Whenever I am complimented on my English, I feel flattered, because the hard work on correcting myself has paid off. Having studied in ICSE schools until Class 8, I was shocked when I was told in college that my English was incorrect. The culprit was an English teacher in a small-town school where I did my senior secondary schooling. The college teacher promised to help me but did not.
After waiting for a month, I turned to my classmates, Maggie and Philomena. Every day, I wrote a 150-word essay that they assiduously corrected for me. Maggie gifted me her copy of 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary. Every day, I studied the lessons. Instead of 30 days, I took 45 days to complete them and was delighted when I had learnt 1,000 new words that I still use to convey my meaning precisely. I was 16 when I started and continued working on my English until I topped the university in M.A. English at 22.
Mastering English is a lonely journey with no finishing line. You just keep improving your language — sometimes the vocabulary, playing with grammar but ensuring it is correct, paying attention to punctuation, and editing your work. Editing means deleting all extraneous words. Based on my experience as a student and teacher, here are three major tips to improve your English.
Practice writing simple sentences: The basic structure of any sentence in English is subject-verb-predicate. For example, “Manoj is a child.” The language is built by adding adjectives/ adverbs or adjectival/ adverbial or nominal phrases or clauses to the basic sentence. So, “Manoj is the child who lives a few houses away” comprises two sentences: i) Manoj is a child and ii) Manoj lives a few houses away. If you can understand that the entire language is built on the basis of simple sentences, you will see how easy it is to correct your English. Using relative clauses as in the above sentence — who/ which/ that — makes a simple sentence complex. Using conjunctions (but, hence, however) in clauses turns a simple sentence into a compound one. If not used carefully, they result in incorrect sentences. Hence, students who are not confident in English should use only simple sentences because everybody can construct them correctly. Do that until you feel you have gained command over the language.
Read daily: Read, read, and read anything you like — a classic or a comic, it makes no difference — but read. It will increase your speed of reading with understanding, and subconsciously enable you to pick up vocabulary and correct sentence structure. This is because you are exposing yourself to English in use. My elderly aunt, who went to the U.K., was illiterate. But, when I met her many years later, she spoke like a native though she could neither read nor write. This was because she heard English in use all day. Simply by listening to correct English or reading it, we internalise and use it when required. Likewise, listening to videos and podcasts will also help.
Use AI tools: There are multiple free AI-driven software that automatically suggest ways of correcting sentences, vocabulary, spelling or punctuation. Use these till you develop a feel for correctness.
With perseverance and continuous practice, you will win the battle. Don’t be discouraged by failure; remember it will take time. Even the best user of English has had to struggle with the language. There are no shortcuts or miracles, only hard work and patience that will help you reach your goal.
The writer is former Professor of English, IIT Bombay.
