Someone rightly said, ‘To handle a language skillfully is to practice a kind of evocative sorcery.‘
Oh yes I agree fully with that.
Language is like magic, and just as a magician perfects his legerdemain with loads of practice, similarly the power to cast a spell with our language [both written and spoken] is with each one of us, provided we practice it to perfection.
Many people ask me how to speak English flawlessly and I tell them that the process is not possible in a day.
You will require to cultivate a few habits before you can actually start the process.
1st habit – Patience. Yesss !!!! You need to be patient when you start doing anything new.
2nd habit – Discipline. You have to be disciplined in whatever you are learning. This requires not just discipline of actions and routine, but also discipline of thought.
3rd habit – Self belief. This is the most important habit of all, because many a battles of life have been lost due to self-doubt.
4th habit – Perseverance. You have to do it everyday, whenever and wherever you can.
5th habit – Being thick skinned. You have to stop caring what the world is saying. It is not possible to please everyone and it is also your prerogative not to listen to any negative, discouraging remarks that people make.
6th habit – Don’t be scared to make mistakes. Now come on, we all make mistakes, so who will die if you utter one wrong sentence. Please make errors but keep on learning and improving upon it.
7th habit – Love what you are doing. If you don’t love what you have started you will stop doing it.
8th habit- Put in a good measure of desperation in what you want. Be desperate to do it and automatically you will find a way to do it.
9th habit – Do it for yourself. Whatever you are doing is for your own good and you will get the bouquets or the brick bats at the end of your journey. So do it for yourself not because someone wants or expects you to do it.
10th habit – Keep on learning new words, improve your vocabulary and learn the different situation based usage of those words.
11th habit – Expose yourself to that language as much as you can. Be it in the form of reading, listening, speaking or writing.
12th habit – Make small manageable sentences and then start lengthening them once you have control and command over your words and structure.
Final habit – Start thinking in that language and substitute that language for your native language when you think.
Finally when you have mastered all the above habits you will realize that You are the Magician !!!
Yes you can weave magic with your words !!!
So let us start today and bring out the Magician that we have inside us ……
Happy Conjuring…!!!!
(The author is an IIM Bangalore Alumnus, renowned author of CAT Books on Verbal Ability from TMH as well as the English Language Trainer at www.mindworkzz.com – the online CAT training venture of Arun Sharma.)