Posts Tagged ‘language’
Exploring Current Openings in Domestic BPOs
Fluency in languages is the primary requirement for a BPO job. By fluency in languages, we most often mean English and maybe some foreign languages. While it is true that English and foreign languages get you the best BPO jobs and the highest pay-packages, regional languages can get you a good position too. Not all BPOs cater to international customers and also among those who do, there are requirements for the domestic sector.
BPOs know that all customers won’t be comfortable with English when it comes to communicating within India. In order to enhance customer services, BPOs have a team which caters to customers unwilling to speak in English. To handle the domestic sphere, a team of customer service executives are hired who communicate in regional languages. For such a profile, it is desirable to be fluent in more than one regional language including Hindi.
The demand is quite big and rewards offered are exciting. To check out a few openings, click here.
Use Words Carefully While Learning English
All of us get excited at the prospect of learning new words. In the process of learning a language we are asked to improve our vocabulary. The more words we know, the more our command over a language will increase. While learning new words can be fun, we also need to be cautious about their usage since many words have multiple meanings and connotations.
If you look closely at your mother tongue, you will identify several words which are used in various situations and which carry various meanings. Change of context often alters the meaning of words and depending upon culture, humour and other factors, words get associated with various things. Apart from its common meaning, the word “egg”, for example, is used to describe encouragement and support. Also a lot of words and expressions that we use in our respective languages have no English equivalent and vice-versa.
When you come across a new word, make sure you find out more about it before beginning to use it on a regular basis. Usage of certain words can hurt the sentiments of certain people and land you in trouble. It is also important to know whether a particular word has any special meaning in a cultural or religious context. Keep a good dictionary handy and look up references.
Exploring Technical Writing Jobs
Time to look at another prominent and attractive opening in the domain of language and communication, namely, technical writing. A basic research reveals that almost all big and small companies in the industry have requirements for technical writers. So if you happen to be good with the English language and are looking for a job that involves writing and also exposes you to cutting edge technology and latest products launched by different companies then technical writing could be a profile you will enjoy.
Most companies would require you to write about their products, launches and other news related to their research. So you will be writing user manuals, designing brochures and working closely with the development team to form a good understanding of the offerings of your company. As a technical writer, you will be catering to all the users of your company’s products and that can be a big number. You need to remember that your audience will consist of people with and without an understanding of technology so your writing should explain things in a clear and straightforward manner.
People generally get put off by a lot of text so you will have to cultivate a skill for designing. If you take a look at the user manuals of products launched by some big names, you will see almost every page carries pictures, illustrations and the text is arranged in short paragraphs. Often buletted points are used so that the main features get highlighted. If you are trying to explain to your clients how to operate a product, it is important that you show the various processes through pictures in addition to writing the steps down. Using different font colours and formatting will make your work visually appealing. You can consider using different background colours for different sections. Needless to say that a good knowledge of MS Office and a few photo-editing software will be an added advantage.
As for the origin of technical writing, I got a surprising piece of information in the process of finding out more about it. According to Wikipedia, the practice of technical writing can be traced back to ancient Greece and the Renaissance (fourteenth to seventeenth centuries). However, the full fledged utilisation of it came into being during the first world war when a lot of technical documentation was required by the military,manufacturing, electronics and aerospace industries.
Figuring The Nuances of Jobs
This post is a continuation of an earlier post in which i had mentioned that professional life requires you to be an altogether different creative writer by and large. I thought of sharing some of my experiences of writing in the professional sphere. I plan to put up several posts on general as well as specific requirements.
I always wrote long sentences while writing answers or essays for my courses and in examinations. I had to ditch this habit and concentrate on making my sentences short and crisp. Long sentences often tend to get confusing where you are required to put things across as clearly as possible. This applies to lengthy business proposals as well. Though it will unavoidably be lengthier than blog posts or web content, you need to keep your language simple, your sentences short and make every effort to give maximum information using less words. In other words, you will need to get straight to the point.
It is a good idea to include pictures or sketches while trying to write about a place or a product instead of trying to describe everything elaborately in writing. A picture, as it goes, is worth a thousand words.
Keeping your English correct and keeping an eye out for errors will help you in copy editing, proofreading etc. I will put up a separate post to discuss the nuances of editing for a publishing house or other concerns.
It is important that your writings have some visual appeal as well. Split your article into several short paragraphs. Using numbers or bullets to highlight points will make your article eye catching and your readers will be able to easily spot the important points.
Make Learning Fun
As English is being looked at as a language of opportunity, more and more people are flocking to various training centres and colleges to hone their English skills. As someone proficient in English, this opens up new opportunities for you as a language trainer. The demand for English language trainers is high not only in India but across various countries where English is not the first language. Needless to say that to make the most of this lucrative opportunity, you need to have a good command over English. However, we have seen several times that learned men do not always make good teachers. So before considering a career in language training you need to work on your teaching abilities as well.
In a training institute or college, you will come across students who can speak English but suffer from lack of fluency, confidence and so on as well as students who have to be taught from scratch. It is important to identify the various levels and assign different time slots so that you can give every level the necessary attention. However what is most important according to me is that you need to ensure that your students are having fun while learning. Abstain from making your sessions resemble grammar schools or dull English classrooms. Think out of the box and come up with word games, contests and creative activities (such as composing slogans, poems etc) which will make your students look forward to attending your session.
There is nothing like learning through fun. Picking up a language, or any skill for that matter, becomes something to enjoy and makes the teacher immensely popular and successful in the process.
Right Selection=Fun Reading
Many of us are advised to read English books, articles and newspapers to learn the language and improve our vocabulary. But I feel it’s not enough to just tell someone to read English. You need to tell that person where to start and how to go ahead as far as reading material is concerned. I have heard people advising others to read the editorials of English newspapers and English novels to start off with. While it’s true that a lot of editorials are really good pieces of writing, they can come across as quite cumbersome, boring and incomprehensible to beginners.
I would say start with comic strips which are fun to read and in addition to learning the language; you get a good idea about people and places unknown to you from the accompanying illustrations. Forget about what people around you have to say and pick up books on nursery rhymes, fairy tales, fables and other children’s literature. In no time you will be hooked to the wonderful world of English literature and will start picking up books that use more advanced English. Before going to novels, try short stories and when you read the newspaper, start with articles that interest you before going to the editorials.
Think in English
Many of us are in the habit of talking to ourselves. When we are alone and don’t have anything important to do, various random thoughts drift in and out of our minds. Now if we are asked in which language we think or talk to ourselves, most of us will say that we think in our mother tongues. Even in response to a question in English, we think about the reply in our mother tongues and try to translate it into English. However, sometimes we find that we do not have/ know English equivalents for all the words in our regional languages which constitute our reply.
In professional lives, this might lead to the serious problem of being unable to express ourselves. You cannot always rehearse your speech while making presentations or explaining the nuances of a project to your clients or colleagues. You have no way of knowing what questions might be thrown at you or what new ideas you might get out of interactions. In order to be proficient in a language it is extremely important that you think in that language. So if you are learning English, make sure you also think in it. You will figure alternate ways of expressing certain concepts or words in your language for which there are no exact English equivalents. In addition to gaining confidence while communicating, this will add a lot of flexibility to your thinking.
Beware of the Accelerator While Speaking
There seems to be a general misconception that speaking fast makes you a good speaker. While you might be able to impress people who are not proficient in a language by speaking fast,your efforts will surely fall flat while addressing speakers of that language. Besides making your speech difficult to follow, speaking fast might also lead you to making mistakes. You are not giving yourself enough time to organize your thoughts and at the end of your speech you might realize that you have missed important points and have not managed to convince your audience. One of the keys to effective speaking is to deliver your message loud and clear and to ensure that this happens, you need to maintain an even pace which is neither very fast, nor too slow.
In addition to your message not getting conveyed owing to you talking too fast, this video brings out another negative aspect of express pace. Keep in mind that you stand a much better chance of impressing your audience by showing them how WELL you speak English rather than how FAST.
Say it Right in English
Giving proper importance to correct pronunciation forms a very important part of learning a language. Especially when you know you are going to speak to people from all over the globe. The first thought that comes to my mind as I come across a new word is what its exact pronunciation is. The English language has a lot of tricky words like “diarrhoea”, “lacklusture”, “charlatan” etc which can easily baffle learners of English. You should always remember while learning English that letters are often rendered silent or can take on different sounds in certain words.
Knowing a lot of words but not knowing how to pronounce them properly will definitely be considered a serious flaw. So whenever you come across a new word while reading, make sure you look up that word in a good dictionary and find out how to pronounce it. A good storehouse of words coupled with the knowledge of right articulation is the way to go to become an impressive speaker of a language.
It’s Not Just Words
A common misconception about communication skills is that it is all about using impressive words and expressions. Many of us have the notion that our job is done if we can make our language ornamental. This again is a problem with our school education where most of us are taught to improve our English by learning up a lot of words and illustrations and using them in speech and writing. What we tend to forget is that the tone of voice and body gestures play an equally important role in getting our messages across effectively. In fact the tone becomes all the more important while speaking over phone. It is very important that the tone is engaging and lively. Very often telecallers sound bored or disinterested which does nothing to impress the people they are calling.
Besides using words and expressions, it is essential to remember the importance of patience, voice, gestures and eye-contact while communicating. It should be kept in mind that the listener(s) are not there to learn English from us but to get some useful information. Communication is about providing information clearly and comprehensibly. So all that needs to go into making a message simple and understandable should be used. A string of high-flown words and expressions might not get us anywhere close to achieving our purpose.