose it, and this continues. In the same way, we can promote our brand within ourselves.

Identity harassment

At the moment there is a gap between our words and actions; unity in diversity stays only at the level of terms, while our actions unfortunately are the opposite. In action, we are intolerant towards each other. First of all, we need to accept that we have this germ in us; making fun of people because of their differences has become the norm since time immemorial. This creates war in us. If we come up with engaging activities to educate people as to how to accept differences through various programs and workshops, then in time, this cloud of intolerance will slowly and surely clear up. This needs to be regarded as identity harassment which is as grave as sexual harassment.

A collective effort

There needs to be a collective effort from the leaders, the government, the industrialists, and the influencers. If people who matter believe in the fact that the change of this mindset can usher in a true ‘unity in diversity’, then it is possible to change the perspective in the days to come. The point is to see if it makes sense to remove this nonsense from our country, or if this intolerance benefitting us in some way or other.

The overall atmosphere

It is very grim everywhere; in families, workplaces, in politics, this damaging model plays its pattern over and over again in time and space. We are constantly making fun of each other and showing us how we are a) different and b) never going to accept our countrymen. As a consequence, information doesn’t flow, it gets blocked, and so does work.

We have delivered

We have fought with many monsters and have successfully killed them for good. Smoking on public transport and in public places has been completely removed from the face of this earth. We have come a long way in upholding gender equality. While the exchange of dowries is regarded as a crime now, the criminalization of the same sex has been removed. We are raising our voices consciously against global warming, social injustice, and religious intolerance. It is time to pat our back and say hey we have done it. If we had shifted our paradigm in these areas, we could also remove intolerance from our country, not only in words but also through our actions.

Conclusion

If we become successful in India, we can spread the model beyond our country and replicate it throughout the world. A Chinese, a Burmese, a Brit, a Nigerian, a Mexican, a Canadian, a Kiwi, an Australian at the end of it all belong to one world. If we take up this project seriously and work collectively towards this one goal, we can have a much more tolerant society with a no-war zone. Wars are the most damaging phenomenon to the environment that the civilization has known. We could promote the world brand of actionized camaraderie and tolerance. However, we need to first of all be convinced that the culture of dogmatism and fanaticism has to stop.

*Bengalis use the verb 'to eat' for water, they do not use the verb 'to drink'

 

Force majeure mechanics

Every house could have flying balloons on their terrace to ride on during earthquake, flood. 

Specially designed helicopters to produce rain during forest fire. 

A machine fitted in specific gaps of a forest to alert firemen much before the fire outbreak. (remote sensing) 

When a house catches fire, a machine that would auto-alert the nearest fire station. (remote sensing) 

Like every flat house has an indicator inside the flat, every building can have a master indicator outside the house that can be switched off when the building catches fire. 

Instead of using water pumps to extinguish fire, there could be some specially designed blankets that could prevent the fire from spreading. Know it sounds weird, but just letting out-of-the-box thinking take its course. 

Evacuation is a major concern during fire. Every house might have en elevator attached outside the building from every floor that helps the residence evacuate during fire. If we could have an elevator inside, we might as well have one outside. Fear of theft could be handled through remote sensing. 

When there's a shipwreck, instead of lifeboats, we could also have para-rise (chute gravitates, rise can help passengers fly), this could come handy during sea-storms too, why get into lifeboats on the sea during storms. 

Villages get most adversely affected during floods. We could have a tower in every village where villagers can take shelter during floods. Help, in terms of food and drinking water can be distributed more easily. Every tower should have the capacity to host the population of its village. At other times, the tower can be creatively used for other purposes. 

Next-gen gadgets

Was wondering

If egg-boilers could pop up messages when it's half-boiled, hard-boiled! 

If a fridge had an in-built stabilizer and an auto power saver that could keep it on even after a power cut, for at least 6 hours! 

If air-conditioners would be as small as mobile and if they could easily fit in anywhere in a room instead of being ceremoniously installed? 

11 steps to cure insomnia, 'Good night sweet dreams'

Insomnia is a disease. Treat it with care. Here are some steps to have a sound sleep. 

Hard factors (the physical ones,external) 

1. Avoid taking medicines. This is a lazy way of curing, sadly it doesn't cure, this makes you dependent on the drug.

2. Have a glass of warm water before going to bed. 

3. Take foot bath for 15 minutes and then go to bed. 

4. Comb your hair (the skull part) for 5 minutes. 

5. Smile, then slowly laugh allowing your belly to move; you should feel the tremor. 

6. If possible, try gibberish for five minutes every day. 

7. Breathe in (10 counts), hold your breath (10 counts), breathe out (10 counts); this is one round, try seven of such rounds.This is called kumbhak pranayama

8. Diet plays an important role in helping an insomniac get good sleep. What you should have is a balanced diet. But how and when you should eat is of extreme importance. Supper should be light.

What

A balanced diet: with balanced diet, one can see almost an immediate effect resulting in good and sound sleep. 

How

How you should eat is of primordial importance. You shouldn't gulp, gobble, and gorge, never eat on the move, never. You should always chew your food, eat as slowly as possible. It should be unhurried. Remember, fasting also helps. But for this, consult your doctor. 

When

There should be a gap of 2 to 3 hours between your supper and going to bed. Ideally, if you could go for a light walk after supper, that would be great. 

Soft factors (the ones that are internal) 

1. Check your anger, see it coming, control by avoiding the company that induces anger. Chant the mantra (anger is not natural, I have let my anger go), breathe rigourously and chant the mantra 50 times until you realise that no situation or person was responsible, anger came because you allowed. So disallow anger. 

2. Check your habit of lying. You have grown up believing lying is natural, you cannot survive without lying. Go the reverse way by feeding the thought 'lying is not natural, I can survive better without lying. Lying is a slow poison, I will disallow it and stop being toxic. I have successfully let go of my habit of lying'. 

3. Chant the mantra, 'everyday I have a sound sleep. My stress has gone, all my diseases are leaving my system. I am completely cure. I have healed myself. Now, I am healing others'. 

Good sleep is still considered as a panacea, a remedy for all diseases. Unfortunately, with complicated lifestyle, insomnia is almost an endemic disease that's spreading the world over across age and gender. Please follow the steps and get back to sleep. 

Disclaimer: Without medicines, 100% effort is required by those who have insomnia. 

The patient, also the writer, had acute insomnia. Now, following the steps mentioned, the patient is out of it for good. Call at 9163472016 or email at supratiksen1@gmail.com for any assistance, guided meditation for absolutely free of cost. 

Good night, sweet dreams! 

Additional steps added by the readers:

You can add few more steps-
1. Drink a small cup of milk (in normal temp) with Haldi (turmeric)
2. Eat small amounts of posto (poppy seed) with sabzi (vegetables) for supper. 
3. Maybe listening to some soothing music and saying a sincere prayer would also make for good sleep.

Ha! Ha! Ha!

All through my life, I have known myself as a black Peter. I had said things that were not supposed to be said. I didn’t realize that over the years I had unconsciously accepted the label as my identity, a black Peter. Here I will tell you a story, in the form of dialogues in bits and pieces. I do hope that if the readers looked at the dialogues, they could make some sense of what the intent of this short story is like. Not calling it a short story, it doesn’t merit it, it’s a plane daft, but it’s definitely the story of all the races of the world, a story that is so deeply written in the minds of all human beings; the story of racism, ‘the original sin’ that is so unfinished; most of the bloody wars we have fought, and are still fighting, originate from the simple and innocuous dialogues that float around at ease. Let’s see if I could pull this through and hold the unstructured text as a broken mirror that is breaking ourselves from the inside.

-        What is a pet name, ha ha ha!!! You bongs have ‘pate naames’, like cats and dogs.

-        No, we have two names, one for the inside world and one for the outside world. That’s it.

-        Heard that the bong brahmins also eat non-veg? what kind of brahmins are you? Ha, ha, ha!

-        And in your case, you marry your cousins, you are endorsing incest relationships, it’s such a crime. Your real estate advertisements are an eye-opener… so and so is a brahmin and wants to sell his plot to a brahmin only, how racist of you, ha, ha, ha!

-        All your ladies are bad, they smoke in public, what a shame; not like our ladies, that’s why we hire heroines from your part of the world because we don’t allow our ladies to work in films.

[ if you keep your ears open, you could hear these dialogues everywhere, in offices, even in learning organizations whose vision/mission statements have diversity, respect for the individuals, in the public spaces, and in the drawing rooms]

…

 

-        They are foreigners, they came from outside India. They are so uncivil, arrogant, cannot stand them. They can’t even talk slowly; they have to shout at the top of their voice. I belong to the original India and I don’t mix with them, even though I am coming from the US. Such rogues they are, ha, ha, ha!

-        You know what, our epic the Ramayana must have modeled the rakshasas accordingly. They are mean, selfish, never took part in the freedom struggle, always stick to themselves. We are broadminded and good looking, they use coconut oil for cooking, something we apply in our hair, ha, ha, ha! Their language is so weird, it’s as if you have put a stone in a can of coconut oil and shaking it to get a sense of their language, ha, ha, ha!

Our effort to throw stones at each other is so sincere that we leave no stone unturned

-        What? How dare you call me that? Do I look like Bihari? I am a UPite, please remember this going forward.

-        What? I am not a Bihari, I belong to Jharkhand!!!

-        What? I may speak Telugu, but I belong to Telangana, not Andhra, no, no, please don’t confuse.

-        I am a Rajasthani, I cannot stand a Jath.

-        I am a Jath, I cannot stand those sissy Bongs, ha, ha, ha!

-        I am a Punjabi, don’t confuse. West Bengal is a poor state and ours is a rich state, it’s strange that we belong to the same country, ha, ha, ha!

-   If you see a snake and a mallu, kill the mallu, not the snake, they’re so dangerous, ha, ha, ha!

-  You are saying this for a mallu? But this is also applicable for a telugu yaar! Ha, ha, ha!

….

But hang on, it’s not only in India that we have this mental block, it’s a global headache. We see that in every country, viz. Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Japan; in all the continents, viz. Europe, Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Australia. But we don’t realize that this meaningless divide we have so strongly built in our minds thanks to civilization is preventing us from looking at the real challenges. We are busy calling each other names, sometimes as chicken roasts, sometimes as ghosts, and whatnot. We are much too occupied laughing at each other, when will we consider laughing with each other. When? Will this pandemic help us look at ourselves as similar human beings or as dissimilar extra-terrestrials? Holding a mirror might help us in finding out how this delinquent factor is robbing us of all the pleasures of being together in our sufferings and pleasures alike.