Learning English through mobile phones

Although this article is now a year old, I find it extremely fascinating that mobile phone users in rural India are learning English language through mobile phones.

Hari Bhandari Bahadur (55), a guard in the St Xavier’s College, never got a chance to go to school. But after procuring a mobile phone in 2005, he has learnt to identify all English alphabets within a short time.

Now he identifies the ‘missed call’ given by his wife, as the mobile screen reflects ‘BB’. “I saved her number as capital letters ‘B’ written twice meaning ‘biwi’ (wife) so I understand that my wife is calling,” said Bahadur innocently.

Another such person is vegetable vendor Mohammad Shamim, who in between selling vegetables, has picked up words like “menu, call, reject, receive, silent, vibrate” in the past seven years of cellphone usage.

It would be interesting to know, if this trend is prevalent through out India or just limited to northern India. Also if it is happening across the world. Secondly, whether people who are learning English through mobile phone usage are using it in their daily life or limiting it to their interactions on mobile phone.