Indianization of English...
Amit choudhary has questioned , in Telegraph, why Indians write in English.... and Amit is not amused.
English and English speaking people in India are a phenomenon. While in Delhi, being a young kid coming from a relatively smaller city, I often used to wonder what does it take for one to be anglicized. I did ponder over the question “why ?” for a while but soon it was lost on me. Interestingly, we face this problem right from a very early childhood. For example, in my primary school, girls with princesses like air used to talk only in (accented) English; and only with people talking in English. Well, I never bothered to find out what they were talking about so I have no reasons to presume anything. But you can see segregation of people, especially in youths, on the basis of their oral skills in the foreign language. For differentiation sake, people tend to develop fake accents (which literally belong to nowhere). However, some people are actually deceptively good at that.
Some time ago, and I can say that it is past (thanks to the IT generation), that English was seen as a mark of sophistication, education, and intelligence… often used to make an impression. It used to be funny when someone talking freely in Hindi turns to you suddenly becoming polite and starts talking in English. It is not fit to take any names, but we all know that speaking English does make people form certain colleges feel very chic.
New in Delhi, I was amazed by the amount of English spoken and taken. But that was 6 years ago. The comfort level with which one takes English has increased. As I grew in college, I was myself amazed how our pattern of English usage varied. We couldn’t talk about course work in Hindi, girls in English, politics/business in Hindi and our feelings in English….. Well to be honest, we were a strange bunch of people anyways. The frequency index of the change in the spoken language in a 5 minute talk was definitely sinusoidal.
And the practice continues… some of my friends who are not Indians are amazed by how Indians take English. We have been pointed that we mix languages so confusingly that no outsiders can make sense of the full context. Talking amongst Indians, 1 out of every 2 sentence we speak is in Hindi. I definitely blog in English … but I do wonder which language I muse in….The Germans are confused how can we discuss the same idea in two languages. The English are amazed that we know more technical terms in English than English themselves.
After being with French, Germans and English, and based on their opinions, I can say that no one else mixes languages as much as we Indians. My Idea is that there in nothing bad in any language. We have been taught English right from childhood and it is an integral part of communication for any person who has been in touch with English. A language cant change or affect our thinking. Our culture is so strong that thinking or talking in English can’t change the way we feel… or blog…. It does subsumes anything which it connects with, Indianizing it for practical purposes … including English.
English and English speaking people in India are a phenomenon. While in Delhi, being a young kid coming from a relatively smaller city, I often used to wonder what does it take for one to be anglicized. I did ponder over the question “why ?” for a while but soon it was lost on me. Interestingly, we face this problem right from a very early childhood. For example, in my primary school, girls with princesses like air used to talk only in (accented) English; and only with people talking in English. Well, I never bothered to find out what they were talking about so I have no reasons to presume anything. But you can see segregation of people, especially in youths, on the basis of their oral skills in the foreign language. For differentiation sake, people tend to develop fake accents (which literally belong to nowhere). However, some people are actually deceptively good at that.
Some time ago, and I can say that it is past (thanks to the IT generation), that English was seen as a mark of sophistication, education, and intelligence… often used to make an impression. It used to be funny when someone talking freely in Hindi turns to you suddenly becoming polite and starts talking in English. It is not fit to take any names, but we all know that speaking English does make people form certain colleges feel very chic.
New in Delhi, I was amazed by the amount of English spoken and taken. But that was 6 years ago. The comfort level with which one takes English has increased. As I grew in college, I was myself amazed how our pattern of English usage varied. We couldn’t talk about course work in Hindi, girls in English, politics/business in Hindi and our feelings in English….. Well to be honest, we were a strange bunch of people anyways. The frequency index of the change in the spoken language in a 5 minute talk was definitely sinusoidal.
And the practice continues… some of my friends who are not Indians are amazed by how Indians take English. We have been pointed that we mix languages so confusingly that no outsiders can make sense of the full context. Talking amongst Indians, 1 out of every 2 sentence we speak is in Hindi. I definitely blog in English … but I do wonder which language I muse in….The Germans are confused how can we discuss the same idea in two languages. The English are amazed that we know more technical terms in English than English themselves.
After being with French, Germans and English, and based on their opinions, I can say that no one else mixes languages as much as we Indians. My Idea is that there in nothing bad in any language. We have been taught English right from childhood and it is an integral part of communication for any person who has been in touch with English. A language cant change or affect our thinking. Our culture is so strong that thinking or talking in English can’t change the way we feel… or blog…. It does subsumes anything which it connects with, Indianizing it for practical purposes … including English.
posted by Ash at 6:24 PM
1 Comments:
Indianization of english is a whole lot deeper than just a lot of people adopting it. or a lot of people using it connect with each other.
Indianization has to deal with the language becoming the mode of mass interaction. This is what you will expect from all the sign boards on the roads and the names of shops in most places. this is what you will get when you try to see the indian society, as composed of a class of eliete people, specially the young.
Am not a linguist, nor even a purist. I like to mix and match and can vouch that ham ek senetence ke beech mein languages itni teezi se change karte hain ki dekhne aur sunne waale ko lagega machhar fly past de raha hain. But mostly, its use of terms and words that are a part of everyday usage.
Abhiyanta's were learned high class people and then came the engineer. There is an engineer in every village while I am not sure where you find abhiyanta's, besides the goverment office boards. Same goes for a whole herd of other facets of life, that actually make english so easily 'adopted'. My grandmother, has no idea about the abhiyantriki, but she knows how much time i spend in front of the computer. That is what i think indianization is really about.
Yes, we do feel like writing in english. probably a whole lot of left over complexes about recognition and class. sophestication too, to some extent and maybe plain old fashioned urge to connect to a larger group of people. India has many languages, they have different scripts and they have different grammar. The one common thing all over had been the foreigners english medium schools. Thus, an attempt to have an indian language as the national language of the people of the republic of india faces strong opposition. While the general agreement on learning english is easy to achieve. Afterall, all people want their kids to knw english and go to america. what good is hindi in that respect is anybody's guess.
Another driving motivation for english in the towns is because of the education system. split right in the middle between goverment and private institutions, the primary differentiation came from the medium of education. The government schools were responsible in taking up the cause of the regional languages and were ready with an additional english language while the snob private schools proudly proclaimed to follow english medium only. so much so that speaking in your native language fetched a fine of some 200 bucks in a nice, posh school in delhi. that too for kids in the primary school. faced with this, and the appreciation for knowing english right from class 1, and the (well demonstrated) quality of education in private schools, english, the medium of imparting education, also became synonyms with class. and is now by far the preferred means of communication for those who can. even my hindi is written in english script. that probably is the biggest sign of indianization and the day of english script dictionaries for hindi words will not be far.
that, my friend, is the real indianization of english.
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