Even though we say Indians can speak good english, some of the phrases here can rub you the wrong way especially if you fail to see the fine point. Not that I'm failing to see it; but I was wondering how a typical self proclaimed head strong english guru would react to some of these phrases; here we go..
One common usage is "Ah I see where you are coming from" to mean "Ok, I understand the basis of your thoughts and how you are arriving at the conclusions"... Now, for our guy mentioned above, the reaction could be " What do you mean where I am coming from.. I come from karamana.. what has that got to do with our conversation.. Are you trying to say I don’t know about the US" Pooff!! When I say this, I'm always reminded of Russell Peters and his story about his dad.
Another usage (albeit not common) was this; we had a few emails going back and forth on a "prospective customer" and one person wanted to know how big a deal we are landing. so he asks "Mark, are you a fisherman?" in order to ask "What kind of big fish are we landing here; could it be a shark or is it only a minnow?" Ah god help us if it reached our guy... "What??? fisherman??? I'm a high class Nair from the town of Karamana... how dare you call me a fisherman"...
US-English could be tough...
And hey guys, no discrimination against Karamana ok... it's just that Karamana was the first city (eh town.. oops junction) that came to mind.
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2 comments:
Good one :) I'd have liked a few more examples though.....it would have been a laugh riot!
Maria Mathews
HAhaha.. thats funny.
I thought you are from karamana ;)
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