Speakers of English as a second language and idiom in isolation
Today I was talking with a coworker who was telling me about his experience with company employees in another country. It seems that this group is (very well-)educated in said country, consists of fluent English speakers, is trained in Our Corporate Ways by employees from the US, and then is left to operate as part of the company independently. Coworker said that every now and then, he'd see an expression being used in e-mail or hear it in teleconference that was clearly common amongst the folks in the other country and used by them as though they thought it was American idiom. For example:
Coworker: We'll need the code for this fix by next Tuesday.
Foreign coworker: We'll do the needful and let you know when we're ready.
"Do the needful," in particular, was the example that got me thinking. Besides sounding like a promise to do a new dance, perhaps not unlike the Twist or the Watusi, apparently this is an expression that is very common at the foreign office in question. When questioned by my coworker, Foreign Coworker was surprised, since he was under the impression that this was common parlance in the US. Apparently so did others at the foreign office, but no one knew where this phrase first came from. (And I have to wonder, is it British, perhaps? Or a translation of an expression in the language native to the country in question?)
It was at this point in the conversation that I found myself wondering if this was an example of an English idiom developed by speakers of English as a second language operating in isolation from native speakers. I don't know if such a phenomenon is possible, since ESL speakers in a foreign country probably don't speak English regularly enough for this sort of thing to occur. At the same time, it's kind of an interesting thought. So I wanted to share.
And having shared, I'm going to hit the sack. It's late, and I have a passenger to pick up before I head to the Eastside tomorrow morning.
Coworker: We'll need the code for this fix by next Tuesday.
Foreign coworker: We'll do the needful and let you know when we're ready.
"Do the needful," in particular, was the example that got me thinking. Besides sounding like a promise to do a new dance, perhaps not unlike the Twist or the Watusi, apparently this is an expression that is very common at the foreign office in question. When questioned by my coworker, Foreign Coworker was surprised, since he was under the impression that this was common parlance in the US. Apparently so did others at the foreign office, but no one knew where this phrase first came from. (And I have to wonder, is it British, perhaps? Or a translation of an expression in the language native to the country in question?)
It was at this point in the conversation that I found myself wondering if this was an example of an English idiom developed by speakers of English as a second language operating in isolation from native speakers. I don't know if such a phenomenon is possible, since ESL speakers in a foreign country probably don't speak English regularly enough for this sort of thing to occur. At the same time, it's kind of an interesting thought. So I wanted to share.
And having shared, I'm going to hit the sack. It's late, and I have a passenger to pick up before I head to the Eastside tomorrow morning.