1 Indians must be proud as academics

bad grammar so far - ambiguous: "Indians, as academics, must be proud ..." or
"Indians must be proud: academics ..."

say that the

"the" not required here

students from India who are studying in British universities
possess high potential in using English language perfectly.

what does this mean ? "have a high potential to use ..." ? Furthermore,
having a high potential to do anything doesn't actually mean they succeed - the
sentence implies that you are doing these high-potential students down.


While many British students usually come up with wrong usage of

delete "usually come up with wrong usage of" and insert "frequently make
mistakes in"

spelling, punctuation and grammar, Indian students are often showing

"are often showing" is incorrect in standard English - use "often show"

high standards in the

omit "the"

basic English grammar and other usages.

change "usages" to "usage"

An Indian-origin university lecturer said that British students even in their
second year of degree course, use atrocious English in their assignments.

Re-write as "... British students use atrocious English in their assignments,
even in the second year of their degree course"

He said that he often found it challenging to figure out what students wanted to
express in English. "International students, in contrast, had better English
language skill," he added.

"skills" not "skill"

According to the academics,

add "the" here

most common mistakes are in spelling,

colon here ? Not a comma, anyway.

student

"students"

often use 'their' when they mean 'there', 'who's' for 'whose', 'truely' for
'truly', 'occured' for 'occurred' and 'speach' for 'speech'.
Ken Smith, a senior lecturer in criminology at Bucks New University,

[where is this hallowed institution ? Never heard of it !]

said that many students failed to apply basic rules, such as 'i' before 'e',
except after 'c'. The words 'weird', 'seize', 'leisure' and 'neighbor'

"neighbour" in British English

are regularly misspelt by students. "Mistakes are now so common that academics
should simply accept them as 'variants,"'

' " not " '

he told.

He told whom ? "He said" or "he told the interviewer".


Bernard Lamb, a Reader in genetics at Imperial College London told

Who did he tell ? ...

that many British students appear to have been through school without mastering
basic rules of grammar and punctuation, or having their errors corrected.

As students find it difficult to use English properly, some universities have
extended the course by a year to give extra tuition to weaker students.

"All the data suggests that there are more and more students at university level
whose spelling is not up to scratch. Universities are even finding they have
masters-level students who cannot spell," told

"said" not "told" unless you are telling somebody ... :-)

Jack Bovill, Chairman of The Spelling Society.

Posted by: DJK

2 Since this refers specifically to British, not American, English, it's
disappointing to find a spelling mistake. It's NEIGHBOUR, not neighbor!

Posted by: saba

3 Please read my comments at
http://dilipbarad.blogspot.com/2008/08/spellings-in-english-language-to-spell.ht
ml
Your comments are invited.
Thanks

Posted by: Dilip Barad

4 I see these articles repeatedly appearing in the news. It is true that The
Queen's English is losing its lustre. The internet and computers are some of the
most influencing factors. Sometimes, the computers give wrong suggestions and we
tend to accept the grammar, punctuation or spelling given by the computer. All
this confusion is due to the in-build language correction feature found in
different software provided. We need to give due importance to the basics at the
school level so that the next generations have good language skills. The print
media is one important factor in developing good language skills which again is
influenced by the computers for composing the articles.

Posted by: Pavan Bayyapureddi

5 I feel delighted to note the study "Indians better than British in English
usage". It is true that we take care to understand and write. We learn gammar
too. Because it is not our mother toungue, we take evry care. We learn English
but do not pick it up from streets as one of the former Indian leaders
commented. I am living in an academic institution in an English speaking
country. I have a few (4)Enlish colleagues. Oneday one of them one day commented
that Indians use more 'the's with a sort of refrain. I felt it bad. I have seen
his English; it is mostly slang. I am confident we use relatively flawless
English. I feel some how, some of the English men like my colleage do not see
the reality. They simply go by prejudice. Any way ley us rejoice and go forward;
let us not worry what others feel! I see a great future to the Indian community.
I only wish they must keep up their identity and valules and should not be
carried away by the western way of life.

Posted by: Vasudev Kanithi

6 Hi

I would like to advise everyone to please use spell check after writing
anything and then we will not have to read such silly articles

Posted by: BIJU

7 While on one hand it's true (indians are better in english) since last 20 - 25
years, it's also a fact not many indians even today can write gramatically
correct english. When it comes to speaking, many of them 'manage' to exhibit
some fluency, we falter in writing quite substantially. I have come across wrong
english even in top level business communication.

Posted by: Prodosh Sen

8 Indians have learnt English language and where as the British have picked it.

Posted by: Gopinath Rao

9 this often happens. forgieners studying hindi here are better in usage than us.

Posted by: Mayur

10 Indians be proud!
Correction.

Posted by: Poonam

11 I would have to agree that, Indians make a formidable workforce. That in itself
is an indisputable fact.
That we have yet to master the nuances of the English language, is a given.
However, I would like to point out ,that to generalize that "all" Indians speak
better or worse than most of the British or American population is absolutely
inappropriate.
In the same breath,it would be absolutely incorrect to say that the latter two
speak the Queen's English as well. The fact that Indians are exposed to their
Mother Tongue and the National language which is Hindi,and English only features
third on the list, is a well known fact. However, despite this fact, there are
pockets in India such as in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore to name a few, where
the pronunciation, enunciation and phonetics would give any world citizen a run
for their money. It largely depends on an individual's family and upbringing.


The British and the Americans, despite being exposed to the English language
right from infancy, have taken liberties with the language and mauled it to suit
their attitude and fancy. Living in America, I would have to say that many
American's use of slang, or convoluted English, is an effort to sound "HIP" or
"cool" and is far from desirable where effective communication is concerned.
Similarly,the British either speak too fast or carry such a thick accent that
its usually a huge detterent to effective communication.
There are many however, in India, Britian, America and the rest of the world who
choose to speak well, with the right enunciation, pronunciation, syllabic
stress,punctuation and what have you. They are "Global Citizens" and speak a
received pronunciation which is more conducive to effective communication and is
deviod of any particular flavour.
The world around us is in the throes of globalization. It is in everyone's best
interest to appreciate, value and accept that there is more to the world than
what the British and the Americans have to offer. Born and bred in India,
travelled the rest of the world, facilitated and taught the world over to a
diverse audience,I would have to say, that the only trait that distinguishes us
from the rest of the world is our warmth.
"What" we say is not half as important as "how" we say it.
I have often been asked where I learnt to speak the way I do. There is always an
underlying thought in the questioner's mind. Did I study abroad?
I am happy and proud to say that I am Indian born, bred and educated.
The credit would go to my mother and the nuns at the Convent Schools I
attended.
Indian's be proud, your time of glory has arrived! Help each other succeed. That
in itself would lead to a better fruition than the deriding comments in some of
the posts before me. We need to hold hands to get ahead, not pull each other
down.
Best Wishes,
Poonam Bhogal

Posted by: Poonam

12 Though I agree that Indians have basic knowledge of English grammar and
classical words but their pronunciations for many simple words are incorrect.
Younger generation Indians are now caught in the middle of British and American
English but not willing to learn the correct pronunciation (I am not talking
about accent yet, though it is equally important) by any of the two standards.

There is no focus in all most any school on correct pronunciation / phonetics /
accent of English and the mistakes in pronunciations are being carried forward
by generations.

India is not considered an English speaking country and knowledge /
qualification of Indian English at any level is not recognized / accepted for
higher studies in most of the English speaking developed countries.

Posted by: Amulya Gurtu

13 great article. i like the coverage of siliconindia new. keep it up.

Posted by: shankarappa

14 Indians do take pride in their ability to speak English and I like the way we
were taught to speak the language in India. We paid attention to grammar,
spelling and added to our vocabulary. Sadly, the standard for the language has
fallen and in the U.S. the usage is atrocious. Pet peeves - Me and her (are
going out on Sunday); They invited (Rich and I) to the party; None of them (are)
coming today; I am doing (good), in response to "How are you?"; and "I am going
to (lay) down for a nap" to name a few. I do not see teachers correcting
children and some of them even speak this way. I have known professors who
think "None ... are..." is correct!

"Me too" has become so widely used that it sounds correct, and to use the proper
form "I too" sounds stilted now, just as "It's me" has replaced the correct form
,"It is I". I think it is fighting a losing battle and agree that accepting
mistakes as variants may be the only option.

Posted by: cleo

15 Mr.Murty BVNS and Mr. Joe Shmo are too anxious to comment on "Briton" as used
by Mr.Srinath. Better, you both come out soon of your kindergarten mentality.
The word "Briton" is not a wrong usage. May be, some call it an archaic. Yet it
could be used as to attract the special attention, and is novel.
Still it is acceptable in English. I could vouch for this as I am a Professor
of English department.

Posted by: ROSHAN JAWAHAR

16 thge main reason for this our basic education is strong and very pracitical for

youngers and the english common in every where and students are always
proud thamself if they speak good grammer english
thes are the reson at the same time it will help lot to relatioship between
english speeking countries and our country.

Posted by: raja

17 This refers to Comment posted from FYI :- - Hallo FYI - Your comments seems to
be baised? and un-grounded, or without support, I shall appreciate please
Elaborate your Comment. WHAT was bad for you? or your own Ego? to accept the
failure of English from UK`s, English? It is not new, words due to, quick
writing slips ? which renowned Psycholigist too endorse this statement.
Besides If you go back to the History of UK`, and their original Spoken
Languages, or Visitors from UK to US in the early days and their spoken English
languages? I think you should learn a lot, yet to make sensible comments?
without having any knowledge, as to what you say? take my advice to learn more
on the background of any subject than say your views? which could be usefull-

Posted by: Kamath

18 There is a wrong belief that having a medium of learning as English
automatically improves one's knowledge of English. We forget that wrong medium
keeps the knowledge of subject being taught weak. I have studied English in a
Marathi medium school and was able to score highest marks in English in an All
India Competitive examination.
Secondly Indian languages have scripts indicating the actual sounds and so there
is no need to mug up spelling. Roman script has this weakness and so learning
spelling is an extra burden for language learners.

Posted by: Gangadhar G. Barve

19 that is true ,experianceing in my work place,but white skin matter more.
if we compare salary of graduate Engineer with 10 years experiance indian
origin engineer not matching.

Posted by: Ravi

20 It is more interesting going through the comments than reading the article
itself! I have been teaching ENGLISH for quite some years, and I find the
'mistakes' mentioned in the article are very common and I found such in almost
all the students' scripts. Confusion about using ' ei' ... 'ie' etc., We are
proud 'of' our prowess in learning and using English and we can claim command
'of ' the Language...Uh!!! All the best!!

Posted by: Namagiri.B

21 Ask any Indian to write in his or her mother tongue ; I think the scenario
would pathetic . Having said I donut mean to dwarf the caliber of Indians .
Here in India English is taught as a subject and knowledge in English is
almost equated with education and considered the same as most important factory
in career . People take pride in India to be able to speak in English . Even
the poorest of the poor want his children to admitted in English medium school
. There is no death of teacher and education is cheap in India . So I am not
surprised and we know better English than a British

Posted by: tarun majumdar

22 I am least bothered about who is good at what. Specifically those who speak
other languages as better as they go through all the necessary gramatical
constrictions and take pains to learn it. After learning english we oue Indian
now only dream about their culture, vedic, spiritual philosophy. English culture
is individual, and ours is joint family. Where everybody works for everybody. So
everybody has to maitain some decency and mannners and respect experience. The
other is only one and only one himself or herself. No respect for any body
highly egoistic. No ethical and morale upkeeping.

Posted by: D.Bheemeswar

23 A very healthy and proud information that indians are in a position to teach
english to the english.

Posted by: narendran

24 we can be proud of ourselves and need to continue the same standards.

Posted by: venkat.kakarla

25 Excellent article. We should be very proud to be an Indian.Jai Hind

Posted by: Boopathiraja.K

26 good article.it contains genuine information.

Posted by: kiran

27 I should make exceptions for mona as well as ramana too. The latter seems to
have posted at the same time as I did. Peace.

Posted by: FYI

28 Other than Eileen, paddy and dontreallycare, the rest of the authors below (and
let us not forget the author of the article) seem to prove the exact opposite
of what the article seems to be saying. While the native speakers of English may
mince a few words here and there, almost nobody here (other than the exceptions
noted) seems to be able to string a sentence together correctly. Guys, I don't
know why you even bother to leave your comments in such bad English (see kamath
for eg) . Siliconindia of course has long been known to hire people with
terrible language skills. Peace.

Posted by: FYI

29 I'm not concerned about who's better, but whether this reporting is based on
statistically significant survey or not. The words listed are so common, I could
almost guess all of them; that again reflects that these might be common errors
students might make, and you don't need a survey to substantiate it.

The article, or at least the way it is written, looks like reminiscent of what
Times of India and Rediff folks usually indulge in: Take a piece of ice, and
claim that there is a large iceberg out there-- wrong pitch, but good for
internet traffic.

"An Indian-origin university lecturer", Ken Smith, Bernard Lamb all three
expressed their opinion. And Jack Bovill said something that "suggests" his
conclusions. Out of all the four, only the first guy made a statement specific
to Indians. Even then, none of this is quantitative -- a pure expression of
opinion. I too have some, would you care to publish them?

Contrary to what is being said inside the article, the title of the article is
too bold, cozy, uplifting, marvelous, bordering on racial, untruthful, and
downright false.

Stop wasting time yaar....

Posted by: ramana

30 Indian students in UK may indeed have better command of English than their
UK-born counterparts. However, Siliconindia.com journalists clearly can't
produce grammatically correct passages. "he told?" Even my 4 year old niece
knows that you can't say "he told". "he said" is fine, but not "he told". Oh..
stop plagiarizing from other news sources! Shame on you!

Posted by: Mona

31 I go with what eileen said! cheers!

Posted by: Pravin Majhi

32
Maybe Indians are better at English than a lot of British people but you NEVER
say "he told" that should ALWAYS have an object behind it, like "he told her" or
"she told me." I am a teacher of English in Spain (born in the UK) and I have
to say that from what I see here in the article and from the comments below,
neither the British nor the Indian people should boast about their control of
English spelling and US English doesn't help matters either as that simplifies
spelling and is accepted in the US but not in British English, which complicates
things even more.

Hav ing said that, keep up the level, I am pleased to see some people are still
interested in maintaining a good level in English and especially in a country
with so many languages to be learnt!!! Congratulations.grammar as there were
mistakes in the comments here below the article too.

In the UK the problem is the lack of attention children give to their teachers
and the teachers dismotivation due to this lack of interest.

Posted by: Eileen Brophy

33 I guess there are a couple of readers who commented initially with a sheer
intention of complaining about this article, out scoping the authors whole
purpose of manifesting the survey or research carried. Rest of them seems to be
good and by the way "neighbor" word is in the Thesaurus: English (U.S). Mr.
Author please take care.
The article really encourages the non-English speaking mass to further improvise
and maintain the supremacy. The native English speaking people are far superior
while they speak, not that to mention. It’s the consciousness of non-English
speaking people to write and speak grammatically correct sentences and avoiding
use of slang and variants that keeps them in podium. I remember and Indian
winning the dictation/spelling competition in U.S a couple of years back.
Cheers!

Posted by: Pravin Majhi

34 It is pathetic to read some of these comments. They appear to be proud of their
English language skills but if you read their comments they don't have much to
be proud of.
The article itself has many flaws. Be proud of good things and NOT just for the
heck of it. I read more and more such proud comments where they don'd deserve.
Watch olympics opening ceremony that should make most Indians proud, isn't it?
How long will it take India to showcase something like that? May be another 50
years?...........

Posted by: VS

35 Two quick points:
**SRINATH is a funny man
**SI STOP this pls or atleast do a spell check...you guys can't copy also
properly...it's simple ctrl+c...then ctrl+v

ha ha ha

Posted by: Murty BVNS

36 How funny, Mr. Srinath should complain about improper usage of English language
and yet " Briton " appears in his gripe. Dont throw stones if you live in a
glass house, Mr. Srinath

Posted by: Joe Shmo

37 If you are talking about "English English" (rather than, say, American) then
there is a mistake in this article, in the spelling of "neighbour". Standards
had better be high, if you're writing about this issue!

In terms of the content and slant of the article - this may reveal the
difference between academically-learned English and native. In a country where
people speak the language as a native tongue, useage will always be more fluid.
Plus, you should factor in the multi-cultural nature of Britain today - English
is absorbing the influences of other cultures and language perhaps like never
before. And will be all the richer for it.

Posted by: paddy

38 I have many times noted that Indians feel shy if they use wrong spelling or
pronunciation of English though they they may not be be correct with their own
mother tongue. That is the manner our parents have attributed importance to
English while teaching their children.

Srinath

Posted by: SRINATH

39 I agree to the contents of these reports. I use to receive letters from friends
abroad like Briton and Africa with wrong spellings of English that sometimes
misleads with the meaning.

SRINATH.

Posted by: srinath.

40 Not surprising. It always happens that a non native speaker learns a foreign
language in standard way a language had to be learnt. We can see that it is more
accurate, grammatically correct with proper spelling and sentence structures.
But it is more of academic nature. I dont think this shall be treated as a
merit of a nation. More over India has been ruled by British for several
centuries and the English in usage is British and in its older form i.e. pure .
Anyways the command of English itself has given Indians the dominant possession
among Asians.

Posted by: Murty BVNS

41 Hi,
I lived in Australia for couple of years and did not find indians speaking very
good english however they are better than many other people who are from non
english speaking countries. I think there are people in every society who take
their language for granted just the way many indian can't speak good Hindi but
that does not mean most indian do not know Hindi well. I am sure the would be
true in case of British. I found many British Australian had good command over
their language. Cheers????

Posted by: vicky

42 Well Mr.JS We Indians have not only got to learn English which is a dire
requirement but also other Hindi and local Indian languages which are not
taught on priority basis at school levels.Naturally the eloquence in these
native languages suffers.Hence the fact that some of us are not good at at local
languages does not mean it is our incapability .It is rather circumstantial .
good day
Chik

Posted by: chiksukruth

43 Well Mr. Kannan, How many indians can speak good Hindi ...can u ? I am no
...thats our mother language and should have a good command over it ...but
unfortunately it is not to be ...English being the first language in the UK
...it may happen that many of them are not able to speak gramitically correct
English ...
Sorry no offences ...but its a fact that about only 9% of the total indian over
the age of 14 can speak proper Hindi (gramtically correct or 'Suddh Hindi)
Thanks !
JS

Posted by: JS

44 In fact it is bit late to reveal this truth. Indian students undoubtedly speak
good English while comparing to British students. Its a pity that British
students are unable to have good command over their own language. It is better
to have Indian Teachers/professors in British Educational Institutes to develop
a good standard of English amongst students.
J.K

Posted by: J.Kannan

45 The English being the 2nd language to Indians, due to the British Raj in India.
In one way it is really a good for the future. But all younger generations
neglect their own mother tounges, and other Regional languages, learnt in Scool
days. once they leave India and few of them even bring UK / US Slangs of
English which is very difficult to understand some times?. It is also true,
that, the English spoken from Indians/ Indian Origins in UK- f.e.g. on BBC
Moderators, a very clear speach, understandable, to every one than the UK`s own
Moderators?. that exhibits INDIANS are capable of learning anything if they put
their heart in it. This applies too, in GERMANY, . some Indian Jouarnalists
speak excellent German, than the slanged Germans of different part. but regret
to mention that, they are never HONERED due to the mentality of few Germans? and
egoistic living?.
in Germany.

Posted by: kamath

46 It is truly ironic that the author of this article writes in terrible English.
He uses almost every grammatical construct of 'Hinglish' and demonstrates the
real state of the English language as it exists in India.

Posted by: Dontreallycare

47 only the thing that indians need is to throw their shyness and be confident
enough to come infront of this world ,as we have good talents than others and no
one could stop us.

Posted by: som

48 If not viewed linguistic point of view, English is the easiest language to speak
write and read. There are two reasons behind that. One is that grammer of
English is not too lengthy and complicated. Second is that There are so many
exceptions in English spellings to speak and write differently. One cay call it
its most imperfact language whereas someone can say its flexible language.
Unfortunately we need to speak the way its spoken in British while appearing for
IELTS Exams. Indians speak very nicely. As it is written, as it is being read,
its spoken. In rest of the world, its not spoken so purely.

Posted by: Rashmin

49 Ya its very true and i think we should be proud for it. We should also encourage
our young one's to develop further on their English usage...

Posted by: Ashwin George

50 Exactly. When compared to all over the Indians speech in english is well
understood all over the world..

Posted by: gokul

51 I agree with this. Most of my college friends in London write 'colij' instead of
college.

Posted by: Dinto