Social pressure forces housewives to learn English

RANCHI: For wives of the nouveau riche in the city, English is a status symbol and becomes necessary at kitty parties and other social gatherings. And those who cannot speak the language feel ashamed to let others know.
So they have a secret solution to this. These women approach school teachers or experts in their colonies for special classes, away from the glare of the society.
There are two groups of women who usually want to learn English. The first group is of the middle aged women who attend kitty parties. The reason these women want to learn English is that they feel out of place among the young group of women in the kitty parties who talk in English all the time.
Neeta Saluja (name changed), 45, said, "I never felt the need of learning English because when our group joined kitty party we used to talk in Hindi but now the new girls who are joining us talk in English we feel very out of place. These new girls treat us like villagers so we have no other option but to learn speaking English."
"I approached a school teacher in our colony along with some of my friends to learn English and I made her promise us that she will not tell anybody that we were learning English. I do not want people in our colony to know that I can't speak English, it will be so embarrassing," she added.
There is also a different kind of case where women need to learn English before getting their children enrolled in a reputed school.
Ankita Singh, a housewife and mother of a four-year-old, and is enrolled in St. Xavier's School this year
said, "When I took my son for admission in one of the reputed kindergarten schools in the city the principal of that school refused to admit him claiming that he won't be able to learn anything as I cannot speak English. I was really scared after this and so I asked one of my neighbours to teach me English before I started applying for his enrolment in preparatory school."
Prema Sinha, a school teacher, was approached by a group of women who wanted to learn English, but secretly. "A group of seven middle-aged women approached me to learn spoken English a few months back. They were all very well dressed and elegant looking. When I asked them the reason why they want to learn English they said that they are unable to fit in with the young women in their kitty parties," she said.
"I started with teaching them basics but they were not interested in it. They asked me to just teach them how to start a conversation at various places like parties, clubs, office or any other place," she added.They wrote down all the dialogues and learnt them without even trying to understand the meaning. They were not really interested in learning the language but only showing off their knowledge about the language," she added.