Estado del Arte

Hari described his first week on the job as being very “confusing” and “chaotic” due to not having dealt with native English speakers in a workplace environment before. Hari had very low confidence in his English-speaking ability. He had a fear that his English would be incorrect and that he would be shamed for making a mistake in front of the customers. When he first began conversing with his customers, he had a tendency to speak with a very low voice so that the customer would be unable to point out any mistakes in his use of English. Hari stated, “My voice was reasonably low. I didn’t want them to hear my voice clearly so that they couldn’t point out that I was making a mistake”.

Hari was frustrated by his inability to understand the colloquial expressions used by his customers even though he had spent over five years in Australia. Expressions such as: “What’s up mate?” and “Hi dude, can I have a twenty stick choice gold cigarette?” had him

completely perplexed. Additionally, Hari was ashamed of his own English accent and felt that he could not do his job properly due to his poor English-speaking ability. When Hari did not understand a customer’s question, he did not even dare to ask them to repeat it. He

explained, “My face turned red. My mind went blank… so that I couldn’t think what I had to do. I kept looking at his face but my mouth was closed”.

Hari’s anxiety was further exacerbated from a lack of confidence to make direct eye contact with the customers. He indicated that, in his culture, it was considered disrespectful to make straight eye contact with those who were superior to him. Hari believed that the

English-speaking customers were relatively superior to him in terms of their English

proficiency and, therefore, he felt too awkward to make straight eye contact with them even though he had been given feedback by Arvind to improve on this.

For Hari, developing adequate proficiency in English was a matter of necessity for his workplace socialization. Despite his initial frustrations and lack of confidence, he was very motivated to learn more English as well as the social norms of his workplace environment. Hari stated that he was continually alert and active during his workplace training. He paid careful attention to the way Arvind used his English and attempted to use the same

expressions when he conversed with the customers. He wrote: “When Arvind was on the counter serving the customers, I would tend to listen carefully how he answered their

questions. If he spoke any new words, I tried to use them when I conversed with a customer”. Hari acquired some routine and formulaic English through repeated interactions with his English-speaking customers. Over time, he progressed to learning the colloquial and technical variety of English required in a friendly workplace context, using expressions such as: “Howdy!” “What’s up, mate!” “Which fuel do you want, regular, unleaded or premium?” “Cheers mate!” “Take it easy!” and “Have a good one!”

Hari became progressively more confident when his English use was validated by his customers. Additionally, as his confidence grew in his use of English, so did the customers treat him with a friendlier manner. He wrote, “When I spoke more confidently with them, they also behaved with me in a friendly manner. Sometimes, they initiated the conversation and talked to me with a smile”.

Hari gradually improved his English beyond formulaic expressions. A few weeks after his entry into the workplace, Hari was able to troubleshoot most customer issues with an adequate use of English. For example, on one occasion Hari gave an extra ten dollar note in changeto a customer; he then promptly apologized to his customer (expressing himself with correct English) and told her with confidence that she had to return the overpaid ten dollars. Hari also began to feel comfortable in using slang and colloquial expressions in his interactions with the customers. Originally, he had presumed that these were bad words and thus tended to feel shy about using them. Hari indicated that he was inspired to use such words after he received positive feedback from his English-speaking customers. In the following excerpt, Hari described how an English-speaking woman praised his English when she heard him using Australian slang:

There is an old woman who comes to our pump very frequently to fuel her car. She is aged around mid-60s. Two days ago she was at the counter to pay her bill but the cash register was not working. I tried several times but it didn’t work. I was quite annoyed and was saying something like, “Oi! what the bloody hell is that!” The woman laughed. I said to her “Why are you laughing? Anything wrong?” She said “You’re not Aussie but you used Aussie slang words. The Aussies usually use these words. Then I felt like I also needed to use the slang words. If I speak in the Aussie accent, the Australians will be happy.

Hari’s motivation to practise and learn English was positively influenced by this feedback. He felt encouraged to speak more with his customers after receiving this genial comment on his expressive use of colloquial English.