Being an Indian, I can not deny the importance and influence of English in our lives. English is omnipresent.Honestly, if you ask me, there would hardly be a sentence which I could complete without an English word or phrase. Most of the readers would agree with me on this.But we should also acknowledge the fact that Indians are more vulnerable to mistakes than any other population of the world.One of the main reasons for this is the incomplete and improper use of English language, and thus we end up sounding hilarious at times.Well, as long as it sounds funny and provides a moment of amusement, we can digest it, but it becomes a grave matter of concern when we start attracting criticism and mockery for the same.Repetitive use of such mistakes gradually turns them into irresistible habits.Let us take a look at a few instances where Indian speakers err, either consciously or unconsciously while speaking English-
1.ADDING ‘NO’ UNNECESSARILY AT THE END OF SENTENCES-“You are coming, no?”,”Tell me know, no?”Well, quite common and entirely wrong.The professionals adjudicate that as irritating and unprofessional at times.You are grammatically correct here, but the ‘no’ becomes a spoilsport.People use it unconsciously in interviews and presentations, and that leaves a negative impact on the interviewers.
2.USING ABBREVIATIONS EVERYWHERE-Oh! If we had the liberty, we could have come up with our own edition of the Merriam-Webster of abbreviations where’you’ becomes ‘u,’ ‘for’ becomes 4 to’ is encoded as ‘2’, its list goes endless. It seems quite trendy and time efficient when used in chats with friends, but it does mess up everything when we start using them in formal pieces of writings such as applications and emails.
3.SHORTCUT TO LEARNING ENGLISH IS COPYING ACCENTS-Well, this is a common myth prevalent in the whole of Indian subcontinent.English has not always been a part of the primary education in India, so when the seekers of the language realize it’s importance later in their adulthood, they choose shortcuts to learn it.Watching videos or listening to English songs are a few of them.Since picking up the Grammar is difficult, they opt the easy alternative, i.e., Accent.They generate a belief that sounding good is more important than being meaningful whereas the truth is that most of the leading organizations prefer good technical knowledge and neutral accent of the language. So, instead of, wasting your time in working on a fake accent, you should invest your precious time in enhancing your pronunciation and grammar skills.
4.THE MOTHER TONGUE INFLUENCE-It is a general concept that your native accent dominates the accent of any foreign language you learn.So, people of America, Russia, Italy, Japan or Africa have their own touch in the English they speak.But, in a diverse country like India, this influence varies from state to state.Problems in the pronunciation of syllables like ‘sh’ and ‘s,’ ‘f,’ ‘z’ and ‘j’ are common.Moreover, people take the reference of Hindi to English or English to Hindi dictionary for meanings and pronunciations, which leads to further confusion and deterioration. For instance, the word ‘all’ according to such dictionaries is pronounced as ‘aal’, etc. So, from the very beginning people are subjected to wrong pronunciation which sticks to their tongue, sometimes forever and ultimately limits the growth opportunities for them.
Most of the readers might find at least one of the habits mentioned above common with them.But as they say, nothing is impossible, and nothing is permanent so, an early realization of the problems and dedicated practice its correction will definitely ensure satisfactory improvement.
