Speakers of English as a second language and idiom in isolation

[scarlettina]

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.

Comments

[webcowgirl]

It would definitely be possible in India, where English is used for communication between people in different states. It's the "lingua franca" there. Sorta, only not French. You know what I mean.

[scarlettina]

Heh. Yep. (That is, in fact, the country in question. Don't know why I felt compelled not to be specific but there you are.)

more misadventures

[webcowgirl]

It was OBVIOUSLY Indian-English to me. Speaking of which, a girl that used to work with me used to text me saying "i am going to cum in l8 srry" and I had to say DON'T use that word but couldn't bring myself to explain why.

[ferragus]

That phrase "Do the needful" has been turning up lately in project requests from our China Operations Center (yes they call themselves the COC too, goddess, why doesn't someone stop them?).

So far it has meant "Cover the users ass by doing 3 weeks worth of work in a couple days", so there's a lot of scorn when we hear the phrase.

I'll have to see if it's originated in the IDC (India Development Center) though.

Something for me to do this morning while I wait on the 3 other groups that need to do their needful, before I can do mine!

[mevennen]

As a former ESL teacher I can tell you that students most certainly do develop their own verbal cultures, often even within class. They're usually based on class jokes, especially if you get a long-term class which bonds. None of them have been quite as extreme as a Japanese student of mine who really wanted to get ahead and started looking up forms of the language which, er, are not currently used these days. I had to try very very hard not to laugh when confronted with a cheery boy telling me that 'Forsooth! Verily, he would be going to the cinema later.'

A lot of my students were adults and I taught business and scientific English, including having to teach a German engineer how to swear, since he was going on from the school to a North Sea rig, and needed to know the vernacular.

Lost in translation

[neutronjockey]

Are you familiar with Engrish.com

It's very Happy Crash!

En boca cerrada, no entran moscas

The English idiom it is equivalent to: Silence is Golden

What it literally translates to is: In mouth shut, no enter flies

What it's supposed to say: Flies cannot enter a shut mouth.

Engrish is funny.

Re: Lost in translation

[scarlettina]

Yeah, I love that site. Very entertaining.

[suricattus]

"Needful" was showing up in a lot of memos before I fled Corporate (although not to the painful level of "impact"), so I could easily see the phrase evolving. It's multipurpose, gets the point across with commiting to anything, and will probably be common usage within two years over here. We can wince, but we cannot stop the tide....

[scarlettina]

Oh, if that makes you itch, you should see some of the corporate speak we get at Bill's House.

Give the user a headline that's actionable.

That ask is far larger than our team can handle.

Did you get that RFP? Because the AE doesn't really understand that this package is ROS. And if he thinks we can depend on a V-quad to make the numbers, he's got another thing coming.

Welcome to my world.

[oldmangrumpus]

That ask is far larger than our team can handle.

"ask" for me has taken on a whole 'nother meaning because in the library world ASK stands for Anomolous State of Knowledge.

"what was the user's ASK?"

James came back from work. . .

[robespierrette]

. . . one day early one, bitching about the out of contol use of "TLA"s over there.

What the heck is a TLA? I asked, innocently.

A Three Letter Acronym, of course. ::forehead slap::

[garyomaha]

Now, see, M. and I have obviously become too involved with our church, because "Do the needful" sounded perfectly fine to my ears, rather like something that would be recommended during the service.

[scarlettina]

Okay, now that's interesting. I wonder if the expression turned up in a case like that, in a religious context rather than corporate. Hmmm...