I’ve been following your recent discussion which I find highly interesting. I think that the better you master you a language the easier it is for you to achieve your goals. Now, the big question is which of the many ‘Englishes’ should you learn? My personal answer to that question is rather simple: I concentrate on learning from those people I want to emulate and be like and that’s what most people would do. If I wanted to do business in Nigeria or India I would look for people who have a similar value system like mine and it’s very likely that they would speak a similar version of English like mine.
I think that are more young people from India who want to study in the US than vice versa. All those young Indians are preparing for standardized US American exams such as the TOEFL, the GRE, SAT or GMAT. Once they pass the TOEFL and enroll in a US university it’s very likely that get more exposure to standard American English as it is spoken at academic institutions than to Indian English. Once they finish their university programs and apply for a job at an international company, it’s very likely that the language spoken at that company is standard American English simply because the vast majority of international companies are American as are the vast majority of any international organizations – profit or non-profit, political or commercial. English is the means of international communication not because it’s the most beautiful language in the world but because most of the innovation in the fields of science, economy and politics comes from countries where English is the native language.
If someone asks me whether “Please do the needful” (as in “Could you help me with this?”) is correct when used by Indian English speakers I don’t answer by saying “Well, it’s not correct, or it’s nonstandard, in American or British English”, now do I? Such an answer wouldn’t make sense, now would it? It’d be irrelevent, wouldn’t it now?
And what would you do if someone told you that your use of “similar… like mine”, there, was incorrect, or at least nonstandard’?
Instead of trying to convince others that this correct in “German English” I would admit that ‘similar to mine’ sounds much better. The next time I would write ‘similar to mine’ rather than ‘similar like mine’.[YSaerTTEW443543]
Do you think “German English” has been around a for a few hundred years and is used intranationally in Germany? It seems you are saying that you want to dictate and decide the standards of Indian English speakers. Are you’?
Would you like to decide how I use English in my country with my fellow Nigerians?
And if you heard an American English speaker use, as many American English speakers do, forms such as “Did you eat yet?”, would you suggest that person should use “Have you eaten?” instead? If not, why not?
In my “standard”, Nigerian English, the American English use of “Did you eat yet?” is incorrect usage, but I understand that it is correct in American English. Do you see the logic?
I think we can swap quotes back and forth until the cows come out. The initial question was grammar related and at some point the discussion started to take a slightly different direction moving into sociolinguistics. It’s probably best if you open a new thread on the different varieties of English with a focus on Indian and Nigerian English. Since English is a second language to me, I’m concentrating on learning the language of those people I want to emulate. Maybe there is a certain percentage of ESL learners who instead of UK or US English want to learn Nigerian, Indian or Creole English and you might be able to help them achieve their goal.[YSaerTTEW443543]
I don’t use any ‘models’ but prefer learning from and with people instead. After all, I don’t want to interact with ‘models’ but with people.[YSaerTTEW443543]
Hi Jamie, thanks for pointing this out. Is there a difference between ‘till the cows come home’ and ‘until the cows come home’? It seems that both versions are acceptable and used?[YSaerTTEW443543]
