Do you feel less educated if you cannot converse in English?

Myth: The ability to speak fluent English is not a measure of your education level. There is no direct correlation between the two.

Let me share a recent encounter with my cousin. He resides in a smaller city with his family but had to visit my city due to his mother’s illness. The doctor recommended a specialist hospital in a larger city for his mother’s treatment. So, he got his mother admitted to a famous hospital. During this time, he had to interact with a junior doctor daily to monitor his mother’s health progress.

I visited him the other day. He shared a snippet of a conversation with that doctor. My cousin asked about his mother’s progress with the doctor. After a few minutes of conversation, the doctor responded, “I am getting annoyed by your queries.”

I was not present during this conversation; I was only listening to my cousin recreate it.

My cousin’s response after the doctor’s observation caught my attention. My cousin interpreted that the doctor got annoyed because he was less educated. I could not understand this correlation, so I asked my cousin to elaborate more. After some more probing, my cousin made another statement that he could not converse well in English — as he was less educated — so the doctor got annoyed.

• Not being able to converse in English does not make you less educated

• Less education of a patient’s attendant does not make the doctor annoyed

At this point, I was not interested in knowing about the doctor’s annoyance but was intrigued to hear my cousin’s interpretations.

My cousin is a businessman. He is running a family business successfully. He has not done a master’s like a Doctor. A doctor must study medicine to be qualified, whereas becoming a business person does not require a professional degree.

Both choose their respective professions. A doctor cannot become a doctor without getting a degree in medicine.Higher education was not a mandate for running his business, so my cousin chose not to pursue an educational degree.

Only during a medical emergency did he have to travel to a bigger city and interact with a doctor.His limited English communication skills made him doubt his humble education.It surprises me that my cousin feels about his lack of education only because he cannot converse with a doctor. He says speaking fluent English is a sign of a highly educated person.

It’s a misconception to equate language fluency with education level. Unfortunately, my cousin and many others hold this belief. I found it concerning that my cousin felt his education was inferior simply because of his English proficiency. There is no direct link between your education and your ability to communicate in English. This comparison is unfounded.

But I can say this, as I am not my cousin. I studied in an English school and worked in big cities. My conversation skills in English are good. I may not completely understand how a person feels when they are not able to communicate their thoughts to the other person because of a language barrier.

But I do not know many other languages, such as Spanish, French, Telegu, Bengali, etc. Does that mean I will doubt my education when I meet people who speak these languages?

Well, this is how our society perceives the English Language. It is linked to our status symbol. One who speaks good English is considered more educated, richer, or powerful. We always judge books by their covers, even if we know we shouldn’t. People, in general, tend to underestimate people who have poor English speaking skills and overestimate people who can speak confidently in English.

For my cousin, it is just a one-off situation where he has to visit a metropolitan city due to a medical emergency in his family. After a few days, he will return to his town and keep doing his business as always.

But for others, it could be a different situation. They have to work in a setup where English is the primary language of communication.

• First, please do not judge your education based on your fluency in English. Do not lower your self-esteem. English is just another of thousands of languages in this world

• Second, it’s never too late to learn a new skill. Why not learn to speak English Fluently?

If you can judge yourself on your lack of Spoken English skills, our society will not be far behind in approving your judgment and will be 10 times harsher than your interpretation.

If you find yourself saying, “But I can’t speak English.” Try adding the word “yet”

Why not take control of your narrative and improve your English skills?

By mastering English, you can break free from these self-imposed limitations and gain the confidence to express yourself effectively. Find areas where you can improve speaking English so others can understand your speech.

• Finally, work specifically on your improvement areas. Focusing on your weak areas will yield better results than full English Language training.

Speakho provides Spoken English Assessment reports with actionable insights, e.g., suggestions for improvement areas and lessons. You need to record a passage that is about two minutes long. You will get a detailed assessment report containing the number of errors and error patterns.

Generally, there are some patterns in which we make mistakes. For example, sometimes, while speaking, we drop the ending sound of the word. Sometimes, we do not speak the phoneme sound “r” properly because we do not roll our tongue correctly. The report contains the top five error patterns. Along with the error patterns, it will also provide reference lessons (online training material) to help rectify those error patterns.

Happy Speaking!