Hi,

Source:TOI


KOCHI: A few minutes before 7 on a recent morning, Greeshma Salin swivelled her chair to face the computer, slipped on her headset and said in faintly accented English, “Hello, Daniela.” Seconds later, she got the response, “Hello, Greeshma.”

The two chatted excitedly before Salin said, “We’ll work on pronouns today.” Then she typed in, “Daniela thinks that Daniela should give Daniela’s horse Scarlett to Daniela’s sister.” Then, she asked: “Is this an awkward sentence? How can you make it better?”

Nothing unusual about this exchange except that Salin, 22, was in Kochi and her student, Daniela Marinaro, 13, was at her home in Malibu, California. Salin is part of a new wave of outsourcing to India: tutoring US students.

Salin, who grew up speaking Malayalam, has been tutoring Daniela in English grammar, comprehension and writing.

Using a simulated whiteboard on their computers, connected by the Internet, and a copy of Daniela’s textbook in front of her, she guides the teenager through the intricacies of nouns, adjectives and verbs.

Daniela, an eighth grader at Malibu Middle School, said, “I get C’s in English and I want to score A’s,” and added that she had given no thought to her tutor being 20,000 miles away, other than the situation feeling “a bit strange in the beginning”.

She and her sister, Serena, 10, are just 2 of the 350 Americans enrolled in Growing Stars, an online tutoring service based in Fremont, California, but whose 38 teachers are in Kochi. NYT News Service


There’s a new wave of outsourcing to India - tutoring US students. Teachers at Growing Stars, an online tutoring service, offer tutoring in mathematics and science, and recently in English, to students in grades 3 to 12.

Five days each week, at 4:30 am in Kochi, the teachers log on to their computers just as students in US settle down to their books and homework in the early evening.

Growing Stars is one of at least half-a-dozen companies across India that are helping American children complete their homework and prepare for tests.

As in other types of outsourcing, the driving factor in “homework outsourcing”, as the practice is known, is the cost. Companies like Growing Stars and Career Launcher India in New Delhi charge American students $20 an hour for personal tutoring, compared with $50 or more charged by their American counterparts.

Growing Stars pays its teachers a monthly salary of Rs 10,000 ($230), twice what they would earn in entry-level jobs at local schools.

~~.......~~

Still, the cultural divide is real. In Kochi, Leela Bai Nair, 48, a former teacher who has 23 years of experience and is an academic trainer for Growing Stars, said she was “floored at first when 10-year-old American students addressed me as Leela. All my teaching life in India, my students addressed me as Ma’am”.

NYT service

Peace
-=SF_13=-

Faintly accented? Whenever I have a call sent through a call center in India I can hardly understand what the other person is saying, the only english accent harder to understand is one that comes from south of the Mason-Dixon Line. But if this works all the better because there are a lot of Indians and they can use all the jobs they can get. Personally, I would have liked to do some sort of history program because I just didn't care about English. You guys can understand me, right? That is all that matters. I have more important things to worry about than knowing the difference between an adjective and adverb.

I'm not all that surprised, since the Indians have traditionally been British-trained; the English of the educated ones is probably better than our's.

Originally Posted by Damien435

Personally, I would have liked to do some sort of history program because I just didn't care about English. You guys can understand me, right? That is all that matters. I have more important things to worry about than knowing the difference between an adjective and adverb.

On one hand, I agree with you; on the other, I've worked in corporate America long enough to know that if you plan on climbing the ladder, your English had better be outstanding, since how you use it will make an impression on the people around you, particularly your boss.

Originally Posted by AJChenMPH

I'm not all that surprised, since the Indians have traditionally been British-trained; the English of the educated ones is probably better than our's.

On one hand, I agree with you; on the other, I've worked in corporate America long enough to know that if you plan on climbing the ladder, your English had better be outstanding, since how you use it will make an impression on the people around you, particularly your boss.

So my english I picked up from four years of working in a bar probably wont help me that much, will it?

Thats interesting. I wonder if, perhaps, those students are primarily recent immigrants. It says the student is 13 and, regardless if they know the names or not, any thirteen year old can use pronouns. They may not know the names or syntax behind it, but they know what to do.

Did you all know the official language of India is English. When India became a separate Nation there was a lot of arguments over just what would be the official language, well each Indian State wanted their language to be the dominant one, so Gandhi to keep the peace decided to keep English as their official language so that no state would feel that the next one would have some over them. Also English had been the official language for over 200 years all the government business had been conducted in English so had all the Courts so English remained the official language

Hi,

LeEnfield is partially Right .......... The Official language of India is Hindi but Most of the Work is Done in English ..... and most of the Education is also in English .......... English officialy the second language but it performs all the functions that the first language should perform ..........

We still Follow the British English in our Education system ....... And English is a compulsory Subject during the full 12 years of School ........Not to mention other Subjects like maths , Science , Social Science ( History, geography, Political Science ) Those were the Subjects which i read for the 10 years and are compulsory subjects for everyone ....... those all can also be opted in English ....... after that during the Higher Education it's a Optional Subject.

This is not the First time India is Involved in the Education of a Different Country .......... Answer sheets of English language from various Schools in UK are checked here ........


Peace
-=SF_13=-

My youngest Son recently graduated with a BA in business accounting and law. His girlfriend is from Ethiopia and is of East Indian origin. She is now working on her Masters, I'm not sure in what, but she speaks flawless English, American style, but is fluent in other languages. Her family spends their vacation time in Germany so they all learned German and French. I am amazed at her ability to learn and understand various subjects so quickly but my Son and their friends seem to think well, she's just smart. I think she borders on genius but that could just be the generation gap on my part.

Originally Posted by Missileer

I think she borders on genius but that could just be the generation gap on my part.

I'm 25 but still there's a huuuuuge gap between that girl and me.

Originally Posted by Damien435

So my english I picked up from four years of working in a bar probably wont help me that much, will it?

Depends on which bar you're at, and who frequents it.