A desi’s English affair

Peeyush Agnihotri

In India, it’s all about flirting with IELTS while planning a move abroad. Once in Canada, it’s also about romancing with CLB. An immigrant’s love affair with English never ends.

CLB, or Canadian Language Benchmark, is something that many immigrants are assessed for. It’s from this baseline that the quest to conquer English peaks.

Dharamvir Parmar, an immigrant from India, is one such student. Assessed at CLB 3, Dharamvir is upgrading at an immigrant-serving agency. “I accompanied a driver friend of mine on a shuttle bus. That is when I realised how important it was to learn and understand English. Bhaaji, dispatch samajhni badi aukhi aa nahin taan (else it’s hard to understand radio dispatches),” he mutters in chaste Punjabi. Parmar decided to learn English before taking to the wheels professionally.

Streetlore has it that during the economic boom in Canada, when not much attention was paid to language skills while hiring, a cab driver, with passenger on board, skidded on an icy road. While he deftly handled the veer off, his cryptic radio dispatch of “Gaddi in the ditch, customer vich” could not be comprehended by many.

It’s not just about understanding radio communication. Canadian employers look at core skills, transferrable skills and soft skills while hiring. A good command over the Queen’s language overarches these skills in provinces where English takes precedence over French.

Similar is the case of those who want to get into funded training programmess offered by many colleges and agencies. These programmes help bridge the gap between foreign qualifications and Canadian accreditation. Workplace practicum also forms a big component of these programmes and certain skillsets, including English, are required.

“How else can you communicate within your workplace or outside?” asks a language teacher from a funded institute on condition of anonymity. She says Amharic/ Tigrinya, Arabic and Mandarin-speaking learners are the top ones accessing language-class services. “Indians are not the top three need-based population groups, though they are in top 10. The main reason now being many of them are coming as academically qualified federal skilled workers, a huge shift as compared to previous years,” she adds.

It’s not just government-funded programmes. Private schools, who hold ESL (English as Second Language) classes for a fee, are equally popular. Our brethren have Punjabised this abbreviation too. For them, ESL stands for “English Sikhan Layee” class. These schools coach and train for IELTS (general and academic), TOEFL, CELPIP (Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program), CELBAN (Canadian English Language Benchmark Assessment for Nurses) and English pronunciation class. No immigration-category strings attached.

“Our IELTS exam preparation programme is the one most accessed by South Asians for entrance to colleges/ universities or to practice professional occupations. Generally, high scores are required to practice medicine/ nursing/ engineering in Canada,” says Terry O’Dwyer, director of programs, Global Village. As Alberta’s largest private ESL school for adults and IELTS Testing Centre, Global Village has more than 50 nationalities being represented in English school population. “We offer many speaking classes, including pronunciation classes,” Terry adds.

Nura Mohamed, academic coordinator at Geos Language Plus, agrees with the trend but feels it is more specific to the Punjabi population. “There has been a steady flow of Punjabi speakers accessing our services in Alberta. Most of them are on our rolls to challenge IELTS test and we help them prepare for it,” she says.

What makes a lot of sense is that such ESL schools dot areas populated heavily by immigrants — what are now known as ‘ethnic enclaves’. Tuition for a full-time programme may be between $2,000 and $3,500 for a 14-week term. Add to it, the cost of textbooks. A neat sum of $4,000 overall.

Then there are youngsters like Mehul Patel, who want to get rid of their accent. Mehul attends a community-led conversation club to enhance his social skills. “While I am good at grammar, but I feel what I speak is not comprehended. I want to speak the Canadian way, slangs and all,” he says. “Helpful on Tinder too,” he winks.

As per Census 2016, over the past five years, Canada has seen a huge growth of those who speak South Asian languages — Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati and Punjabi — in that order. The most frequently spoken languages at home other than English or French were Mandarin, spoken by 6,41,100 Canadians, followed by Cantonese (5,94,705), Punjabi (5,68,375), Spanish (5,53,495), Tagalog (5,25,375) and Arabic (5,14,200).

For a better band width

• Primary applicants, who immigrate on point basis (express entry), have to score an overall band of six (in reading, writing, speaking and listening English) in IELTS as per the IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Canada) guidelines. Convention refugees, family class permanent residents — even secondary applicants (family members) of those coming on points basis — are eligible for federally funded English classes.
• The applicant must visit a nodal institute. Around 96 of these authorised institutes, assigned to assess a person’s English-speaking skills, dot Canadian landscape. These institutes give out a Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) after assessment.
• Based on that benchmark, a learner is accepted into LINC (Language Instructions for Newcomers to Canada) programme to upgrade English. Putting in 250 hours of learning at one level is mandatory to be eligible for the next. At most locations, there are on-site child minding services to facilitate parents attending classes. The waitlist to get into the programme is long.
• Those who do not qualify for LINC may be eligible for ESL classes. ESL (English as a Second Language) classes are funded by the provincial government. They may or may not come with a cost. Some provincially funded institutes provide it at no-cost while private ESL schools charge fee for it.
• Many community agencies also schedule up conversation clubs to help those who have the English barrier. It is to better prepare and equip learners as they wait to get into a classroom, where language training is curriculum based.