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Do you speak Indian?

Writer's picture: Dolon GuptaDolon Gupta

Imagine a situation where you invite someone for an event, in India. Some come back with a prompt Yes; very few say No; quite a few say “I’ll try”; and some remain silent. The Yes and No are the easy ones, but how does one understand “I’ll try”, or how does one interpret the silence? Does it really matter which one of the 19,565 mother tongues, in India, was used to articulate “I’ll try”? Organizers are still left flummoxed wondering whether one should count them in or not! So, which language were they speaking? Indian, I presume!


Indian languages - that is where we had paused, last month, while exploring the question – what is an Indian mindset. This month, we will do a quick sweep of the language landscape in India, dip into the BCFAI Survey results to understand how language learning is getting linked (or not) to intercultural understanding; and also examine examples from everyday language to peek into the Indian mind.


How does India fare in Linguistic Diversity?  

Here are some facts and figures to start with. Globally, India ranks at No. 4 where linguistic diversity in concerned, yet, according to UNESCO, it also has the highest number of endangered languages.


According to the last Language Census conducted by the Government of India in 2011, raw data threw up 19,569 mother tongues. Of these, a total of 18,200 mother tongues were dropped from the Census for reasons that have caused controversy in various quarters. Nearly 6 million citizens had their ‘linguistic citizenship axed’! The 1,369 that remained were clubbed under one of the 22 Scheduled Languages or 99 Non-Scheduled languages; 96.17% of the Indian population speak one of the Scheduled languages, while 3.29% speak ‘Other’ languages. Given the mind-boggling population in India, with its mind-boggling diversity, a Language Census is no easy task; but still, othering, silencing, or axing languages doesn’t help the linguistic or cultural landscape. 


Language of colonists

India has a history of colonization. Did any language of the colonists survive? Oh yes! One has come out a clear winner – English of course! It is even acknowledged, as a mother tongue within India! The Indian Constitution has placed it under the category of Non-Scheduled languages, with 259,678 speakers who use it as their mother tongue. Languages of other colonists, like Dutch, Portuguese and French did not gain a foothold on Indian soil. The Dutch language has disappeared altogether; a minuscule portion of the senior generation of Goans (that is, the community born from intermarriages between the Portuguese and the locals) still speak Portuguese. Former French colonies like Pondicherry and Chandernagore remain vibrant centres of French language learning, but due to factors beyond colonization.


Foreign language teaching

Most Indians are bi-lingual or tri-lingual – they speak or at least understand more than one Indian language. But the thirst for foreign languages still remains enormous – children and adults, alike, throng to learn French, German, Spanish, Japanese and even Cantonese or Russian. So, does intercultural content pop up in these classrooms? Let’s hear it from the teachers and trainers themselves.

Almost a third (30.8%) of the respondents to the BCFAI Survey are foreign language teachers in India. Except for only one of those respondents, all the others have been incorporating intercultural learning in their classrooms. Their comments clearly point towards their belief that language learning is intrinsically linked to intercultural learning, “Knowing the culture goes hand in hand with language learning”, “Learning a language and being aware of the culture of a target language go together. The ability to respect differences is what intercultural is about.”, “Intercultural is the backbone of studying a foreign language”.


I started off my career as a teacher of French and the more I knew about the social norms, behaviours, attitudes of the French people, the better I could explain the nuances of the languages. It helped learners understand the context of language usage. However, as a trainer, my experience was quite different with English. Unlike French (or even German, Japanese etc.) where learners associate a foreign country – France (or Germany, Japan, etc.) – with the language, learners did not associate English with another country.


English language teaching

Although very few in India speak English as their mother tongue, words in English have crept into the everyday vocabulary of even those Indians who neither read, write or speak English. We know that this language is what gives India easy access to the world; this language eased India’s ride on the globalization wave. It is only natural that parents try to admit their children to schools where the medium of instruction is English. Studies have shown that fluency in English leads to higher wages.


So, what is the experience on the ground? What are English language educators saying? The majority (61.8%) of the respondents to the Survey are engaged in English language teaching which could mean teaching English Literature, Business English, English for Specific Purposes or English for Employability. These educators too are incorporating intercultural learning in their classrooms. But unlike their foreign language counterparts, they do not tie English back to one land - England. They don’t try to facilitate language learning by familiarizing the learner with one specific country culture. Their reasons are different:

  • Their primary reason is to help their learners do business with other countries - “Our curriculum aims to develop the ability of students to work collaboratively (remote/onsite)”, “Most of the companies I am associated with work with international clients. Having a better understanding of intercultural communication will help them to have a more productive collaboration & avoid cultural break down.”

  • The reason could also be to do help learners do business within India – “Workplaces these days are undeniably multicultural. In a country like India, it is even more evident with the cultural variations we witness across states.”

  • Or the reason could be broader, much beyond professional growth – “It is pertinent to know and understand different cultures to usher in peace and tranquillity worldwide.”


Despite the difference in objectives of intercultural education between foreign language and English language classrooms, there is one thing that both sets of educators have in common – both believe that words convey a lot more than a simple, single-layered message; that words are loaded with complex meaning and context. The identical set of words may mean completely different things when uttered or understood by two different people. This brings us back to the question – what does “I’ll try” mean? Actually, do “Yes” and “No” mean the same thing across cultures?


Does Yes mean Yes?

In the context of an invitation, ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ could be taken at face value. But in tricky situations, ‘Yes’ may not mean affirmation at all. Suppose a client asks if the deadline can be met by the 1st of the following month, here are some hypothetical responses:

1.       “Yes, yes, consider it done!” (Deadline will be followed as scheduled)

2.       “Yes, but X is on leave during the last week.” (There are chances of the deadline being impacted)

3.       “Yes…uh… there are some dependencies.” (Chances of the deadline being met are getting dimmer)

All three responses may begin with a “Yes” but what follows is much more important because the message lies there. Except for the first, none of them are a clear Yes. On the contrary, they are leaning more towards ‘No’ than ‘Yes’.


Why not say a clear No?

Indians have a complex relationship with the word ‘No’. As a kid, I remember how tough it was for my brother who was a leftie. While my parents were perfectly okay with it, society at large put in a lot of effort to turn him into a ‘rightie’. And when an elderly Aunt, with very strong opinions on this, visited, my brother was forced to use his right hand to eat. The poor kid was left struggling through his meals for those few days. My parents did not object.


And why is that? In Indian households, one does not openly disagree with an older relative because that’s rude and disrespectful. Though it is acceptable to quietly go one’s way and do one’s own thing, saying it out loud and clear, is not. Times are changing, and I never would have allowed anyone to force my daughter to eat with her right hand (she too is a leftie) when she was a kid, But I did tell my kids to keep their opinions to themselves when speaking with elders.


In India, a clear ‘No’ may be perceived less as honesty and more as rude, offensive and disrespectful. As a result, ‘No’ is often camouflaged in silence, or cushioned by a ‘Yes’ (as in “Yes…uh… there are some dependencies.”). And that is where “I’ll try” becomes a complicated term.


Does “I’ll try” mean “I’ll try”?

It’s so tough to decipher “I’ll try", even for those who have spent their whole life in India. One has to read into the sub-text, listen closely for paraverbal cues, watch out for non-verbal cues, consider the context and so on. The meaning of “I’ll try” can cover the whole spectrum: from “I’m really going to throw in my all to make this happen” to “I’m telling you, right now, that this is not going to happen, so my conscience is clear!”

As a result, more often than not, the listener errs on the side of caution and interprets “I’ll try” as an indirect “No”. In personal or social situations, where one is not talking of deadlines, one doesn’t spend much time on this; one just accepts the uncertainty of “I’ll try” and moves on.

 

Coming up

Uncertainty, hierarchy, indirect communication are words that are common in a lot of theories, frameworks and models of Intercultural Studies. These theories, that were primarily born in the West, have found their way into classrooms within India. Do these concepts and ideas from alien lands strike a chord with Indians? How well do they sit with Indian reality? How flexible are they? Next month, we will tread into this area and explore to what extent theories, from Intercultural Studies or otherwise, are helping educators or learners deal with intercultural scenarios. 

 

Dolon Gupta

Consultant, Communication and Culture

 


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