Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is known for his eloquent use of the English language. His impressive use of rarely-used, difficult-to-pronounce English words never fails to amuse people. Now, an Australian teacher has analysed Mr Tharoor's speech and shared tips on how to speak like him. The teacher, identified as Jay, shared a video on Instagram, offering insights into the art of speaking like the Congress leader. In the clip, he admired Mr Tharoor's linguistic prowess and described his English as "absolutely beautiful".
"Shashi Tharoor's English accent is beautiful. How does it sound so good? One part is syllable stress - the rhythm of the words," Mr Jay wrote in the post's caption.
Watch the video below:
In the clip, the Australian teacher explained that the major feature is Mr Tharoor's purposeful emphasis on specific syllables rather than uniform pronunciation. He gave an example by playing one of Mr Tharoor's videos where the minister says, "So when it comes to pleasure, most youngsters nowadays prefer looking at a screen, their mobile phone or laptop, PlayStation or Nintendo". The teacher then highlighted how Mr Tharoor did not pronounce the words equally but rather stressed the appropriate syllables to enhance the impact of his speech.
Mr Jay shared the clip a few days back and since then his post has accumulated more than 2.7 million views and over 118,000 likes. Internet users flooded the comment section with all kinds of reactions. While some were intrigued by the video, others praised the teacher for his "spot on" explanation.
"Great analysis," wrote one user. "This is beautiful and helpful, thank you. I was never able to put my finger on what exactly made his English so beautiful to listen to," said another.
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"Excellent. Thanks for driving home the message about syllable stress!" commented a third a user. "Yes, this is something that I have noticed. It's not about the volume, but about the amount of time he holds that syllable. Shashi has a staccato feel in the manner in which he speaks, Native speakers use inflections in addition to the emphasis," added another.
However, one user pointed out that Mr Tharoor's English is different because he uses uncommon words. "Fact is the points you mentioned are common when Indians special North Indians speaking English they all speak that way. His English is different because he uses some really different words which are uncommon and hence grabs attention and pushes people to discuss his vocabulary," the user explained.
