{"id":1504,"date":"2009-07-17T06:15:38","date_gmt":"2009-07-17T01:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/?p=1504"},"modified":"2009-07-17T06:15:38","modified_gmt":"2009-07-17T01:15:38","slug":"mind-your-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2009\/07\/17\/mind-your-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Mind your Language"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHi, would you like to come and see our flick\u201d
\nAn innocuous line, you would think, but one which got K fuming I could see the fumes coming out of her ear.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat stupid child doesn\u2019t know how to handle the client.\u201d Said K, \u201c I should sack him and get a secretary\u2019 she added.
\n\u201cKya Hua ?\u201d I asked. And she let loose a litany of gaali\u2019s<\/del> gaalis. (Thank you shefaly <\/a><\/strong>)
\nHer fully qualified MBA MT (management trainee) had written a mail to their company\u2019s leading client asking them if they wanted to invest monies in their film after watching it \u2013 hence the line \u201cwould you like to come and see our flick\u201d. K has now issued a directive that no mail will leave the company to a client unless vetted by her. She is also wondering whether to replace her well paid MBA with a secretary who will take dictation and type out a letter.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time I have heard that. My client RR asked me to find him an intern. I teach \u2013 and interact with students in the BMM programme run by the University of Mumbai. But, RR is from my father\u2019s generation; a perfectionist who will not put up with shoddy work \u2013 and I have been hesitant to recommend people to him. Rightly So.
\nHe called me up two days ago.
\n\u201cI need a new EA\u201d he boomed.
\n\u201cWhat happened to the old one\u201d I asked.
\n\u201cKya bolon, don\u2019t you teach them how to send and receive mails\u201d \u2013 he asked ?. His principals are in the USA and they don\u2019t appreciate mails that go \u201cv hv recd yr mail. Ta\u201d<\/p>\n

And, if you think that I am exaggerating, here\u2019s a letter I received from a student:
\n\u201cHello mam ther’s a personal query nt on behalf of clas. V wanted to know if v can reduce d number of ad agencies bt tak many ads as examples. Like from 1 ad agency we can give 3-4 examples. Will that be fine? Waiting 4 ur reply.\u201d<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t even want to know my response. There is only one line that can be used to explain what happens when I read stuff like this \u2013 \u201cmera dimag satakta hai ”<\/p>\n

I have been in the media for 15 years, and each subsequent year \u2013 I lose a bit of my vocabulary and more of my grammar. And, each year I see the level of language declining.<\/p>\n

Part of the problem is SMS and the fact that if I send a message such as \u201cwhr r u\u201d \u2013 most people will understand. However, when I send that kind of a message as a part of a formal letter, then it looks shoddy. The other part of the problem is that in a world dominated by the visual medium \u2013 reading skills are non existent. Therefore, writing skills become more problematic. If you haven\u2019t read enough \u2013 and don\u2019t know good style from bad \u2013 then its\u2019 not really your fault. It\u2019s the problem of a system that brings up students \u2013 from the KG level to be functionally illiterate .So maybe two things that people ought to inculcate to write better is to turn on the dictionary function on their mobiles and write full sentences \u2013 and the other is to read. Also, check on the net for letter formats \u2013 the net is not just about hanging out, it has a fair bit of useful information.<\/p>\n

Most colleges in this city don\u2019t stress on language skills or on syntax. They don\u2019t want the risk of someone taking them to court for failing their exams. Our instructions are do not cut marks for poor language skills. But remember that those who make the rules have full time jobs, very often they are confirmed employees of the state with a pension. You aren\u2019t. Nor am I \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

The world is not Orkut. Nor is it Facebook. In this world people don\u2019t poke you. They fire you.. And, the worse your language skills, the greater the chances of you not getting ahead.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHi, would you like to come and see our flick\u201d An innocuous line, you would think, but one which got K fuming I could see the fumes coming out of her ear. \u201cThat stupid child doesn\u2019t know how to handle the client.\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,12,23],"tags":[533,755,925,1646],"class_list":["post-1504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-desi-pundit","category-india","tag-english","tag-india","tag-language","tag-usage"],"yoast_head":"\nMind your Language - 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