Note: Although I have mentioned the BPO here in this note, it is not relevant only to one Specific industry. It is relevant to all english speaking people.
Your style of talking belongs to you. It may have been influenced by many people: actors/ actresses, parents, friends, the tea stall guy etc. At one level, it allows you to experience the world through a specific style of talking; at a physical level, conditions your mouth to open up in certain dimensions. Your voice is a representation of you. If you speak with the right clarity and are conscious of the physicality of sound, your voice may be referred to as “velvet” or “in a state of flow.” If one shoots out words in spurts, with abrupt, fast endings, your voice may be judged/misjudged as being staccato.
Applying the same to your work, working in the corporate environment requires a certain amount of “velvet.” Working at breakneck speeds for hours is tedious for your body and your mind. Most of the time, we don’t even realize that our body is talking back to us and that, if it had its way, would strike back at us for treating it with less dignity. In fact, our bodies are finely tuned instruments, structures composed of many units that move in conjunction with each other. For instance, allow your body to relax completely; stand and move your little toe very gently. The movement starts as a ripple and becomes a wave as it climbs up the length of your thigh. That is the interconnected power of the body.
Movement is the basis of existence. When you move, you change. As you change, it allows you to feel a new space, it allows you to cherish the niceties, and then you move again. Movement has five stages: flow, staccato, chaos, lightness and quietness.
Language is physical in nature, created by movement. It is an intimate dance of speech organs with the rest of the body. Meanwhile, the way you structure your sentences reflects your thought process. Your voice is sacred because it has “come down the tree from your ancestors. If your mother tongue is Bengali, there may be a few Bengali sounds that would enter your spoken English sound very beautifully. And you would be able to speak both English and Hindi with a Bengali touch. This ability to switch from one accent to another is called diaglosia. Diaglosia is an inherent part of the Indian culture and is exampled in each one of us.
The BPO industry came into the country because someone had the idea of bringing two cultures together to work towards a mutually beneficial output. When the BPO came to India, the need for voice and accent training arose. Originally voice training aimed only to improve listening skills in reference to the American and British sounds. At some point, the nature of this training changed, and employers became bound and determined to make a Sandeep speak like a Sandy. This resulted in attrition skyrocketing to 55% in some companies. To attempt to change one’s voice and accent to match that of another nationality proved traumatic to many employees. Employers soon found they could not afford to underestimate the intimate link between voice and general identity; however, for some, the profit margin still outweighs this rationale—and the value of happy, centered employees.
Happily, though, the focus is, once again, beginning to shift towards the primacy of listening skills. The spreading recognition of Standard English as an effective link language for global communities has fostered the philosophical shift. When I can hear properly, I can absorb; when I can speak a standard form of a language that binds this world together, a language that has been taught to us during the “watering of the plant”, I feel a part of the system rather than a pretender lurking inside enemy gates.
What I believe in was validated by a Times of India article in the beginning of February 2004. The article in a nutshell spoke about American and British employers not wanting a pseudo American or British “perceived” accent but what I like calling a standardized form of Indian Variant of English (IVE). Since then, a lot of articles, papers, documentaries and other forms of media have spoken about the BPO and its continuing need of good training. I look at good voice training including natural breathing and the physicality of sound. When the body is breathing correctly, in a circle, it ensures all muscles are functioning with the right amount of stress. When the muscles relax, it allows real communicators to express better, either with their gesticulations etc or simply the voice. This coupled with the right physicality used while producing the various sounds used in the English alphabet, allows the communicator to reach another level of spoken language. Total comfort and complete natural style!
No comments:
Post a Comment