Insane Stereotyping!
Its not very easy to be a bilingual speaker. I know because I have had many experiences in the past, where I was left out of conversations as the people around me except my parents couldn't care less about what I had to say. They thought I didn't know my mother tongue at all. In fact, It was a delay in processing the language in my brain. You could say I was not fluent. Because I had to think and then speak. Now as I have grown up, I can handle both the languages quite easily. Its a natural thing to me, i.e. no need to think Stereotyping has been an insanely wide spread idea for a while now and is a main cause of misunderstanding between people. Indians, as a whole are subject to a lot of stereotyping- They all have a funny English accent, they all smell, they are bad drivers, all of them are doctors and engineers, and they don't eat beef!
The first thing everyone should understand when talking to someone from a diverse country like India should always remember not to make generalizations. Of course that is what stereotyping basically is right? Anyway, coming back to the topic of stereotyping of non-native speakers, people often believe that whether you speak English well or not, determines how much you know about the language. This isn't true as one of my experiences proves.
My grandmother speaks English. I was amazed that she was able to communicate in English but she wasn't talking in the right way to me. So I had thought that her knowledge of English was poor and she didn't know as much as me. And then one day I saw an essay that she had written and I was amazed that her use of words, articles, adjectives, pronouns and punctuations were all correct. There were also words I didn't know about. I didn't think in this way then but now I realize that her knowledge had nothing to do with how she had spoken. The same experience happened to me with my English teacher in Grade 3 when I was in India. I'm not saying stereotyping should stop, it is sometimes funny when people talk about your country without knowing anything, but what I believe is that it is not fair to generalize a whole country or a specific group f people.
Just saying, I have lived in Kerala for 7 years and this is my 8th year in Saudi Arabia and UAE combined. This has given me a best of both world's experience which has helped me relate a lot of experiences I have had here to the very inspirational experiences I have had in India. Thinking about it, it is great to be a bilingual person!
Check this out- Have you heard of Russell Peters? If you haven't you should really watch him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2W8aGgmn1A&feature=player_embedded
And check this out too. It is one famous Indian stereotype. Do Indians eat beef? Why are you eating beef when you are Hindu? Isn't that a sin?
Get all your answers in this article.
http://www.ibtimes.com/wheres-beef-india-believe-it-or-not-1258469
Its not very easy to be a bilingual speaker. I know because I have had many experiences in the past, where I was left out of conversations as the people around me except my parents couldn't care less about what I had to say. They thought I didn't know my mother tongue at all. In fact, It was a delay in processing the language in my brain. You could say I was not fluent. Because I had to think and then speak. Now as I have grown up, I can handle both the languages quite easily. Its a natural thing to me, i.e. no need to think Stereotyping has been an insanely wide spread idea for a while now and is a main cause of misunderstanding between people. Indians, as a whole are subject to a lot of stereotyping- They all have a funny English accent, they all smell, they are bad drivers, all of them are doctors and engineers, and they don't eat beef!
The first thing everyone should understand when talking to someone from a diverse country like India should always remember not to make generalizations. Of course that is what stereotyping basically is right? Anyway, coming back to the topic of stereotyping of non-native speakers, people often believe that whether you speak English well or not, determines how much you know about the language. This isn't true as one of my experiences proves.
My grandmother speaks English. I was amazed that she was able to communicate in English but she wasn't talking in the right way to me. So I had thought that her knowledge of English was poor and she didn't know as much as me. And then one day I saw an essay that she had written and I was amazed that her use of words, articles, adjectives, pronouns and punctuations were all correct. There were also words I didn't know about. I didn't think in this way then but now I realize that her knowledge had nothing to do with how she had spoken. The same experience happened to me with my English teacher in Grade 3 when I was in India. I'm not saying stereotyping should stop, it is sometimes funny when people talk about your country without knowing anything, but what I believe is that it is not fair to generalize a whole country or a specific group f people.
Just saying, I have lived in Kerala for 7 years and this is my 8th year in Saudi Arabia and UAE combined. This has given me a best of both world's experience which has helped me relate a lot of experiences I have had here to the very inspirational experiences I have had in India. Thinking about it, it is great to be a bilingual person!
Check this out- Have you heard of Russell Peters? If you haven't you should really watch him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2W8aGgmn1A&feature=player_embedded
And check this out too. It is one famous Indian stereotype. Do Indians eat beef? Why are you eating beef when you are Hindu? Isn't that a sin?
Get all your answers in this article.
http://www.ibtimes.com/wheres-beef-india-believe-it-or-not-1258469
I enjoy the personal connection you made with this topic and included in your post. As a proud Canadian I am happy to say I do enjoy Russell Peters, although mostly in small doses.
ReplyDelete