Pappu can dance!

michelle2 wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

michelle2 wrote:
The BBC is not in the same position as that cross section of humanity that communicates with you at your University. The BBC is broadcasting news and other info to the whole world, in spoken English. Listeners expect to hear the same English every day, in every broadcast. Non-standard accents of English such as Scottish, Irish, Welsh, African, and Indian degrade their ability to transmit information effectively. The BBC's easy acceptance of these accents in recent times is one of the worst policy decisions they could have made.
orrectness.

do you consider australian, south african, american, and new zealand english to be non-standard? what exactly is the standard? i agree there are many indians whose english is nearly incomprehensible unless you are familiar with the peculiar inflections -- many rural bengali, UP, and maharashtrian folks (your favorite "dipherant dipherantareas in hospital" is a case in point) in particular are very difficult to follow. however, IMO, many urban, educated indians speak grammatically* correct english which is not difficult to follow. it may have some peculiarities left over from the british raj, but i am not quite sure why you have problems accepting that as a variant when you seem to have no such problems with say australian english.

* mostly

I don't question the languages spoken by native speakers of English such as Australians and Americans. They have no choice. Educated Indians speaking English, a foreign language, should speak a Standard English for two reasons:

1. There are many versions of Indian English: Bengali English, Maharashtrian English, Gujarati English, Tamil English, etc. Not only are they not understood in the rest of the world, they are not well understood in the parts of India where they didn't originate;

2. The variations in Indian English are extreme. Sometimes they sound comical, and are distracting. At other times, they sound like non-existent words (Bhenkatrao's "bhagabond"), or convey the wrong meaning ("purposefully" for "purposely").

Indians have the choice that Australians don't have. They can and should train themselves to speak Standard English as closely as possible.

If you want to know what I mean by Standard spoken English, you might listen to Shashi Tharoor; it can't be described in written words.

Neither Australian nor American English is aesthetically appealing to me, but I can comprehend both well.

truthbetold wrote:Flimflam's fundamental argument that Indians have to learn std English to please others is foolish and lunatic.
A large % of Indians who learn English remain in the same local area in India and interact with people of similar accent similar to native English speakers of Australia or Scotland or Ireland. Flimflam was forced to agree that no change is required for type of natives.
Of the % of Indians who move within India, a large chunk is capable of writing and speaking English to a decent level.  No one in India thinks it is a crisis or productivity problem. So not much incentive to change.
Few thousands,  which is a tiny fraction of English speakers in India,  venture to English speaking countries to sell their intellectual labor to make a living. This group needs to be good at both written and oral communication.  Their professional success in various fields of economy in every major western economy proves that they have the communication skills required by those societies.