To study French, one usually goes to France. It’s a logical choice, the nation of the language’s origin. This logic applies to learning German in Germany, Kazakh in Kazakhstan, and Quechua in the Andes. But in an emerging trend, students from East Asia are seeking to improve their English in…India?
To work and study in the U.S., Canada, UK, or Australia has been and still is the dream of many East Asian students hoping to increase their competitiveness for jobs. But a year-long program in California or Ottawa can rack up a bill exceeding tens of thousands in first-world currency. If English language prerequisites are not met, ESL academy fees can easily add another $5000. That’s where India comes in. With living costs near rock-bottom (a small restaurant meal in India’s most expensive city costs around $3.50), India is becoming an educational way station for more Asians on their way West.
The Guardian reports that over 1,000 South Korean students are enrolled at 43 schools throughout the country. In many Indian states, cheap English tuition can be found of a quality comparable to that of U.S. and Australian institutions. The Woodstock School in Uttarakhand, which has one of the best-known ESL programs, enrolls almost 100 Asian students from Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, and Taiwan. Instruction takes place in the folds of the Himalaya Mountains.
This is the colonial legacy of the British Empire, that England no longer maintains flagship status over the English language. Even Canada and the U.S., two countries which have English as their de facto language, are heirs of a settler tongue. Without counting these, 58 sovereign nations now list English as an official language. The Hindu in fact worries that the rich diversity of regional Indian languages is being lost, as “parents feel it is better to communicate in one universal language than to speak to the kid in two regional languages”–that universal language being English.
According to The Nation, a Thailand newspaper, some students are foregoing Western college degrees altogether in favor of Indian courses. For a four-year degree, these students end up paying about one-fifth what they would have spent in the UK or Australia. India’s attraction as a BRIC country, as well as its multiple listings in the QS World University Rankings‘ top 200, are seen to offset inconveniences like rough roads and other patchy infrastructure.
Creative Commons love: Winterline Nature Trust and Robyn Jay on Flickr.com
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