The Eng-fluencer from Odisha

Instagram’s new English teacher, 21- year-old Dhiraj Takri has taken the internet by storm with his engaging content

MARIA FERNANDES | NT

His Instagram bio reads, “Speak English like natives, without moving abroad”. And indeed, through his videos where he teaches how to speak English with an American accent, Dhiraj Takri, native of Chitrakote in Nabarangpur district, Odisha, has become quite a favourite on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

But the journey, while incredible, has been ridden with obstacles. Coming from an underprivileged background, he has had to contend with various issues. “My father used to sell wood when I was a kid, but he stopped working when I was around nine or 10 years old. My mother was a homemaker, so financially, we struggled,” shares the youngster. Takri’s older brother and sister could only study up to Class 10 owing to financial issues. “My parents couldn’t afford to send me to a good school, so I studied in a government school where the education system wasn’t very strong,” he says.

After appearing for his Class 12 examinations, Takri went to Kerala to study at a Bible institute where he learned English. It was also here that he came across a video that would change the course of his life. “I was scrolling on YouTube one day when I came across a video where someone was teaching how to connect words and shorten them in spoken English conversation. This piqued my interest to learn to speak in that accent,” he recalls. “Also, at the time, I had an interest in singing English songs and I realised that if I wanted to sing in their accent, I had to learn to speak in their accent too.”

A year into his studies at the Kerala institute, the pandemic hit and Takri returned to Odisha. But he continued learning the American accent by watching innumerable videos. “While I was in Kerala, I had limited time to use my phone but at home, I had all the free time in the world and that’s when I started learning and practising the accent you hear in my reels today,” he says.  During this time, he also learned to edit photos and videos.

Sometime later, to continue with his theological studies, he moved to Lucknow. In the two and half years he spent there, his passion to learn the language and accent only grew stronger with every new video he watched on YouTube. By this time, he had been learning English for four years but as he says, “I realised I was still very introverted and lacked confidence, which made it hard for me to express myself. I knew I needed to overcome this. I noticed that many language learners said they became more confident when they started teaching on YouTube or speaking in front of a camera. So, I decided to do the same. Teaching English became not just a way to learn more, but also a way to build my confidence.” But here too, there were several roadblocks. “One of my biggest challenges was not having a good phone to film or edit my videos. My phone’s screen was broken right in front of the camera lens, which made it hard to record good quality videos, especially in low light. I had to wait for the right lighting, and if the weather wasn’t sunny, I couldn’t film at all. Another issue was the lack of space at home to record comfortably, so I often preferred filming outdoors,” he says.

Braving these challenges and the initial trolling, Takri’s reels now garner millions of views and thousands of comments. What is unique about his reels is that he incorporates snippets from TV shows and movies to make his tutorials not just easy to understand but also engaging and fun to watch. “I use these clips to show how native English speakers pronounce specific words, phrases, and even sentences. These snippets serve as evidence to support what I’m teaching,” he explains.

Takri’s brand is unique on another front as he only focuses on teaching accent and informal spoken English, rather than covering multiple aspects like grammar or vocabulary. “This focus helped people see me as an accent teacher, not just another English teacher. I also think the fun that I incorporated into my videos played a big role in building my brand,” he states.

The youngster has proved without a doubt that weaknesses and obstacles can be turned into stepping stones of success. For those who want to be content creators, he advises, “Focus on a niche that genuinely interests you. The early stages can be discouraging because of slow growth and lack of encouragement, but persistence is important. Keep going even if progress seems slow. You don’t need a high-end setup to start, just begin with what you have.”

He also highlights the importance of a good microphone to ensure quality of sound. “Initially, consistency is key; but once you start growing be consistent but prioritise content quality over quantity. A single viral video can bring more likes and followers than 50 non-viral ones. For example, one of my reels received 28 million views and gained me almost 400k followers,” he says.