Now at Delhi airport: Policemen with American, British accents

Don’t be surprised if you come across policemen at the Indira Gandhi International airport speaking English in a ‘pure’ American accent. In fact, not just American, some of them have nailed British and “African” accents, too. So, you might hear them rattling off words such as “yu-muhn” (human), “lang-wij” (language) and “leight” (late).

It is all thanks to a three-day crash course in foreign accents, which aims to make policemen understand and be able to speak English American, British and African accents. Recently, 15 policemen from the Indira Gandhi International airport attended the workshop, five of whom were designated “trainers” following the course. These trainers will further hold sessions with the remaining police personnel at the airport, senior officers said.

Inspector Yogesh Kumar, one of the designated trainers, said the workshop has boosted their confidence to approach foreigners. After the training, he said, they can now easily understand much of what tourists from these foreign lands ask them.

“We were taught that while pronouncing words ending with ‘tion’, we should stress on the letters before ‘tion’ like termina-tion and educa-tion. Similarly, words ending with ent should be spoken with emphasis on ‘u’. So recruitment becomes recruit-mnt, department is depart-mnt and government is gove-mnt,” Kumar said.

As part of the course, they have been provided reading material, video links and have been asked to watch American and British TV channels. However, the pronunciations have turned out to be nothing more than tongue twisters for these policemen. “It is hard, but we have been told to keep practising the accent,” said sub-inspector Sonal, who also attended the workshop.

The officers were trained at an IndiGo facility in Gurugram. “They were more disciplined than our other students and very professional in approach. It was an unusual training for them, but they were quick learners,” said an IndiGo representative who taught the class.

DCP (IGI airport), Sanjay Bhatia, who got the workshop organised, said, “We observed that language, especially foreign accent, was a big hurdle in helping our foreign guests. So, we organised this training programme.”