Mind-boggling Indianisms!

Mind-boggling Indianisms!

by Sateesh Padmanabhan

I am sure many of you read­ing this art­icle have never heard or come across this term be­fore. Well, this is a word used a lot in India, es­pe­cially by edu­cat­ors, teach­ers and train­ers and people like me to refer to the In­dian way of com­mu­nic­at­ing in Eng­lish. 
Here are a few ex­amples of In­di­an­isms:

• What’s your good name? 
  Meant: What’s your name? – transliteration from Hindi.
   
• I’m a professional cooker. 
  Meaning a chef. The explanation for this is when you can say footballer, singer, lecturer, cricketer, player, teacher: all these profession names end with an “-er” why can’t we say cooker?
   
• My uncle is on top of my father  
  Meant: My uncle lives on the floor above us.
   
• Where are you put up?
  Someone who wants to know where do you stay (in which area of a city).
   
• Sheela herself only did this project.  
  Meant: Sheela did this project without any help. / Sheela did this project all by herself.
   
• Where your house comes ?  
  Meant: Can you give me directions to your house?
   
• I passed out last year from college.  
  Meant: I graduated last year from college.
   
• Are you coming to my house for dinner tonight, no? 
  A tendency to add “no” before the end of every question.
   
• She is fully tired, ya!  
  Meant: She is very tired or completely tired: unnecessary usage of “ya” which is different from “yeah”.
   
• My mother said me to go to the market.  
  Meant: My mother asked me to go to the market.
•  
• I didn’t went to school today. 
  Incorrect verb conjugation: I didn’t go to school today.
   
• Just like only I went to my uncle’s place.  
  Meant: I went to my uncle’s house for the heck of it.
   
• I’m having a lot of work now.  
  Meant: I have a lot of work now.
   
• I saw it happening with my own two eyes!  
  Meant: It happened right in front of me.
   
• Yesterday, I will be going for a movie.  
  Meant: Yesterday I went for a movie; incorrect tense usage.
   
• She couldn’t be able to help you.  
  Meant: She was unable to help you; incorrect verb conjugation.
   
• I like listening musics.  
  Meant: I like to listen to music. Preposition “to” dropped, and “music” does not have a plural form.
   
• My mother made me to study hard.  
  Meant: My mother ensured that I studied hard.
   
• Before me, there are two brothers, then is me, three more sisters are coming. 
  What was meant was: I have two elder brothers and three younger sisters.

Let us try and un­der­stand why many people in India com­mu­nic­ate like this. 
The reas­ons are pretty simple:
 

• Lack of exposure to the English language as many people take English as their third language in school and are interested only in passing the subject.
   
• Lack of opportunity to practice speaking and writing in English: people prefer to stay in their comfort zone and communicate with others who speak their mother tongue.
   
• A tendency to think in their mother tongue and translate it into English. This is known as transliteration.
   
• Lack of confidence – unable to speak at length in English because they are worried that they will make errors.

At the same time, I would also like to add that there are mil­lions of In­di­ans who com­mu­nic­ate ef­fect­ively and beau­ti­fully in Eng­lish and could give their West­ern coun­ter­parts a run for their money! 
Will things change for the bet­ter? Of course, it will as com­mu­nic­at­ing well in Eng­lish is be­com­ing a pre-re­quis­ite for many cus­tomer ser­vice ori­ented jobs in vari­ous in­dus­tries in India. It has be­come a uni­ver­sal lan­guage to com­mu­nic­ate. This will en­sure that people take Eng­lish more ser­i­ously and “not with a pinch of salt”!