3 ms·
> I see nothing wrong or nonstandard with Indian English, as a native US English speaker living in Canada myself. I try to see it from the perspective of a non
by BossingAround 6y ago
> I see nothing wrong or nonstandard with Indian English, as a native US English speaker living in Canada myself.
I try to see it from the perspective of a non-native speaker trying to learn English.
If I know no English, and pay for teachers to teach me English, I definitely do not want to be taught Indian English.
Not because it's wrong, not because it's $whatever_adjective, but because it will sound incorrect to the majority of native English speakers that are not of Indian origin.
In a similar manner, you don't see Cockney English being taught, and you don't think of as Cockney English as "correct". It has indeed its rules, and is perfectly understandable to the speakers. I have nothing against Cockney English. That said, I wouldn't want to be taught Cockney English by professionals who claim "it is correct." It is indeed correct, but it will hurt my communication even in the most of the UK.
- klodolph 6y agoThere’s a difference between “This is the version of English that I want to learn because it is well-respected,” and “I am going to tell you that you are wrong because your version of English is not well-respected.”
- gourabmi 6y agoI want to point out your claim about 'majority of English speakers'. The number of English speakers in the Indian subcontinent is much higher than anywhere else in the world, including US. Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-s... If numbers decide what is the norm, Indian English should be it. However, I feel like there are other factors that you are using to determine the "correct" English.
- BossingAround 6y ago> majority of English speakers That's fair... That should have been "majority of native English speakers". Corrected. You'll now argue who's a native speaker, won't you... :)
- gourabmi 6y agoOf course, I would. :) IMHO everything other than British English is a regional derivative. The software world has caught up to that fact and soon the popular language tests will follow. They would need to do the needful eventually. Lol.
- jkaplowitz 6y agoIt depends on the goal, though. What if you were a Spanish speaker trying to move to India, and didn't already speak any Indian language to a useful level? I'm guessing in that scenario you'd want to learn Indian English. Same thing if you were a call center representative communicating in English with Indian audiences. As for non-native English speakers, there are already some choices to make when deciding what to learn. If someone learns US English as a second language, they'll find it a lot harder to understand people from the UK, especially less globally common styles like those in Scotland and Northern Ireland. But if someone learns British English, they'll probably find those styles easier to understand than Louisiana or Newfoundland English, to name two less standard North American varieties. (Cockney is especially difficult to understand for non-native speakers of any kind, so I'm leaving it out of this.) In this case, we're discussing an Indian commenter's choice to use their local dialect of English when discussing a topic about Indian tech companies with a global English-speaking audience. Yes, I admit I thought "codes" was wrong when I first read the comment, but that's because I didn't know that aspect of Indian English, and I no longer view it as wrong. Anyway, it didn't detract from my interest in or respect for the commenter's substantive opinion.
- sumedh 6y ago> I definitely do not want to be taught Indian English. So does that mean you would refuse to learn English words which originated in India like Shampoo, Juggernaut etc? https://www.dailywritingtips.com/15-english-words-of-indian-origin/ https://www.dailywritingtips.com/15-english-words-of-indian-...