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‘English with Dehati Madam’: Kaushambi’s ‘Yashoda ma’am’ winning hearts with her tutorial videos
In the one year since she started the channel, Yashoda has uploaded 151 videos, and 128 reels to her social media accounts. In the description of her YouTube channels, Yashoda specifically mentions that she hails from a low-income family.
LUCKNOW In her signature affable tone, ‘Yashoda ma’am’ dropped a surprise for her 1.36 lakh-strong YouTube family on Monday. “Friends, I have been invited to deliver the ‘Josh Talk’ in Gurugram. Never expected this so early in my YouTube journey. While I realise it is a big opportunity, my husband and I have never travelled to the big city,” she said in her latest video.
Minutes after she uploaded the clip, a visibly happy but nervous Yashoda was comforted by her loyal fan base, which has been growing ever since she started her YouTube channel in May 2022. Positive comments like -- “You should go, ma’am”; “Don’t feel nervous”; and “We are with you, ma’am” -- have been posted by her viewers/students to support Yashoda in her journey to glory.
If you have somehow missed her social media accounts, here is a small introduction to the woman, who hardly needs an introduction among English learners, particularly from rural backgrounds.
Yashoda Lodhi, a resident of Sirathu nagar panchayat in Kaushambi, runs a prolific YouTube channel -- ‘English with Dehati Madam’ -- where she teaches spoken English and correct usage of grammar to her audience, which mostly comprises village women like herself.
In the one year since she started the channel, Yashoda has uploaded 151 videos, and 128 reels to her social media accounts. In the description of her YouTube channels, Yashoda specifically mentions that she hails from a low-income family and hopes to inspire and guide others like herself who did not get a chance to complete (or avail) higher education. She films, edits, and uploads the videos herself, and is now earning ₹10,000 monthly from her channel.
So far, she has uploaded videos on how to correctly use tenses, how to speak English without hesitation, how to practise English while doing daily chores, tips and tricks to enhance vocabulary, and the likes. Simultaneously, she also shares snippets from her own life, doing tours of her thatched house, filming her family members, her buffalo, her rabbits, and other light-hearted content. She addresses her audience as ‘friends’ and often admits that she is not a certified teacher or trainer but uses her platform to motivate others to learn English.
“The fact that I am a villager should not mean that I cannot speak English,” she said. “I too fumble when I talk in my videos but I have improved only through practice.” She makes it a point to keep her videos conversational using popular English idioms and colloquial phrases to help her audience focus on communication skills. “I watched a lot of YouTube videos to learn English. Scrolling through videos, I learnt that the first step is to stop treating English like an academic subject but a conversational tool.”
When asked for an advice she would give to English learners across the nation, Yashoda said, “The secret is to consume a whole lot of English content. Start by describing things in your own words to exercise your vocabulary rather than emulating someone else’s speech.”
