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

[editrx]

Most definitely an Indian-Englishism. I hear it all the time. I don't have to like it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_the_needful

It is reminiscent of some phrases I ran across while living in Ireland, however, which leads me to believe wikipedia's suggestion that it is British in origin, given the original definition of "needful" in the OED.

I'd guess that it came from. . .

[robespierrette]

. . . British idiom, through the filter of colonialism.

To my Irish-trained ears, "Doing what's needful" would sound more natural, but the word "needful" is definitely back there in my vocabulary, waiting for the odd occasion to pop out. :)

I love it when I have one of these back-sliding moments, when I declare that something is "banjaxed", or ask "Is himself inside?", or determine that someone is "right floothered". This usually happens when I have "the drink taken". Don't let me drive if I ever utter the words, "It do be raining, surely". :)

[steve98052]

I'm not sure I had heard the expression before this, but somehow it sounded very Indian-English to me even without people saying it was.