My English Teacher

English , The language of most of the people , The language which connects most people. In India if you speak in English, you are respected.

So How I learned English ? , Have I learnt it ?. I do not know I learnt it fully but I learnt new language called English from my English Teacher.

Who is my English Teacher ? This question has got a funny answer from me . Yes the Game "CRICKET" was my English Teacher.

Since I was from a Tamil Medium form of Education, I find English very tough in my early days, yes today also some times it makes me irritated cos z , I will not be understanding exactly what is said and in what sense .

My first experience with English was from my family, in my house almost everybody can understand English and speak in English expect me.
My father was an engineer with PWD, My mother an English Teacher and ofcourse my sister was convent educated.

At home Everybody watch a quiz program conducted by sidhartha Basu at 9.00 PM in Doordarshan, I was the only one who will watch girl standing next to Quiz master then understanding what he was speaking.

Everybody try to answer and even ask me in Tamil to answer the question, I answered most of the questions but I didnot know English to understand the questions.

I was asking my dad, how to learn English, He said read THE HINDU and Read what you like most. I should thank him for giving me the tips, which helped me to learn the Language to survive in this world.

I like The game CRICKET most , So I started reading scores, bowler name and analysis in THE HINDU. I started reading without understanding meanings to start with but I developed interest to understand what was written because I loved the game cricket so much.

So How I started talking in English ? I visited my relative s house for a marriage, I found most of the people are talking in English and some of our relatives came from US were talking in English in a different way. I want to talk with Every body but i have my limitations.

Again the Game of Cricket helped my to learn to talk in English .

When I was growing up with age , Australia s Channel 9 was so famous and beaming the matches played by Australia and other teams. My English teachers emerged from the CRT in the form of Tony Greig, Riche Benaud .

Yes our own Desi Doordarshan provided Dr.Narotam puri, ML Jaishima. So my learning continued and then I was admitted a convent where I need tp pay 5 Rupees for every conversation in Tamil. I paid 500 Rupees per month .

When I was in my 12 th standard, I started reading Sports Star, Sports World, sports Week since I like them most. I love to hear the commentary for learning English .

Then came TWI , and our improved TV coverage with good analysis, I started picking up the langauage very well.

so thus I learnt English through my most loveable sport CRICKET.

I thank Cricket for being my English teacher.

Regards
Harishankar