Dayal makes English vlogs while farming

A youth named Dayal Chandra Barman is working in the field, sometimes driving a power tiller and sometimes bringing the harvest home. And all of a sudden, speaks English fluently in his immaculate accent. Thousands of people watch these videos of Dayal from Atwary upazila of Panchagarh. He never studied in any reputed educational institute. He even dropped out of college and later took part in higher secondary examination from the Open University. How did he muster up courage to make content in English? How did he take interest in mastering English?

Pulin Chandra Barman never had any dream to make his son a physician, engineer or high official. His dream was simple, that his son would speak English flawlessly. Pulin Chandra Barman is a farmer. Alongside farming, he sowed the seed of a dream in his son to learn English. While his friends were busy in spending time in taking private tuition, Dayal was busy honing his skills in English. He was a student of Panchagarh’s Bishnuprasad Government High School back then. But he liked the English teaching style of Md Asghar Ali, head teacher of the adjacent village’s Pramanik Para primary school. He studied the language under Asghar Ali’s supervision.

Dayal Chandra’s academic life was somewhat muddled. Many of his relatives live in India and the family wanted him to go for higher studies there. But Dayal wanted to do something in the country. At one point of indecision, his studies were stopped.

Almost two years passed in a kind of despair. During the Covid-induced 'new normal', Dayal started thinking afresh which gave him a break.

Dayal Chadra started to watch motivational videos on Youtube to boost his morale during the lockdown period. Most of these videos were in English. As his foundation was solid, Dayal did not face any trouble understanding these videos. He started trying to speak in English watching the videos. His own interest, alongside the wish of making his father’s wish true, goaded Dayal in his journey towards learning the most-spoken language of the world.

At one point, Dayal sensed that he can speak English well. He started making his own videos, speaking in English and correcting the mistakes. Meanwhile he joined an English learning Facebook group named ‘Search English’. Many people post videos of themselves speaking English. Bolstered by this, Dayal started uploading his own video on the group. Positive comments from others encouraged him further.

Dayal started listening to English more to improve his accent and speaking style.   Simultaneously, he continued uploading videos on Facebook.

Dayal was also engaged with the English Language Club of Ten Minute School. The club organised a Spoken English Challenge competition. Dayal came first at the competition beating hundreds of contenders. This boosted his confidence even more. He could not imagine he would become champion of a national level competition sitting at a remote corner of the country. Dayal said he would upload videos on Facebook to assess himself.

“I could not believe I stood first in Spoken English Challenge among so many contenders. I want others to know from my success that you can excel by your own effort.”

He is now inspiration for many people of all ages. Dayal’s Facebook ID has over 100,000 followers. He depicts his own struggle through these videos. Dayal makes these videos while working at the field turning it into his ‘studio’. In a recent video, Dayal said, “It’s not anything big that I’m speaking English. I succeed because I tried to improve myself. But the main problem of many of our youth is they don’t make any endeavor to improve themselves”

Dayal also dived into charity work lately. He distributed warm clothes among the poor people in his area recently.

This correspondent spoke with Ten Minute School’s founder Ayman Sadiq about Dayal. He said, “I’ve seen his videos. I liked these. He even dabbled in some activities with Ten Minute School. He has enthusiasm.

He added that those who can’t speak English due to lack of confidence may get inspiration from him.