Have you ever experienced hatred from others for speaking English ?

[OinkBoink]

And I dont know how it is up there but from where I am, no one has any issues with anyone speaking in English. Rather many are more eager to serve and are more attentive towards people who speak in English. Also in my state there is not even 0.0005% of the regional language sentiment that exists in many other states neither in proportion or in depth. You can almost never provoke anyone here based on language(barring one particular case which is not related to English).

Do you live in the south ?

 

[artikle]

@asingh 's post OMG. :scared14: People have the right to speak whatever language they please. But it is difficult to make others understand.

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Do you live in the south ?

Umm, yes. Visakhapatnam to be exact.

 

[asingh]

asingh 's post OMG. :scared14: People have the right to speak whatever language they please. But it is difficult to make others understand.

True, but people get their panties in a knot when they cannot understand what is happening. It is not that I am addressing every John Doe in English. It is aggravated when a by-stander passes a pathetic comment, laced with expletives and condescending innuendo. Usually it is people, who are not well educated, sadly. But my college guys, would negate this theory too. It probably stems from the fact, that we were under colonial rule, and the language is theirs, and people who cannot understand it feel subjected to over ruling or lack of involvement. It is psychological to be honest. I am sure: If these people heard a Romance speaker (French, Italian, Spanish) or a Swahili speaker, they would react in the same manner. Indians are highly racist and prejudiced towards entities they do not understand, or cannot relate to substantially.

 

[OinkBoink]

@artikle: Sent you a PM.

The kind of stuff asingh experienced was very similar to what I experienced when I lived in certain hostels.

 

[artikle]

True, but people get their panties in a knot when they cannot understand what is happening. It is not that I am addressing every John Doe in English. It is aggravated when a by-stander passes a pathetic comment, laced with expletives and condescending innuendo. Usually it is people, who are not well educated, sadly. But my college guys, would negate this theory too. It probably stems from the fact, that we were under colonial rule, and the language is theirs, and people who cannot understand it feel subjected to over ruling or lack of involvement. It is psychological to be honest. I am sure: If these people heard a Romance speaker (French, Italian, Spanish) or a Swahili speaker, they would react in the same manner. Indians are highly racist and prejudiced towards entities they do not understand, or cannot relate to substantially.

True, every word of it. And kind of slightly related to this topic, once, my brother was denied a ride in a taxi because he didnt know what Rs.150 was called in Hindi(He was haggling with the driver and my brother said Rs.150 and the driver was like what 150, I know no 150). Not that it represents anything or that it was done deliberately, it was just an experience.

 

[asingh]

True, every word of it. And kind of slightly related to this topic, once my brother was denied a ride in a taxi because he didnt know what Rs.150 was called in Hindi(He was haggling with the driver and my brother said Rs.150 and the driver was like what 150, I know no 150). Not that it represents anything or that it was done deliberately, it was just an experience.

Where was this..?

 

[artikle]

^Dont know exactly, but it should be in one of the more famous places in Delhi as he was a tourist.

 

[Mr.J]

1.I dont want to get into this discussion, but it is logical and courteous to answer a question in the language that it is asked in especially if you know the language properly. Why would a person who knows English ask a question in another language unless he wants the answer in that language? It is OK if your not so fluent, but in most cases they know enough to answer the questions.
2.As a person who was always given an extra edge(life saving, rank saving) by English in academics and every where else and as a person who loves English, I consider English as only a tool, and a very useful one at that, for communication between people of different regions, for bringing the world together even though it is no where near the most spoken language, and especially for us, having a good career.
3.English somehow feels "artificial" and not properly suitable for Indian emotions. English sounds funny when spoken by us due to the "Indian" expressions and modulations we add. Our expression of fear, anger, happiness etc are greatly different from native English speakers, so don't mix well with English.
4.Also with all respect I am not a supporter of new age educated parents speaking to their children only in English and making them consume only English media for 90% of the time even if they do that in the greatest interest of the children.
5.I have a lot a friends and acquaintances who have a different mother tongue and obviously we communicate in English and never have we forced them to learn our language, though they eventually learned it.

1. Agree. It shows that you are well-mannered and respect others by replying in the same language. When I was working in a call centre, we were told to switch to Hindi if the customer starts speaking in Hindi, even if the call came from English selection.
2. Agree.
3. Disagree. Emotions are emotions and you can express them in any language.
4. Agree. These kids don't have a proper foundation in either language and so, instead of understanding subjects (which are taught in English) they will stick to tried and tested method of mugging up for exams because the concepts are not clear. No other countries, no matter how advanced they are, don't teach English to kids. Like the people who can't speak English and thus make fun of English speakers, we also have English speaking people who think that regional schools are cheap and will struggle to get admission in English medium\Convent\International schools.
5. Slightly disagree. I, personally, think that learning new language gives us access to whole new culture and enriches our lives.

This thread reminds me of some stories I've heard from people who've been to Europe, especially France. If you start talking to French in English, they will ignore you. Just talk to them in any of the Indian language and they will start talking English by themselves.

 

[OinkBoink]

@asingh 's post OMG. :scared14: People have the right to speak whatever language they please. But it is difficult to make others understand.


Umm, yes. Visakhapatnam to be exact.

Live in Sri Chaitanya hostels like I did for 2 years and you'll understand.

 

[artikle]

^5. I mentioned on the lines of we never ridicule or force someone to learn or speak in our language, like your in my place now, speak my language. LOL
3. Yes we can. I explained myself clearly in some previous posts

 

[OinkBoink]

We've only been talking about opposition to the English language in India.

A lot of westerners do not understand why we use English. They know nothing about the regional/linguistic divides in our country.

Some of them think we're 'losing our culture' (which, in my opinion, is an argument with so many flaws that I'd have to write a huge post explaining them).

 

[RD274]

haha I often get humourous remarks like : tum nri ho? tum christian ho? tum yaha se ho? tumari mummy papa kya karte hai?

Nothing besides that. There was some teasing in school but nothing major.

 

[OinkBoink]

haha I often get humourous remarks like : tum nri ho? tum christian ho? tum yaha se ho? tumari mummy papa kya karte hai?

Nothing besides that. There was some teasing in school but nothing major.

When you're surrounded by a near equal proportion of English vs non-English speakers the remarks seem funny.

When you're hugely outnumbered (1000:1 in my case when I was in hostel), it becomes abusive bullying.

 

[artikle]

I usually dont get into any kind of social issue discussion anywhere but todays indulgence had me witness a very weird coincidence @OinkBoink

 

[sabby]

Wow ! After reading all of these experience, I kinda feel that there's at least one thing Bengal is better Never had/saw any problem for speaking in english/hindi. In fact, people actually always try to speak in Hindi/English if the other person is using it (however bad their effort may be )

 

[artikle]

[OT] From when did posts from GT start getting into the post count?[/OT]

 

[ayanavish]

Wow ! After reading all of these experience, I kinda feel that there's at least one thing Bengal is better Never had/saw any problem for speaking in english/hindi. In fact, people actually always try to speak in Hindi/English if the other person is using it (however bad their effort may be )

+1, Most of the Bengalis speak Hindi / English in Bengali, but most of them give an honest try. At times, if a Bengali thinks the other person is a Hindi speaking person (especially a Bihari taxi driver) then he will start the conversation in Hindi. (And the taxi driver will try to speak in broken Bengali )

 

[asingh]

^Dont know exactly, but it should be in one of the more famous places in Delhi as he was a tourist.

It would be quite rare that an auto driver or cab driver in Delhi did not know "one-fifty". There would have been some other confusion. Probably the driver found 150 to be too less, so side lined your brother for the service. That is common.

 

[sid_donnydarko]

True, but people get their panties in a knot when they cannot understand what is happening. It is not that I am addressing every John Doe in English. It is aggravated when a by-stander passes a pathetic comment, laced with expletives and condescending innuendo. Usually it is people, who are not well educated, sadly. But my college guys, would negate this theory too. It probably stems from the fact, that we were under colonial rule, and the language is theirs, and people who cannot understand it feel subjected to over ruling or lack of involvement. It is psychological to be honest. I am sure: If these people heard a Romance speaker (French, Italian, Spanish) or a Swahili speaker, they would react in the same manner. Indians are highly racist and prejudiced towards entities they do not understand, or cannot relate to substantially.

This ridiculous hatred increases the more our comparison reveals. Our culture has very little in common with those in countries where English is the native spoken language in comparison to the differences between two native English speaking cultures. Its not that the rest of the world outside India can get along either. Hell! Its more likely that an aussie and a brit will kill each other while ignoring an indian in the same room.

 

[asingh]

This ridiculous hatred increases the more our comparison reveals. Our culture has very little in common with those in countries where English is the native spoken language in comparison to the differences between two native English speaking cultures. Its not that the rest of the world outside India can get along either. Hell! Its more likely that an aussie and a brit will kill each other while ignoring an indian in the same room.

Sid, what you trying to say. I am not getting it. You saying, I am making a bad comparison here in my post, or people generally make a bad comparison when they equate English = British rulers..? Or something else...?