indian food
Source: BBC
It wasn’t until Prashant Choudhary quit his desk job at a Delhi insurance firm to work as a driver that he began to speak English with some fluency.
Choudhary left insurance because he wanted to be his own boss and have more control over his working life — but there has been an unexpected upside to his new career.
As an Uber driver, Choudhary has to use an English-language app day in, day out, and he has found it has significantly improved his language skills. “I enjoy speaking English and often speak in English with my clients. Being an Uber driver has increased my confidence [in speaking],” he said. “I meet clients from many different countries, and doing so many trips and meeting different passengers has definitely helped me improve my English.”
Sharing economy platforms such as Uber are shaking up traditional business models – and offering new ways for people to improve their language skills (Credit: Thinkstock)
Choudhary’s just one of the many Indians in cities like Delhi, Calcutta and Mumbai now working for so-called shared economy platforms – business models that allow individuals to borrow or make use of assets or services offered by somebody else – such as Uber, Airbnb, freelance marketplace Fiverr and clothing hire platform Rent the Runway. Since these app-based businesses work primarily in English, Indians who work with them every day are improving their language skills as a side-effect.
As well as chatting with his passengers in English and tuning in to English radio, Choudhary made an active decision to use the English-language version of the Uber app, so he follows directions to his next passenger’s destination in English. He’s just one of many Indians choosing to engage with language learning opportunities throughout their working day.
The same phenomenon is mirrored at Airbnb, a website that allows users to arrange short-term lets, where the primary working language is also English. There are currently over 9,000 homes offered through the platform in India. “Human interaction and culture exchange is a big incentive for many [of the people] who use Airbnb,” said company spokeswoman Alison Wood. “For example, some people deliberately choose to travel with Airbnb because it means their children can interact with other children and have exposure to other languages.”
Categories: Technology, The Muslim Times, Travel