I was giving communication
skills training in my organisation, not as a part of my JD, but as a hobby. Not
that I’m perfect in English, it’s just that I can differentiate between “didn’t
know and didn’t knew”. My plant is located in a tiny town, 72 km from Delhi. One
of my colleague and friend came to me and said “ma’am aap communication class start
kar do” (“ma’am give us communication training”) and I thought to myself “wtf,
Gaurav would have died laughing if he was around”. He is someone who once said “Tu
beta angrezi bolna chord de, poore time uska rape karti rehti hai” (“Stop
talking in English, you molest the language”).
I was reluctant at
first but then my friends, later students, gave me a lot of confidence. For training
them, I needed to prepare myself. That preparation taught me a lot, filled the
gaps I had, and I overcame a fear of speaking in public. I never taught
English, it was always way of communicating and correct grammar.
What I remember from my
MBA classes is what we learnt through activities, and I wanted to use the same
trick with my training sessions, so I kept 80% of them activity oriented. It was
fun to see aged people acting and singing and dancing, and I could tell from
their look that they enjoyed it too, felt younger and had more life in them
than I had ever noticed before.
We did one activity
where I made them write a letter to themselves 5 to 10 years later, where they
would question themselves if they have reached their goals. Once we grow up, no
one asks about our goals or ambitions, this letter made them rack their brains
and think of what they want to do in their coming years. I had to show them the
letter I wrote to 30 years old me, which was kinda funny, everyone laughed, but
then they were lost in their thoughts. People asked about themselves about
kids, and cars, and houses, etc. I gave them an envelop each, to put the letter
in and asked them to open it on their X birthday, X being the age they wrote
the letter to. Everyone does their work so monotonously that they forget what
they are missing in life or what more do they want from their lives. They have
a standard mugged up answer to the interview question “where do you see
yourself 5/10 years from now”.
On the same lines we
also did New Year eve’s plans and resolutions for the next year. Every single
person wrote “I want to be a better person”, wow, do you think that you are bad
now? I made all of them change it to something more practical and non vague.
For our Christmas
class, I decided to wear red coat and a Santa hat. Hahaha nobody expected their
trainer to get dressed like that in a corporate world. I made them pick chits
with random words on it and they had to do a role play. Along with chits were
chocolates for them, another surprise. This was one fun class.
I have seen drastic
improvements in the way people now introduce themselves, talk on the phone,
converse, and use their body language, and it feels amazing. One thing I didn’t get as a
student was special attention coz I was an average grader, and so I knew that I
had to help my weak students first, and it did happen. I am proud of those whom
I had very little hopes from, after our first session. They worked harder than
the good ones and their determination showed.
The training has got
over and I kinda miss those 3 days every week… I thank them for keeping their patience... I hope they do well in
life, and remember me when they see wrong grammar… :D
