Forget CSAT row, the tide is all for English

NEW DELHI: Tarun Tyagi, 18, doesn't come from Shahdara to South Extension for English lessons to crack Shakespeare. Enrolled at DU's School of Open Learning (Hindi medium) and graduate of a Hindi-medium government school, he is after "functional" English to face interviews and finally qualify IELTS.
At a time when many UPSC aspirants have been clamouring against English in the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT), thousands like Tarun take English classes every year in the city to tackle a variety of exams, job interviews, group discussions and even to negotiate social settings.And institutions that offer capsule courses in the basics of grammar, voice-and-accent and vocabulary for a confidence boost have mushroomed.
Krishna KC, second-year commerce student at DU, graduated from a government school. "I had English," "but the environment to speak it in wasn't there. I hesitate to talk to people." He found Langma International in South Extension-I online. Set up in 2007, the institute occupies a basement and teaches many languages, but English is the most popular.
Mohammad Ali Hakimyar, 25, from Kabul teaches at Langma. He says they have about 25 batches of 20-25 students each. There are courses for TOEFL, IELTS (English language proficiency tests that many foreign universities require applicants to clear) as well as interviews, group discussions and presentations, and new ones for the Common Aptitude Test and even the controversial CSAT are in the pipeline.
Vivek Agarwal, who started EnglishEdge for IELTS/TOEFL training seven years ago, is also "looking at CSAT". English is a tool, "If I want to do business in Chennai, I have to use English. Saying an IAS doesn't need English is like arguing he doesn't need IT." EnglishEdge has trained about 200,000 learners, includes many from the IITs. "They need to brush up their English skills to be professionally and socially successful." He recalls a young mother telling him she was signing up as her boy had just started attending a "premium playschool".
Many of Hakimyar's learners are aged above 35, and there are doctors and lawyers among them. He says promotions come more easily to those who know English. "In practically every industry you have to deal with foreigners or at least clients and business partners from other states."
Just 16, Pushpender Shedha joined an English class on moving from a government school to a private one in south Delhi. "Everyone in class speaks English fluently; my neighbours speak English too."
"You need English for every job," says Anju, 18, who has joined a ?skill centre' in Okhla. About 15 of her former classmates at a Hindi-medium government school are taking similar lessons at a Munirka institute. English training institutes are tucked in every corner of the city, although their standards vary widely. Of the Shahdara ones Tyagi says, "Most of their teachers barely know English themselves".
Alka Gupta, who started British Academy For English Language in 2001, rode the wave and now has 17 centres, including 12 franchises. "There were only about two players in this field then," she says. She started in Satya Niketan (near South Campus), but it was her second centre in Ber Sarai, started in 2003, that drew UPSC aspirants. Now this branch alone makes 50-60 admissions every month. Her students, she says, have studied English in school "but as another subject, like physics and chemistry". Her institute helps them "use it as a language".