Less than three decades ago only the finest, most cultured, highly educated people in #India spoke English. If you were one of these people, those were wonderful times. Just speaking the language made you ‘high class’. This rarified set was less than 5% of the population and just saying ‘Hey, how are you?’ instead of ‘Aap kaise hain?’ would set you above the 95%. Then came disaster. The magnificent 1980s were gone. Cable TV arrived. The internet arrived. Mobile phones arrived. YouTube arrived. Social media arrived. More English medium schools opened up. And all hell broke loose. #English turned out to be, after all, just another common #language in the world. Over the last 20 years, more and more Indians absorbed Eng-lish. Constables, drivers, petrol pump attendants, waiters in small restaurants and call centre staff can understand English today and may even have a limited vocabulary in the language. They may not speak it, but they get it. This was unthinkable three decades ago. -Opinion piece in The Times of India from novelist Chetan Bhagat #GlobalEnglish #IndianEnglish #AmericanEnglish #TESL #TEFL #ELTchat #ELT #ELL #langchat
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 13:27:08 +0000
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