We are not new to forwarded mails teasing/commenting/insulting English in China. After reading those mails, we laugh and make fun of it. I have done all these. Does that mean we are better than China atleast in english? I doubt it really? I believe we are standing next to them not just in population but also in the standard of english. Check these
1) In guwahati express , 1 particular warning board was saying " Pull the chain to stop the chain "
2) In Chennai , in 1 of the bus stand , it was written "No Barking" instead of "No Parking"
3)In Punjab/Haryana in 1 of the Vehicle Tax paying Area it was written "Pay Road Tax Hear"
Unfortunately I dont have the snaps of the first two.And the interesting part is, all the 3 mistakes i have mentioned here are done in Govt dept. Only 3 ? I have seen/heard of only these 3. There may or may not be many such mistakes.
Whom to be blamed for these kinda things ? Public like me who see this and dono where to complaint or the people who is responsible for writing this wrongly or the respective dept., which was suppose to monitor this or improper education to all or the people who give such contracts to uneducated people. I really dont have an answer for this. Spelling mistakes are common to all it doesnt matter whether you are educated or not. All my blogs have it. The actual mistake is on the governing body and we need a place where we can raise such issues. May be a place is there already but people are unaware of it . A system which is unaware doesnt solve the purpose. If anyone of you is aware of a place please raise this and i can help if it is needed.
I dont want somebody else to pin point our mistakes, lets be the first to accept it and correct it.Cheers
What most people (me inclusive) would shrug off as a joke is something that you have taken seriously and written as a blog. Kudos to you for that. There are a couple of things I would like to differ on though. First of all I would not agree with the fact that we are bad at English. 3 instances that you came across shouldn't be enough to put the country's competency of a language into question. If anybody can speak and write English flawlessly its us. People make mistakes and they are bound to be corrected I agree.
ReplyDeleteSecond thing is that you had questioned whether this is because of make the uneducated people write. I don't agree to this view either. Come on, they need to live right and they are one of the best artists in the country. I would it's the lack of importance given to monitoring these things and the lack of people taking necessary steps to curb these things.
A good thought provoking post though. Keep up the good work
Anusha :
ReplyDelete1) I agree but when you talk about chinese english mails its just 20 pics approximately. We make fun of it. I dont want some other country to collect our picture and circulate it across.
2) Its my view too. Ratio wise more jobless people are the 1s who are educated and uneducated people do any job that comes in their way. But i expect everyone must have basic education. Thats a different topic all together.
"Spelling mistakes are common to all it doesnt matter whether you are educated or not" this answer my own question "the people who give such contracts to uneducated people"