Information

In this technology based era, communication has become one of the key concerns worldwide. Aspects from advertisement to personal relationship depend mostly on good skill to properly convey and receive information. It is exceedingly demanding for an engineer to maintain a good relation with many corporate houses and research institutes for a glorious future for not only himself, but also the society.

Out of around 6000 languages spoken around the world, only a few ones such as Spanish, French, German, English and so on are widely used as official languages of communication. Among them, English is considered a common language in terms of recent research works and developments as the number of Scientific Journals in English is increasing and countries having English as native language have a growing influence over others. Only a few countries are able to hold on to their indigenous languages as the means of development. China, Germany, France, Spain are to name a few. As a result, our country, Bangladesh, requires a good number of professionals to achieve elevated level of English language skill to cope up with the soaring development opportunities.

Engineers, especially Chemical Engineers with a good knowledge in Polymer sector, are the prime community to leave a deep footprint in the development of a country. Consequently, they need to understand the international aspects of possibilities and link them to own conditions. It is really difficult without a good understanding of the international language, English. Studying abroad also demands a good score in IELTS or TOEFL, which are available language tests in Bangladesh. It is also worth mentioning that these examinations have no correlation with GMAT, GRE or SAT. These are different category of assessment and the score requirement of institutes is also different for both categories. In a short note, the former is only language assessment while the latter is judgment of analytical ability with language.

Communication is mainly divided in two ways: one is to understand others and another is to make others understand. Both of them have two channels. The first one relies on Reading and Listening skill whereas the other counts on Writing and Speaking. All the language tests are conducted based on these four channels of transmission and the certification is valid for 2 years, which is settled based on many statistics. Learning of native language starts with Listening and continues with Speaking, Reading and Writing step by step. Unfortunately, the process is opposite for a non-native language. That is why, most people do not perform well in the test and they require a good guideline before IELTS or TOEFL or similar exams.

Considering all the details mentioned, it would be realistic to focus on understanding English from the very beginning. In case of learning a language, it is often said that ‘You need to dream in the language’. The insight of it indicates that after a basic understanding, you need to comprehend the language in terms of that language, i.e. you cannot learn a language completely with the help of other language after a certain level. For example, I personally never looked at any English-Bangla Dictionary after my SSC and studied only English-English Dictionaries. Though it was a bit time consuming at the beginning, it helped me achieve 8.5 out of 9 in the Reading module when I appeared at IELTS exam after my graduation. In addition, having a daily practice session, along with self-study if required, is mandatory to keep up the level. Without these, it will be more than difficult to maintain the pace with this fast moving world.

To recapitulate, the importance of communication can never be underestimated. Take your personal affairs or the career path you choose into account, you cannot go a single moment except a proper communication skill. There is never late to start anything and there is no limit of development. As an engineer, you know a lot. Have confidence on yourself and start from the step you are on today. You never know where your future lies.