WHY ARE INDIANS SO FLUENT IN ENGLISH?
When it comes to learning english, indians from india are always ahead of other asian countries. They learn so quickly and are so confident when speaking english.
What's the reason(s) behind their success? Do they learn to speak english at home since young? Are they born with linguistic ability?
Anybody who knows this (Indians especially) are welcome to comment on this.
Thanks.
Eeeeh, India was a British territory till 1947.
<<Eeeeh, India was a British territory till 1947>>
But many east asian countries were also under british rule till 1940s. That is NOT the main reason why indians have that english-speaking advantage.
There are many, many languages in India. Perhaps it's useful as a lingua franca?
<<There are many, many languages in India. Perhaps it's useful as a lingua franca?>>
So indians speak mainly in english among themselves? Is that really true?
Remember that Hindi, the major language in Northern India, is an Indo-European language. Therefore I presume Hindi-speaking Indians have fewer problems with pronouncing English, another Indo-European language, than for example Chinese people have, who speak languages with totally other sound systems.
And as Guest points out, English is to a certain extent used as a lingua franca in India, especially in business and among the educated elite.
Accordining to the last census India had a population of 1,027,015,247 in 2001.
That means that if just 1% of the population speaks english you will have a total of 10,270,152 people.
If 5% of the population have a notion of english that gives you a total of 51,350,760 people.
This means it´s a bigger than England's population 49,138,831 according to the census of 2001.
Inida has such a big population anything is possible.
>>But many east asian countries were also under british rule till 1940s. That is NOT the main reason why indians have that english-speaking advantage.
Nancy, don't act like a smart-ass. That IS the main reason. Gosh
May be Indians have a good voice for speaking E as well as englands. But as I know, there are many companies which use E in communication as lingua franca, so to find a good job with high salary they need to have a strong enough skill in speaking ---- what do u think ?
When it comes to learning english, indians from india are always ahead of other asian countries. They learn so quickly and are so confident when speaking english.
love that comment! indians from India, as if it would be any other way. Indians comes from India, Red indians comes from america. Hope that sorted out the confusion. You could always call Red indians for "skralings" the word used by vikings when they discovered the american continent. (before good old Columbus).
The older Goan´s still speak Portuguses fluently.
The younger genaration mostly learn Hindi and English the two official languages.
Demão also is going through the same thing.
In Portugal the Indians that come from these two parts speak with a Portuguese accent while those that come from other parts tend to have a indian accent.
English is used in the Indian political system in addition to Hindi (I think!)