A friend recently posted on a social networking site that whilst her stay in London, she had often been commended for her excellent command over the English language. Or so she thought the first few times. What sang a different tune was the look of incredulity that went with each such praise. It was more on the lines of a condescending "Oh! Some Indians do speak English and surprisingly one that can be discerned by an Englishman". She blames Danny Boyle for this sciolism; I however beg to differ.
Stereotyping an Indian with bad English and a worse accent isn't Danny Boyle's brain child. Nor is it contempo. That 'Slumdog Millionaire' went on to win a few Oscars definitely expanded the coverage area of the myopic masses, but it's still our very own superciliousness we use to mask our ineptitude that fuels the fire; that combined with a mule like egotistical obstinacy of "Who, in the bloody hell, cares". Besides its quite à la mode to smack in a few expletives, trim the words while writing (who was the Smart Alec who brought in vowels; we already have a tough time striking off the consonants, thank you!) and call the very correct English speaking Indians, elitists.
"Look at the French or the German" is what they say, the argument being that these countries are doing quite well without embracing the English language. What they fail to see is that the French or the German do not flock American and British embassies wanting to flee their motherland in search of better prospects. A colleague of mine with some such aspiration was running late with some deliverable and thought it prudent to drop an apology note to the client. The result; the client was left wondering if he was at the receiving end of an apology or if an apology was actually being demanded of him. The email ran a full circle of escalations and ended up in boss' inbox. The next day I was allocated an additional task; reviewing all his emails before they were sent out. And for the next three months I ended up, not reviewing, but actually writing all his emails.
Though, I too, do not number among the people who can converse effortlessly in English, I do try and put in the effort to be one such. I welcome constructive criticism and find people correcting me to be prolific; sentiments I share with just a handful of my friends. Not long ago a friend and I were lamenting about how ironically we are the ones ridiculed when we bring in a word in our conversations that did not come out of the Balbharatis of our times and about how people kept murdering the language persistently. One example of sheer lassitude towards being correct, that we both found awfully annoying was the persistent mix-up of words like Lose and Loose. ("I need to loose these extra pounds!!!" What you really need to do dear, is to loosen your belt or drop the extra 'O' that you have been so generous with!!) We agreed that we might be prejudiced but feel a certain kinship when we come across people who speak normal, correct English. Also something akin to relief.
I have stopped taking upon myself, the job of correcting people (I have ruffled quite a few feathers there in the past), but I do so with a few dear friends of mine who I know would rather have me set it right for them, than being corrected at a professional level (a cute friend of mine resorts to the dictionary and beamingly tells me so, when she stumbles upon a new word in any of my chats or emails). I, in turn, have a couple of friends whom I idolize, who never have second thoughts about correcting my erreurs. I join in on the mirth of the rest when I am made a butt of the many jokes, all the while silently scanning the room to see if any kindred soul exists who shares the jest in it's true spirit. Very rarely do my eyes meet one such pair, but when they do, they share a silent, private laugh. And voila!! it's no longer boaring. Oink Oink!! :)
Stereotyping an Indian with bad English and a worse accent isn't Danny Boyle's brain child. Nor is it contempo. That 'Slumdog Millionaire' went on to win a few Oscars definitely expanded the coverage area of the myopic masses, but it's still our very own superciliousness we use to mask our ineptitude that fuels the fire; that combined with a mule like egotistical obstinacy of "Who, in the bloody hell, cares". Besides its quite à la mode to smack in a few expletives, trim the words while writing (who was the Smart Alec who brought in vowels; we already have a tough time striking off the consonants, thank you!) and call the very correct English speaking Indians, elitists.
"Look at the French or the German" is what they say, the argument being that these countries are doing quite well without embracing the English language. What they fail to see is that the French or the German do not flock American and British embassies wanting to flee their motherland in search of better prospects. A colleague of mine with some such aspiration was running late with some deliverable and thought it prudent to drop an apology note to the client. The result; the client was left wondering if he was at the receiving end of an apology or if an apology was actually being demanded of him. The email ran a full circle of escalations and ended up in boss' inbox. The next day I was allocated an additional task; reviewing all his emails before they were sent out. And for the next three months I ended up, not reviewing, but actually writing all his emails.
Though, I too, do not number among the people who can converse effortlessly in English, I do try and put in the effort to be one such. I welcome constructive criticism and find people correcting me to be prolific; sentiments I share with just a handful of my friends. Not long ago a friend and I were lamenting about how ironically we are the ones ridiculed when we bring in a word in our conversations that did not come out of the Balbharatis of our times and about how people kept murdering the language persistently. One example of sheer lassitude towards being correct, that we both found awfully annoying was the persistent mix-up of words like Lose and Loose. ("I need to loose these extra pounds!!!" What you really need to do dear, is to loosen your belt or drop the extra 'O' that you have been so generous with!!) We agreed that we might be prejudiced but feel a certain kinship when we come across people who speak normal, correct English. Also something akin to relief.
I have stopped taking upon myself, the job of correcting people (I have ruffled quite a few feathers there in the past), but I do so with a few dear friends of mine who I know would rather have me set it right for them, than being corrected at a professional level (a cute friend of mine resorts to the dictionary and beamingly tells me so, when she stumbles upon a new word in any of my chats or emails). I, in turn, have a couple of friends whom I idolize, who never have second thoughts about correcting my erreurs. I join in on the mirth of the rest when I am made a butt of the many jokes, all the while silently scanning the room to see if any kindred soul exists who shares the jest in it's true spirit. Very rarely do my eyes meet one such pair, but when they do, they share a silent, private laugh. And voila!! it's no longer boaring. Oink Oink!! :)
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