Babel babble

There is a common belief that if you know the English language you could communicate anywhere in the world. My experience suggests otherwise...

There is a common belief that if you know the English language you could communicate anywhere in the world. My experience suggests otherwise. First, let us talk about English-speaking countries. I found difficult to understand what was being said to me at McDonald8217;s in New York. The girl said, 8220;To stay or to go?8221; I was baffled. A gentleman behind me in the queue came to my rescue. 8220;What is being said is whether you were planning to eat in the restaurant or take it outside.8221; Then he muttered to himself, 8220;Where on earth did the Americans import these expressions from!8221; He was English.

In London, classification of spoken language goes by the level of income. The Queen8217;s English is spoken by the upper classes. As a traveller, one does not often come across the lords or ladies on the streets of London. You hear taxi drivers, shop assistants or waitresses. Their accent and pronunciation is tough to follow. A lady shop assistant got irritated with me once and remarked, 8220;I thought Indians understood English!8221;

Even the newspapers fall into income classifications 8212; each with its own language and content. The paper you read reveals everything about you. In Singapore, there is no language problem. Everyone speaks English, provided you are willing to overlook the grammar. If you wish to stretch your hand in friendship, just add 8220;la8221; at the end of every sentence and you will belong!

In Japan one needs to have a strong lower back. After every question is asked and answered, you need to bow. Once I lost my way back to the hotel. I approached a young Japanese woman for directions. I spoke very slowly, word by word, with a perfect American accent. She said, 8220;I am lost too. I do not speak any Japanese!8221; A helpful foreigner found a solution to the problem. He drew a hotel building and wrote the name of the hotel in English. A Japanese passer-by looked at the sketch and showed me the way.

The best mime comes from Paris. Everything needs to be communicated in gestures. It is pure pleasure to watch a Frenchman8217;s gestures. In Germany, it is wise to carry a guidebook and basic translations of much-needed words in German. And if the replies to your queries sound rude, don8217;t worry. The language appears rough but not the people.

In Shanghai my wife once needed hair oil. We tried every gesture to do with hair. What we got was a choice of Tiger balm and a headache pill! Now there is a silver lining. It has now become compulsory for local taxi drivers to learn English. Now one can use them as interpreters.

There is one country where Indians don8217;t face any language barrier: Dubai. Almost everyone here is from the Indian subcontinent. You can speak in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil or Malayalam. Knowing Arabic is unnecessary.

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And they say human beings invented language to find their way around!