A specific and unusually valuable skill: how to get somebody to talk to you at length, in Malayalam, about something they know and you do not. It is the fastest way to improve your listening, it is how you learn things about Kerala that are in no book, and it is a genuinely useful professional skill. And it is a skill, not a personality trait. It can be taught. THE PRINCIPLE A good interview is not a series of questions. It is ONE question, then a long silence, then a follow-up that proves you were listening. Learners get this exactly backwards: they prepare fifteen questions, ask them in order, receive fifteen short answers and learn nothing, because the person answering was given no signal that expansion was wanted. BAD QUESTIONS AND GOOD ONES Yes-no questions end in -ഓ and get one word back. നിങ്ങൾക്ക് ഇത് ഇഷ്ടമാണോ? gets ഉവ്വ്, and the conversation is over. എങ്ങനെയായിരുന്നു? how was it? എന്താണ് സംഭവിച്ചത്? what happened? എന്തുകൊണ്ടാണ്? why? എങ്ങനെയാണ് ചെയ്യുന്നത്? how is it done? അപ്പോൾ എന്ത് തോന്നി? what did you feel then? അതിനെക്കുറിച്ച് പറയാമോ? can you tell me about that? — your workhorse, since -നെക്കുറിച്ച് attaches to anything And the single best opening question in Malayalam: ചെറുപ്പത്തിൽ എങ്ങനെയായിരുന്നു? What was it like when you were young? Ask that of anybody over sixty and then stop talking for twenty minutes. THE FOLLOW-UPS, WHICH ARE THE ACTUAL SKILL എന്നിട്ട്? and then? — the most efficient word in an interview അതെന്താ? why is that? — asks for reasoning ഒരു ഉദാഹരണം പറയാമോ? can you give an example? — the single most valuable follow-up in any language, because it converts an abstract statement into a story, and stories are what you want നിങ്ങൾ പറഞ്ഞല്ലോ... you mentioned that... — then repeat what they said അത് എപ്പോഴായിരുന്നു? when was that? · അപ്പോൾ ആരൊക്കെ ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു? who was there then? എനിക്ക് ഇത് അറിയില്ല, ഒന്ന് പറഞ്ഞു തരാമോ? I don't know about this, would you explain it to me? — the key that opens Kerala. Admitting ignorance and asking to be taught is not weakness here; it is the correct posture of a student, and Kerala respects students. THE MECHANICS Say what you are doing: ഞാൻ മലയാളം പഠിക്കുകയാണ്. ഒരു കാര്യം ചോദിക്കട്ടെ? This frames everything, forgives your errors in advance, and gives them a role. Ask for slowness at the START, not after you have lost the thread: പതുക്കെ പറയാമോ? People comply and then drift back to speed. Ask again, cheerfully, as often as needed. Do not interrupt to look up a word. Listen for the shape, not every item. Backchannel constantly — ഉം, അതെ, ശരി, അതെയോ? Silence reads as incomprehension here. റെക്കോർഡ് ചെയ്യാമോ? May I record? Ask explicitly and accept a no gracefully. And close properly: നന്ദി, വലിയ ഉപകാരമായി. ഇനിയും വരാമോ? May I come again? — the question that converts an interview into a relationship, which is the whole point. Quizzes below. Dr. Reshmi R Nair — SpeakMalayalam.