'Forget ChatGPT, worry about Akash!': Foreign tutor left speechless as Indian learns French in few weeks for Switzerland startup

An Indian entrepreneur's whirlwind seven-day sprint to learn French before launching a company in Switzerland is being cheered for India's "jugaad" spirit like never before. The story of Akash narrated by a French tutor Bianca Lala starts with an enquiry of booking for online classes. But what followed left her stunned enough to post about it, and the clip has since snowballed into a full-blown internet sensation.

Bianca recalls getting a message from a man she'd never spoken to before, asking to book seven and a half hours of French lessons, in a single day. Convinced it had to be some kind of mix-up, she messaged him to double-check. His reply floored her: he had a company launch in Switzerland lined up in exactly one week, and wanted to learn French before that.

Bianca said he assumed that she was dealing with someone who already had a solid grip on the language and just wanted a quick refresher. Turned out, he barely knew the basics. What followed shocked even the tutor. She said that they studied seven hours every day, clocking marathon study sessions day after day in a race against the clock.


By the end of the week, Bianca couldn't hide her disbelief at how much ground he'd covered. She ended up the video with a cheeky verdict: forget worrying about AI tools like ChatGPT taking over jobs, it's people like Akash you should really be watching.

Why This Story Is Striking A Chord

It's not hard to see why this tale has taken off the way it has. For a country that prides itself on turning limited resources into outsized results, whether it's cracking brutal competitive exams or building global businesses from scratch, Akash's story feels instantly familiar.

There was no elaborate planning, no outsourcing the problem to consultants, no waiting for the "right time." Faced with a deadline that would make most people panic, he simply put in the hours and got it done. It's the kind of story that taps directly into something Indians have always taken pride in: the ability to hustle hard and figure things out on the fly, popularly known back home as "jugaad."

Social media users, both in India and among the diaspora abroad, have been quick to celebrate the story as living proof that discipline paired with resourcefulness can still outpace even the smartest tools available today. Plenty of the reactions online play on the running joke about artificial intelligence coming for everyone's jobs, with commenters gleefully suggesting that in this particular contest, it's clearly the humans who are winning.

For a generation of young Indians increasingly stepping onto the global stage, launching startups, chasing international opportunities, and adapting fast to unfamiliar environments, Akash's crash course in French has become an unlikely, oddly motivating symbol. Sometimes, it seems, the smartest move isn't finding a shortcut at all. It's simply refusing to give yourself one.

Whether or not Akash's Switzerland venture takes off, one thing's for sure, for now, the internet has already declared him the man of the moment.