Monday, September 12, 2016

A letter to all students/friends who are looking for better jobs and prospects,

Dear students/friends 

SUB : IMPORTANCE OF "WHAT YOU THINK IN ENGLISH/ YOUR THOUGHTS IN ENGLISH" 

While attending any Job Interview/ Panel Discussion/ Training Session "What you think in English / Your personal thoughts in English on a particular topic/issue/subject/aspect" become important. 
You are noticed and measured by what you speak on topics that are related to you for eg. your native place, your school/college/favourite subject, your comments on social/national/international issues. 
So it is useful for your success/progress in any job/profession/career that you keep improving and improvising your thoughts/ideas in English especially at job interviews/work places/public forums/media world. 
That means once your education at schools/college/institutions get over, don't think of English as a subject; instead think of it as a skill, an art, a science... to think, express, impress and get success and happiness in life.


Thinking of you,

Yours sincerely
Vinod Kaliyath


Tuesday, September 6, 2016

An open letter to all students/teachers/trainers.

Sir

SUB : Classrooms are to make students think in English.

As a person who has been taking classes in English Communication for the last 15 years, what I have understood clearly is that our education system focuses too much on text as far as teaching English is concerned. Text becomes the center of an English class. Then questions based on the chapters in the text follow and then comes discussing the answers. Now the question is "Where is the learner here? Are their needs, dreams and thoughts taken care of ?".
What we need is classes based on learners' way of thinking, their thinking process and engaging their thoughts. The students have to discover how to think in English and use their thinking skills in finding solutions to situations faced in class. A class should be about the students' thoughts and how to put their thoughts in words and sentences for them to communicate freely and naturally in English. This is what we have to come across in our classrooms - students being empowered to "Think in English".

Thanking you

Yours faithfully
Vinod Kaliyath


Monday, August 15, 2016

Letter to a news reporter...

Image result for newspaper reporterWant to know of a blog that was born in a classroom? Yes, it was a small classroom that inspired this blog named "Think in English blog".

Now you just have to google "Think in English blog" and the first blog that appears on this topic is the blog at "vkwrldctzn.blogspot.in".

In a usual classroom what is taught and learnt is the text and things related to it. In a "Think in English" classroom, it is the "thought" that gets the most importance.

Students here learn to express their thoughts in English. They are made familiar with a set of forty sentences which form the nucleus. Once these commonly used sentences are introduced in the class, the students form an idea to "Think in English". So it's all about showing a simple and easy way to make the English language easy for thinking and using.

This blog introduces a roadmap for students as well as teachers/trainers to get interested in this new way of learning and teaching English. The vision of this mission undertaken by the blogger Mr. Vinod Kaliyath is to make our fellow citizens and the youth good speakers/communicators, thinkers and teachers/trainers in English language.

Vinod is presently working as a guest faculty at CREST (under the SC/ST department, Govt. of Kerala) helping students to "Think in English". He is also a "Think in English" trainer for Vengeri AUP school and many other such schools and institutes in and around Kozhikode.  

With hopes of a great thought...
Vinod Kaliyath
vkwrldctzn.blogspot.in

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

SPEAK YOUR MIND EXERCISE

Image result for speak your mindAsked the student groups to speak about what they think the most, most of the time nowadays(the topic of their thoughts/the focus). Each group has to make four to eight English sentences(ES) on that topic. Most of the groups spoke on topics like future life, movies, vehicles, travelling and friends.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Monday, August 1, 2016

CHANGING THOUGHTS THROUGH WORDS EXERCISE

Image result for transformIn this exercise the students form groups and plan a role-play/skit where they show how a person changes the way of thinking of another person who has been into bad/unhealthy habits, attitudes or behavior.

TO BE CONTINUED...

THE FIGHTBACK

Image result for fightbackIn this exercise the students form groups and plan a role-play/skit where they show how a person when subjected to injustice fights back inspiring others facing similar situations elsewhere.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Saturday, July 2, 2016

THOUGHTS 2016

In yoga. it is through knowledge, discipline, non-attachment and surrender to the universal force that we transcend the illusion of the mind and discover our true selves. That is the journey.
----Sakina Kapoor., a yoga expert

When the camera rolls and the director shouts, 'action', it is not a director but a therapist healing your mind and body.
---Amitabh Bachchan

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. 
---Leo Buscaglio

Culture gives coherence to our lives. It gives us the resources to make sense of the world and our personality.

---Bhikhu Parekh

I must learn to love the fool in me - the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. 
---Theodore Rubin


We are a small portion of the universal consciousness bound in a body. 
---TOI Blogs

Let's think beyond body parts. 
The difference in the  body parts between a man or a woman has entered too deeply into your consciousness that you cannot think beyond it.You should not carry your womanhood or manhood 24 hours of the day. It's not necessary. You can just be a being. Certain times of your life, certain situations in your life you need to be a man or woman,that 's fine. But during the rest of the time why do you want to be identified with a few body parts all the time? If you must be identified with some body part I would suggest a brain would be better instead of reproductive organs.

Compassion is always the highest virtue. Compassion means including everything in your passion. And when the whole existence is involved in your passion you are compassionate.
---SadGuru Jaggi Vasudev

True merit should be judged not by learning achievement as in a test but by demonstrated ability to learn - any measure of merit must take into account the handicaps a student faced at the starting point of the race. 
---Yogendra Yadav 

I let my demons out. If they stay inside, they'll eat up my confidence and spirit.  
---Kangana Ranaut

It is imperative for leaders to have a sound plan for the future, a firm grip on the present and an understanding of the past to attain and sustain success.
---Vijay Govindarajan

To understand conflict, we must understand relationship, and the understanding of relationship does not depend on memory, on habit, on what has been or should be. It depends on choiceless awareness from moment to moment, and if go into it deeply, we shall see that in that awarenessness there is no acuumulative process at all. 
---J Krishnamurti

All bad qualities centre round the ego. When the ego is gone, Realisation results by itself. There are neither good nor bad qualities in the Self. The Self is free from all qualities. Qualities pertain to the mind only. 
---Ramana Maharshi 

Righteousness and Unrighteousness, pleasure and pain, are purely of the mind and are of no concern of yours. You are neither the doer nor the reaper of the consequences, you are always free.  
---Ashtavakra Samhita

What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.  
--- Salman Rushdie  


Truth is like a raging fire. It cannot be hidden forever. Truth is powerful. It has to come out once.
 ---Durga, Dubbing artist.


Common man is one who tolerates everything, never retaliates; he/she like the proverbial three monkeys doesn't see / hear anything and also doesn't open his/her mouth forever. 
---Shatrughan Sinha

from 2015
You will not have my hatred. To respond to hatred with anger would be giving to the same ignorance that made you what you are. You want me to be afraid, to look at my fellow citizens suspiciously, to sacrifice my freedom for security. 
---Antoine Leiris' Facebook post ; in response to Paris terror attacks killing his wife.  

Wealth does not mean a person who owns a lot, but refers to someone who has enough time to enjoy what nature and human colloboration place within everyone's reach...liberated from the competitive illusion that is impoverishing everyone's life.
---Franco Berardi

It’s gratifying to be right but it's liberating to have the freedom to be wrong.
---Kathryn Schulz (World’s leading “Wrongologist”)

'There is nothing wrong about you and there is nothing good about you either. Whoever you are, be happy and confident about it. Only then people will love you.' 

---Actor Sidhique

Humanity is the biggest religion, says Bhagavad Gita.
---Mariyam Asif Siddiqui, ISKCON Gita Contest Winner-2015 

The old model has changed. Now you need to learn, earn and return simultaneously. Never stop learning... Stay humble.
---Ms. Indra Nooyi, Chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo

We Indians have so little to look up to, to kindle our national pride; except cricket and the Bollywood films, the man on the street cannot relate himself to anything else of significance.
In India, cricket following borders on mania not easily understandable for a Westerner.
---Former Indian Cricketer, Bishen Singh Bedi

One out of every four people is suffering from a mental illness. Look at your three best friends. If they're ok, then it's you. 
---Mahesh Bhatt

No society is immune from the darkest impulses of man.  And too often religion has been used to tap into those darker impulses as opposed to the light of God.
---US President Barack Obama (at Siri Fort Auditorium during his India visit for Republic Day celebrations) 

It's a shame nowadays you see so many people at dinner so consumed by their phones instead of connecting. People are even terrified to answer phone calls and feel safer texting - that's a real shame. Face to face communication is really important. ---Dev Patel, Hollywood Actor


Laws should be based on equality, not on religion. 
---Tasleema Nasreen Writer/Activist 

Between the right wing fascists and no-holds barred, the moderates are in fear of losing their voice.
I have challenged myself. As a result I have challenged my audience. 
Whatever I am today is as much a result of my failures as my successes. 
---Actor Aamir Khan

My aim is not to fight against the bad/evil in this world, it is not to end evil thoughts/people/ things; my mission is make the goodness that is in all of us, even in the worst of us but it is lying asleep, frightened, suppressed, repressed and passive; my endeavour is to awaken that goodness.
---Entrepreneur Sandeep Maheshwary (During his Revolution-India stage show)

I am with you at this important juncture of your life.
---Indian PM Narendra Modi (to students going to write their school-level exams)

One is most a Hindu when least a Hindu ---Writer Arvind Sharma

Parenting now is a two-way relationship where you learn from each other.
---Actor Juhi Chawla


A woman's honour exists only within the cages(rules) of patriarchy. Here man is either a protector or a predator.
---Message of the Bollywood movie NH 10. 

I fail to understand why every government, every administration, all political parties are so scared of the extremists of all the communities
---Writer/Poet Javed Akhtar


TO BE CONTINUED...