Types of World English
US English
US English is of course particularly influential, on account of America's dominance of cinema, television, popular music, trade, and technology, including the Internet. Many terms that enter an Oxford dictionary from the US quickly become established in British English: some examples from the last ten years or so are geek, nerd, school student, and
24/7. Many US equivalents for British terms are familiar: sidewalk for pavement, checkers for draughts, cookie for biscuit, and vest for waistcoat. Other differences are
more subtle. Some words have a slightly different form, e.g. dollhouse (US)/doll's house (Brit.), math (US)/maths (Brit.), tidbit (US)/titbit (Brit.), while American constructions that are strange to British ears include I just ate, teach school, and a quarter of ten (rather than a quarter to ten).
Canadian English
Canadian English is subject to the conflicting influences of British and American
English. In vocabulary there is a lot of US influence: Canadians use billboard, gas, truck, and wrench rather than hoarding, lorry, petrol, and spanner; but on the other hand they agree with the British in saying blinds, braces, porridge, and tap rather than shades,
suspenders, oatmeal, and faucet.
Australian and New Zealand English
The vocabularies of Australian and New Zealand English are very similar. Both have been enriched by words and concepts from the hundreds of indigenous languages that pre-dated European settlers, only about fifty of which continue as first languages. The line between formal and informal usage is perhaps less sharply drawn in Australasian English than it is elsewhere: suffixes such as -o and -ie, giving us expressions such as
arvo (afternoon), reffo (refugee), and barbie (barbecue), are freely attached to words even
in more formal contexts. South African English
Since 1994 South Africa has had eleven official languages: English, Afrikaans (descended from Dutch), Zulu, Xhosa, and other largely regional African languages. English is the first language of only about 10 per cent of the population, but the second language of many others. The English of native Afrikaners has inevitably influenced the 'standard' English of white South Africans, examples being such informal usages as the affirmative no, as in 'How are you? - No, I'm fine' and the all-purpose response is it?, as in 'She had a baby last week - is it?'
Indian English
straightforward: together with Hindi it is used across the country, but it can also be a speaker's first, second, or third language, and its features may depend heavily on their ethnicity and caste. The grammar of Indian English has many distinguishing features, of which perhaps the best-known are the use of the present continuous tense, as in 'He is
having very much of property', and the use of isn't it as a ubiquitous question tag: 'We are meeting tomorrow, isn"t it?' The first example rejects another characteristic of the
language, which is to include intrusive articles such as in or of in idiomatic phrases. Verbs are also used differently, with speakers often dropping a preposition or object altogether: 'I insisted immediate payment', while double possessives - 'our these prices' (instead of the British English 'these prices of ours') - are commonplace.
West Indian English
Standard British English has traditionally been the linguistic model for the
Commonwealth Caribbean, although recently the import of US television, radio, and tourism has made American English an equally powerful influence. The many varieties of Creole, influenced by West African languages, are also productive. A characteristic usage is that of the objective pronoun where British English would use the subjective or possessive, as in me can come an go as me please or he clear he throat. Jamaican Creole is the most widely known, and has spread beyond the region, especially to the UK, where it influences the speech of black Britons.
FEATURES OF INDIAN ENLGLISH:
Indian English comprises several dialects or varieties of English spoken primarily in the
Indian Subcontinent. These dialects evolved during and after the period when Britain exercised colonial rule over India. English is the one of the official languages of India, with about ninety million speakers, according to the 1991 Census of India, but fewer than a quarter of a million people call it their first language.[1] With the exception of some families who communicate primarily in English, as well as members of the relatively small Anglo-Indian community (numbering less than half a million), speakers of Indian English use it as a second or third language, after their indigenous Indian language(s), such as Hindi, Bengali, Kannada,Telugu,Marathi,Tamil,etc.[2]
Several idiomatic forms, derived from Indian literary and vernacular language, also have made their way into Indian English. Despite this diversity, there is general homogeneity in syntax and vocabulary among the varieties of Indian English.
Contents
[hide]
• 1 Influences: British and American
o 1.1 Influences from other languages • 2 Idioms and popular words/phrases
o 2.1 Medical terms o 2.2 Food
o 2.3 Addressing others
o 2.4 Interjections and casual references o 2.5 Divergent usage • 3 Grammar o 3.1 Grammar quirks • 4 Phonology o 4.1 Vowels o 4.2 Consonants o 4.3 Spelling pronunciation o 4.4 Supra-segmental features • 5 See also • 6 References • 7 Bibliography • 8 External links
[
edit
] Influences: British and American
The form of English that Indians and all the other people of the subcontinent are taught in schools is essentially British English. A socially-superior accent is deemed to be that of
Received Pronunciation. However, even during the time of the British Raj, before the partition of Pakistan and Bangladesh, Indian English had established itself as an audibly distinct dialect of the language with its own quirks and specific phrases. Indian spellings typically follow British conventions.
After gaining independence in 1947, Indian English took on a divergent evolution, and many phrases that other English speakers consider antiquated are still popular in India. The legacy of the East India Company and its practices still prevails in official
correspondence in India. Official letters include phrases such as "please do the needful," and "you will be intimated shortly," which are directly lifted from East India Company correspondence from the seventeenth century.
Because of the growing influence of American culture in recent decades, certain elements of American slang are now used by some Indians, especially younger ones. American-English spellings are also widely prevalent in scientific and technical publications, while British-English spellings are used in other media.
[edit] Influences from other languages
• Tag questions: The use of "isn't it" as a generic question tag, as in "You're lying, isn't it?" (instead of "You're lying, aren't you?"). More recent tag questions include "no?" (used colloquially) as in He's here, no? ('na' often replaces 'no' in Hindi speaking areas; the South replaces 'no' with the 'ah' sound, as in Ready, ah?, an influence of colloquial Tamil and Kannada.)
• Use of the words but or only as intensifiers such as in: "I was just joking but." or "It was she only who cooked this rice." Or even "I didn't go only" to mean "I didn't end up going after all." (Influenced by Hindi syntax.)
• Adding "U" to all english words e.g. LeftU for left, BusU for Bus; especially people from South Indian states mainly Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have the habit of when speaking Tamil and Kannada and Telugu
respectively
• Use of yaar, machaa, abey, arey in an English conversation between Indians, mainly by people of native Hindi-speaking origin; 'ra', 'da', 'machaa' is more frequently used in the South.
• Use of "baazi"/"baaji" or "-giri" for the same purpose, as in "business-baazi" or "cheating-giri." (Also prevalent mainly in Hindi-speaking states.)
• Use of word "wala" to denote occupation or 'doing of/involvement in doing' something, as in "The taxi-wala overcharged me.", "The grocery-wala sells fresh fruit." or "He's a real music-wala: his CD collection is huge."
• Use of the word maane (Bengali) , "Yani" (Urdu) and matlab (Hindi/Urdu) to mean, loosely, "meaning" ("What I mean is..."), as in "The problem with your
idea, maane, what I feel is missing, is ki it does not address the problem of overstaffing." or "Your explanation, matlab, your feeble attempt at one, was sorely lacking in cohesiveness."
[
edit
] Idioms and popular words/phrases
• B.A. - fail - used in matrimonial ads to describe someone who did not pass the
final examinations but was admitted to college and did take college classes, as opposed to someone who did not go to college. 'Higher Secondary (fail)' and 'M.A. (fail)' are similar.
• B.A. - pass - used as the opposite to the above
• Gone for a six - to mean something got ruined. (Origins linked to game of Cricket)
• Eve teasing - 'Sexual harassment'
• Convented - 'A girl educated well in Christian convent-style school' • I got a firing/I was fired by him - 'I got yelled at by him'
• Where are you put up? means 'Where do you live'?. Heard often in S.India. • Where do you stay? is the same as 'Where do you live?' or 'Where's your house?'.
This is also used in Scottish and South African English
• Shift - to move as in "I shifted my things from my old apartment to my new one". • I don't take meat/milk/whatever - 'I don't eat meat/ drink milk' etc
• She is innocently divorced or divorced (innocent)- part of matrimonial advertising
terminology, it means the marriage was not consummated.
• Wheatish complexion - Seen in matrimonial ads. Means 'not dark skinned, tending
toward light'
• "What is [your] good name?" to mean "What is your full name?" is a carryover from the Hindi expression "Shubh-naam" (literally meaning "auspicious name") or the Urdu "ism-e shariif" (meaning "noble name"), or in Bengali, bhalo-naam (meaning quite literally "good name" or "proper name"). This is similar to the way Japanese refer to the other person's name with an honorific "O-" prefix, as in "O-namae" instead of the simple "namae" when referring to their own name. Such a questioner wants to know the person's formal or legal given name that may appear on a passport, as opposed to the pet name they would be called by close friends and family.
• "Out of station" to mean "out of town". This phrase has its origins in the posting of army officers to particular 'stations' during the days of the East India Company.
• "Join duty" to mean "reporting to work for the first time". "Rejoin duty" is to come back to work after a vacation.
• "Tell me": used when answering the phone, meaning "How can I help you?"
• "order for food" instead of "order food", as in "Let's order for sandwiches".
• "pass out" is meant to graduate, as in "I passed out of the university in 1995."
• "go for a toss" means to end prematurely or unexpectedly, as in "my plans went
for a toss when it started raining heavily." This phrase has origins in cricket, where to go for a toss as means to be dismissed on the first ball.
• "on the anvil" is used often in the Indian press to mean something is about to appear or happen. For example, a headline might read "New roads on the anvil".
• "tight slap" to mean "hard slap".
• Timepass - 'Doing something for leisure but with no intention or
target/satisfaction' For example, "Hows the movie?" reply - "Just timepass man... nothing great about it."
• Dearness Allowance - Payment given to employees to compensate for the effects
of inflation. Source:online Dictionary of Indian English
• Pindrop silence! - Teachers in schools may say this to the kids.
• chargesheet: n. formal charges filed in a court; v. to file charges against someone
in court
• "I won't give him a single pie" to mean a "single cent". Pie is an Indian denomination of the anna, which in turn was one-sixteenth of one rupee/taka.
• redressal: n. redress, remedy, reparation
• "Hill Station" means mountain resort.
• "Hotel" means "restaurant" (as well as specifically "big hotel") in India: "I ate in the hotel". "Lodge" is used to refer to small hotels. Sometimes "Lodge" refers to a place where you stay (in rooms) and "Hotel" refers to a place where you eat.
• "stepney" refers to a spare tyre. The word is a genericized trademark originating from the Stepney Spare Motor Wheel, itself named after Stepney Street, in
Llanelli, Wales.[3]
• "specs" means spectacles or glasses (as in colloquial UK English).
• "centum" is also frequently used to refer to 100. [edit] Medical terms
Often the cause of undesirable confusion
• Viral Fever: influenza
• Jaundice: Acute Hepatitis. While standard medical terminology uses jaundice for
a symptom (yellow discolouration of skin), in India the term is used to refer to the illness in which this symptom is most common.
• Allopathy, used by homeopaths for conventional medicine. [edit] Food
• Brinjal : aubergines / eggplant
• Capsicum : called chili pepper, red or green pepper, or sweet pepper in the UK, capsicum in Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, and India, bell pepper in the US, Canada, and the Bahamas; paprika in some other countries
• Curds : yoghurt • Coriander : cilantro • Sooji or Rava : semolina • Pulses : pulses, eg lentils • Karahi : wok
• Dhal : lentils
• Sago : tapioca
[edit] Addressing others
• Referring to elders, strangers or anyone meriting respect as "'jee'"/"'ji'" (Hindi: जी used as a suffix) as in "Please call a taxi for Gupta-ji" (North, West and East India)
• Use of prefixes "Shree"/"Shri" (Devanagari: शी meaning Mister) or
"Shreemati"/"Shrimati" (Devanagari: शीमती meaning Ms/Mrs): Shri Ravi Shankar
or Shreemati Das Gupta. "Shreemati"/"Shrimati" is used for married women. "Kumari" (Devnagari: कुमारी literally meaning a virgin) can be used for unmarried (as opposed to single) women or girls. "Sushri" (Devnagari: सुशी a more recent addition and appropriate translation of Ms where marital status cannot be determined or is unimportant)
• As with Shree/Shreemati, use of suffixes "Saahib/Sāhab" (Mr) and "Begum" (Mrs)(Urdu) as in "Welcome to India, Smith-saahib." or "Begum Sahib would like some tea."
• Use of "Mr" and "Mrs" as common nouns for wife/husband. For example, "Jyoti's Mr stopped by yesterday" or "My Mrs is not feeling well" (this use of "Mrs." or "missus" is also used in the UK.
• Use of "Ms" (also Mr, Mrs) with first name. For example, Swathi Ashok Kumar might be addressed as "Ms Swathi" instead of "Ms Kumar". This is the only
possible correct usage in South India, especially in Tamil Nadu, where most people don't use a surname.
• Use of the English words 'uncle' and 'aunty' as suffixes when addressing people such as distant relatives, neighbours, acquaintances, even total strangers (like shopkeepers) who are significantly older than oneself. E.g., "Hello, Swathi aunty!" In fact, in Indian culture, children or teenagers addressing their friends' parents as Mr Patel or Mrs Patel (etc.) is rare and may even be considered
unacceptable or offensive (in the sense of referring to an elder person by name). A substitution of Sir/Ma'am, while common for addressing teachers/professors or any person in an official position, would be considered too formal to address parents of friends or any other unrelated (but known) elder persons. On the contrary, if the person is related, he/she will usually be addressed with the name of the relation in the vernacular Indian language, even while conversing in
English.[citation needed] For example, if a woman is one's mother's sister, she would not
be addressed (by a Hindi speaker) as "auntie" but as Mausi (Hindi: मौसी) (by a Kannada speaker as Chikkamma Kannada: ಅತತ). It is interesting to observe that calling one's friends' parents aunty and uncle was also very common in Great Britain in the 1960s and 70s but is much rarer today.
• Use of Respected Sir while starting a formal letter instead of Dear Sir. Again, such letters are ended with non-standard greetings, such as "Yours respectfully", or "Yours obediently", rather than the standard "Yours sincerely/faithfully/truly".
• Use of "Baba" ('father' in some languages, but colloquially meaning 'buddy') while referring to any person, such as "No Baba, just try and understand, I cannot come today".
• the phrase 'the concerned person' is widely used in oral Indian English.'
• Sharma sir is not here - same as Sharma-ji is not here, a respectful address. No
knighthood suffix.
[edit] Interjections and casual references
• Casual use of words yaar (Hindi: यार meaning - friend, buddy, dude, man, mate),
bhai (Hindi: भाई meaning - brother) and bhaiyya (Hindi: भइया meaning - elder brother) much as with the American English 'man' or 'dude', as in " Arey! C'mon, yaar! Don't be such a killjoy!", "Long time no see, bhai." or "Ay, bhaiyya! Over here!" Yaar is the equivalent of mate in Australian and British English. The word
boss is also sometimes used in this way, among friends but also to male strangers,
as in "How much to go to the train station, boss?", or "Good to see you, boss."
• Use of interjections Arey!(Hindi: अरे) and acchha! (Hindi: अचछा) to express a wide range of emotions, usually positive though occasionally not, as in "Arey! What a good job you did!", "Accha, so that's your plan." or "Arey, what bad luck, yaar!"
• Use of the word "chal" (Hindi: चल - Imperative of the verb "to walk") to mean the interjection "Ok", as in "Chal, I gotta go now" at the end of a phone call
• Use of oof! or "oh fo!" (Hindi: ऊफ - an interjection in Hindi) to show distress or frustration, as in "Oof! The baby's crying again!"
• Use of "Wah" (Hindi: वाह) to express admiration, especially in musical settings, as in "Wah! Wah! You play the sitar so well!"
• Use of "just" and "simply" in a seemingly arbitrary manner in southern India, especially Kerala. e.g. Q:"Why did you do it?" A:"Simply!" or "Just I was telling to [sic] him.
• Use of "chumma chumma" (Tamil: சும்மா means simply) at the beginning of a sentence. (eg. chumma chumma dont talk)
• Overuse of the word "Please" as an interjection, often over-stressing the vowel. This could stem from "please" being implied within the verb conjugation in Hindi, causing speakers to overcompensate for its absence in English.
• Use of the verb "sit" in place of "located" e.g. "Where are you sitting?" for "Where are you located? (for one's location in a school or office but not home)"
• Repetition of a word to emphasise a word. Used mostly with words like Yes, No, Right, Ok etc. (e.g. A: Did you finish reading the book ? B: Yes yes !!)
[edit] Divergent usage
• Insertion of "as" in describing a designation, where it would be omitted in
Standard English: "Mahatma Gandhi is called as father of the nation." "Bangalore is termed as Silicon Valley of India." "Yogurt is called as curd in Indian English."
• Substitution of "one" in place of the indefinite article "a": "Let me tell you one story." This is because in Indian languages, the numeric word for one (e.g. Hindi एक ek) is also used as the indefinite article.
• "Kindly" used to mean "please": "Kindly disregard the previous message".
• "Paining" used when "hurting" would be more common in Standard American and British: "My head is paining."
• "Cover" to mean envelope or shopping bag in South India. For example, "Put the documents in a cover and post it", and "Put the vegetables in a separate cover". In Western India, especially Maharashtra, a shopping bag is called as a 'Carry Bag'.
• "Today morning" (afternoon, evening, etc.) instead of "this morning." ("I met with him today morning."). Similarly, "yesterday night" instead of "last night".
• The word "marriage" used to mean "wedding." ("I am attending my cousin's marriage next month.")
• Treatment of the phrase "I don't think so" as a unit, as in "I don't think so I can do that" instead of "I don't think I can do that."
• The word non-veg (short for non-vegetarian) is used to mean food which contains flesh of any mammal, fish, bird, shellfish, etc or even eggs. Fish, seafood, and eggs are not treated as categories separate from "meat," especially when the question of vegetarianism is at issue (milk and its products are always considered vegetarian). E.g., "We are having non-veg today for dinner", whereas the native varieties of English would have: "We are having meat today for dinner". Also to be noticed that a non-veg joke is regarded as a joke with mature content.
• The word "mutton" is used to mean goat meat instead of sheep meat (and
sometimes in a broader, euphemistic sense to mean any red meat, i.e., not poultry or fish).
• The word "hero" is used to mean a male protagonist in a story, especially in a motion picture. The protagonist need not have any specifically heroic
often cast in the role of the protagonist. Thus, "Look at Vik; he looks like a hero," meaning "he is as handsome as a movie star."
• "Music director" is used to mean a music composer for movies.
• The word "dialogue" means "a line of dialogue" in a movie. ("That was a great dialogue!" means "That was a great line!") "Dialogues" is used to mean
"screenplay." In motion picture credits, the person who might in other countries be credited as the screenwriter in India is often credited with the term "dialogues." (Note the usage of British spelling).
• The word "damn" used as an intensifier, especially a negative one, far more frequently and with far more emphatic effect, than in other dialects of English, as in "That was a damn good meal".
• Use the word "only" where the word "just" would be used in other dialects. For example, "These people are like this only".
• The word "healthy" as a euphemism for fat people, in North India and in general as in "His build is on the healthy side" to refer to a overweight person.
• The word "dress" (noun) is used to refer to clothes for men, women, and children alike: "She bought a new dress for her son", whereas in international varieties of English a dress is a women's outer clothing with a bodice and a skirt as a single
garment. The usage of dress as clothes does exist in international varieties but
only in very rare occasions and in relevant context., e.g. schooldress. Young girls in India invariably wear a dress, which is called a frock by the Indians.
• "Full Shirt" is used for "Full Sleeves" and "Half Shirt" for "Half Sleeves" or "Short Sleeves". Similarly full-pant means trousers and half-pant means shorts. (Telugu speakers may say "Half Hands" and "Full Hands" in a similar fashion).
• "Shirtings and suitings" used for the process of making such garments and also to refer to shops specializing in men's formal/business wear.
• "Bath" and "bathe" are also used interchangeably. In Telugu, there is no clear distinction between the words bath and shower.
• The use of "also" in place of "too" or "as well"; as in "I also need a blanket" instead of "I too need a blanket" or "He was late also" instead of "He was late as well"
• Intensifying adjectives by doubling them. This is a common feature of most Indian languages. For example: "She has curly-curly hair"; "You are showing your hairy-hairy legs"; "We went to different-different places in the city in search of a good hotel; "You will get used to the humidity slowly-slowly"; "Don't worry about small-small things" to mean very insignificant issues.
• Use of "reduce" to mean "lose weight" as in "I need to reduce!"
• Use of "this side" and "that side" instead of "here" and "there." "Bring it this side." "We went that side."
• Use of "engagement" to mean not just an agreement between two people to marry, but a formal, public ceremony (often accompanied by a party) where the
engagement is formalized with a ring and/or other local rituals. Indians will not speak of a couple as being "engaged," until after the engagement ceremony has been performed. Similar to the use of term "marriage," a person may say "I am going to attend my cousin's engagement next month." Afterwards, the betrothed is referred to as one's "would-be" wife or husband. In this case, "would be" is used
to mean "will be" in contrast with the standard and American and British connotation of "wants to be (but will not be)."
• "Gentry" is a generalized term for social class - not specifically 'high social class'. The use of 'good', 'bad', 'high' and 'low' prefixed to 'gentry' is common.
• "Graduation" used exclusively to mean completion of a bachelor's degree: "I did my graduation at Presidency College" ("I earned my bachelor's degree at
Presidency College."), whereas in the United States it refers to completion of Highschool, Master's or PhD as well.
• "Metro" to mean large city (i.e. 'metros such as Delhi and Chennai') This is a shortening of the term Metropolis. This can be confusing for Europeans, who tend to use the word to describe underground urban rail networks. However, following the popularity of the Delhi Metro, the word Metro now tends to be used to
describe both the metropolis and the underground rail network.
• Use of the word "shift" to indicate "move" (oneself with belongings to a different house or city), as in "When are you shifting?" (instead of "When are you
moving?").
• Use of "blood pressure" or "BP" to refer particularly to high blood pressure, as in "I have BP!" to mean "I have high BP or hypertension".
• Use of the word "small" to mean "a small amount of" as in "Some small smoke came out of my radiator."
Words unique to (i.e. not generally well-known outside South Asia) and/or popular in India include those in the following by no means exhaustive list:
• batchmate or batch-mate (Not classmate, but a schoolmate of the same grade) • "eggitarian" for a person who is eats vegetarian food, milk and eggs but not meat.
• compass box for a box holding mathematical instruments like compass, divider,
scale, protractor etc.
• cousin-brother (male first cousin) & cousin-sister (female first cousin); used conversely is one's own brother/sister (of one's parent, as opposed to uncle or aunt; English brother/sister): most Indians live in extended families and many do not differentiate even nominally between cousins and direct siblings.
• foot overbridge (bridge meant for pedestrians)
• Funda (fundamentals) as in "I cant understand the funda behind this chemistry
formula."
• godown (warehouse)
• godman somewhat pejorative word for a person who claims to be divine or who
claims to have supernatural powers
• gully to mean a narrow lane or alley (from the Hindi word "gali" meaning the
same).
• Himalayan blunder (grave mistake)
• long-cut (The "opposite" of short-cut, in other words, taking the longest route). • mugging or mugging up (studying hard or memorising, and having nothing to do
with street crime, what the word would mean in British/American English).
• prepone (The "opposite" of postpone, that is to change a meeting to be earlier). Many dictionaries have added this word.
• tiffin box for lunch box. The word is also commonly used to mean a between-meal
snack.
• co-brother indicates relationship between two men who married sisters, as in "He
is my co-brother"
• vote-bank is a term commonly used during the elections in India, implying a particular bloc or community of people inclined to cast their votes for a political party that can be best promise to deliver policies, favouring them.
Words which are considered archaic in some varieties of English, but are still in use in Indian English:
• Curd, where yoghurt would be more common in British/American English. • Dicky/dickey the boot/trunk of a car[4] or rarely, to refer to someone's rear.
• Into to mean "multiplied by", as in 2 into 2 = 4, rather than 2 times 2 = 4, which is
more common in other varieties of English. The use of into dates back to the fifteenth century, when it had been common it British English.[5]
• Use of the phrases like nothing or like anything to express intensity. For example, "These people will cheat you like anything". Such usage was part of colloquial English language in seventeenth century Britain and America.[6][7]
• ragging for fagging(UK)/hazing(US).
• In tension for being concerned or nervous. Phrased another way, "He is taking too
much tension". Found in eighteenth century British English.[8]
• Use of thrice, meaning "three times", is common in Indian English.
• Use of "the same" instead of "it", as in "I heard that you have written a document on .... Could you send me the same?"
[
edit
] Grammar
The role of English within the complex multilingual society of India is far from straightforward: it is used across the country, but it may be a speaker's first, second, or third language, and its features may depend heavily on the regional origin of the speaker. While Indian speakers of English use idioms peculiar to their homeland, often literal translations of words and phrases from their native languages, only standard British English is considered grammatically correct.
The distinct evolution of regional variations in contemporary usage has led to terms such as Hinglish (Hindi + English), Kanglish (Kannada + English), Telgish (Telugu +
English), Tanglish (Tamil + English), and Minglish (Marathi + English). Hinglish and other variations are popular in the field of advertising. In this context, the aim of reaching a large cross-section of society is fulfilled by such double-coding. Many words borrowed from Indian languages find their way into the ostensibly-English media.
[edit] Grammar quirks
• The progressive tense in stative verbs: I am understanding it. She is knowing the
answer. Also, "I am working at XYZ Company" instead of "I work at XYZ
Company". This is an influence of traditional Hindi grammar; it is more common in northern states.
• The pluperfect tense used in verbs where International English speakers would use the simple past. I had gone for I went.
• Use of would instead of will as in "I would be going to New York this weekend".
• Use of do the needful as in "do whatever needs to be done"
• Anglicisation of Indian words especially in Chennai by adding "ify" to a local
Tamil word, usually humorously and not used in general speech.
• Idiomatic English for quantification in use of preposition "of", as in "There is so
much of happiness in being honest."
• Use of "open" and "close" instead of switch/turn on/off, as in "Open the air conditioner" instead of "Turn on the air conditioner", and "Open your shirt" for "Take off your shirt." This construction is also found in Quebec English and also among Arab speakers of English etc.
• Use of "off" and "on" as verbs rather than adjectives, as in "On the light" instead of "Turn on the light" or "Off the fan" instead of "Switch off the fan."
• Use of "y'all" for "you all" or "all of you", as used in Southern American English, especially by Anglo-Indians. However, unlike Southern American usage, it is only used as a subject or object in a sentence, never to address a group of people.
• Swapping around the meanings of "slow" and "soft" as in "I shall speak slower for you" meaning "I will speak softly" and "Make the fan softer" to mean "Make the fan go slower." This is because of influence from Indian languages. In Telugu, for example, the word 'melliga' can refer to either slow or quiet, and in Hindi
"Deerai" can mean slowly or softly.
• Creation of rhyming double-words (rhyming reduplication) to denote generality of idea or act, a 'totality' of the word's denotation, as in "No more ice-cream-fice-cream for you!", "Let's go have some chai-vai (tea, "tea and stuff")." or "There's a lot of this fighting-witing going on in the neighborhood." (Prevalent mainly in Hindi- and Punjabi-speaking states.)
• Use of the word "since" instead of "for" in conjunction with periods of time, as in "I have been working since four years" instead of "I have been working for four
years" or "I have been working since four years ago". This usage is more
common among speakers of North Indian languages such as Hindi where the words for both "since" and "for" are the same.
• Use of "Can you drop me?" and "We will drop her first" instead of "Can you drop me off?" and "We will drop her off first"
• Omission of the definite article: e.g. "Let's go to city" instead of "Let's go to the city"
• Use of "told" instead of "said". An example would be "Ravi told he is going home" instead of "Ravi said he is going home" or "Ravi told me he is going home". This feature is more prevalent in South India.
[
edit
] Phonology
Indian accents vary greatly. Some Indians speak English with an accent very close to a Standard British (Received Pronunciation) accent; others lean toward a more 'vernacular', native-tinted, accent for their English speech.
[edit] Vowels
Among the distinctive features of the vowel-sounds employed by some Indian English speakers are:
• Many Indian languages (with the exception of Western Hindi and Punjabi) do not natively possess a separate phoneme /æ/ (as in <trap>). Thus, many speakers do not differentiate between the vowel sounds /ɛ/ (as in "dress") and /æ/ (as in <trap>), except in cases where a minimal pair such as <bed>/<bad> exists in the vocabulary of the speaker. Such a speaker might pronounce "tax" like the first syllable of "Texas".[9] Speakers of Southern languages and Sinhalese, which do differentiate /ɛ/ and /æ/, do not have difficulty making this distinction.
• Chiefly in Punjab and Haryana states, the short [ɛ] becomes lengthened and higher to long [e ], making <pen> sound like <paenn>.ː
• When a long vowel is followed by "r", speakers of Indian English usually use a
monophthong, instead of the diphthong used in almost all other accents. Thus "period" is pronounced [pirɪəd] instead of [pɪəɹɪəd].[9]
• Indian English often uses strong vowels where other accents would have
unstressed syllables or words. Thus "cottage" may be pronounced [kɒtedʒ] rather than [kɒtədʒ]. A word such as "was" in the phrase "I was going" will be
pronounced [ʋɒz] or [ʋas] in Indian English: in most other accents it would receive the unstressed realization [wəz].[9] Another example is that many Indian English speakers often pronounce <the> as /d̪i /ː , irrespective of whether the
definite article comes before a vowel or a consonant, or whether it is stressed or not. In native varieties of English, <the> is pronounced as [ðə] when it is unstressed and lies before a consonant, and as [ði ] when it is before a vowel orː when stressed even before a consonant.
• Continuing the above point, the indefinite article <a> is often pronounced by many Indian English speakers as [e ], irrespective of whether it is stressed orː unstressed. In native varieties of English, <a> is pronounced as [ə] when unstressed and as [eɪ] when stressed.[citation needed]
• The RP vowels /ʌ/, /ə/ and /ɜː/ might be realized as /ə/ in Indian English.[10] Bengalis often pronounce all these vowels as a, including the <r>-colored versions of these vowels. Thus, <firm> may be pronounced the same as [farm].
• General Indian English realizes /eɪ/ (as in <face>) and /oʊ/ (as in <goat>) as long
monophthongs [e ]ː , [o ]ː .[10]
• Many Indian English speakers do not make a clear distinction between /ɒ/ and /ɔː/. (See cot-caught merger.)
• Unlike British, but like General American English, some Indian speakers don't pronounce the rounded /ɒ/ or /ɔː/, and substitute /a/ instead. This makes <not> sound as [nat]. The phoneme /ɔː/, if used, is only semi-rounded at the lips.[citation needed]
• Words such as <class>, <staff> and <last> would be pronounced with a back <a> as in British English but unlike American English, i.e., [klɑːs], [stɑːf] and [lɑːst] rather than American [klæ s], [stæ f] and [læ st].ː ː ː
[edit] Consonants
Among the most distinctive features of consonants in Indian English are:
• Standard Hindi and most other vernaculars (except, at least, Bengali) do not differentiate between /v/ (voiced labiodental fricative) and /w/ (voiced labiovelar approximant). Instead, many Indians use a frictionless labio-dental approximant [ʋ] for words with either sound, possibly in free variation with [v] and/or [w]. So
wet and vet are homophones.[9]
• Because of the previous characteristic many Indians pronounce words such as <flower> as [fla (r)] instead of [flaː ʊə(r)], and <our> as [a (r)] instead of [aː ʊə(r)].
• The voiceless plosives /p/, /t/, /k/ are always unaspirated in Indian English, whereas in RP, General American and most other English accents they are aspirated in word-initial or stressed syllables. Thus "pin" is pronounced [pɪn] in Indian English but [pʰɪn] in most other accents. In native Indian languages (except Tamil), the distinction between aspirated and unaspirated plosives is phonemic, and the English stops are equated with the unaspirated rather than the aspirated phonemes of the local languages.[11] The same is true of the voiceless postalveolar afficate /tʃ/.
• The alveolar stops English /d/, /t/ are often retroflex [ɖ], [ʈ], especially in the South of India.[12] In Indian languages there are two entirely distinct sets of coronal plosives: one dental and the other retroflex. To the Indian ears, the English alveolar plosives sound more retroflex than dental. In the Devanagari script of Hindi, all alveolar plosives of English are transcribed as their retroflex counterparts. One good reason for this is that unlike most other native Indian languages, Hindi does not have true retroflex plosives (Tiwari, [1955] 2001). The so-called retroflexes in Hindi are actually articulated as apical post-alveolar
So a Hindi speaker normally cannot distinguish the difference between their own apical post-alveolar plosives and English's alveolar plosives. However, languages such as Tamil have true retroflex plosives, wherein the articulation is done with the tongue curved upwards and backwards at the roof of the mouth. This also causes (in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh) the /s/ preceding alveolar /t/ to allophonically change to [ ʃ ] (<stop> /stɒp/ → / ʃʈap/). Mostly in south India, some speakers allophonically further change the voiced retroflex plosive to voiced retroflex flap, and the nasal /n/ to a nasalized retroflex flap.
• Many Indians speaking English lack the voiced postalveolar fricative (/ʒ/), the same as their native languages. Typically, /z/ or /dʒ/ is substituted, e.g. treasure /trɛ.zə r/ː ,[12] and in the south Indian variants, with /ʃ/ as in <"sh'"ore>, e.g.
treasure /trɛ.ʃər/.
• All major native languages of India lack the dental fricatives (/θ/ and /ð/; spelled with th). Usually, the aspiratedvoiceless dental plosive [t̪ʰ] is substituted for /θ/ and the unaspirated voiced dental plosive [d̪], or possibly the aspirated version [d̪ʱ]. is substituted for /ð/.[13] For example, "thin" would be realized as [t̪ʰɪn] instead of /θɪn/.
• South Indians tend to curl the tongue (retroflex accentuation) more for /l/ and /n/.
[citation needed]
• Most Indian languages (except Urdu variety) lack the voiced alveolar fricative /z/. While they do have its nearest equivalent: the unvoiced /s/, strangely, it is not used in substitution. Instead, /z/ is substituted with the voiced palatal affricate (or postalveolar) /dʒ/, just as with a Korean accent. This makes words such as <zero> and <rosy> sound as [dʒi ro] and [ro dː ː ʒi:]. This replacement is equally true for Persian and Arabic loanwords into Hindi. The probable reason is the confusion created by the use of the devanagari grapheme < ज > (for /dʒ/) with a dot beneath it to represent the loaned /z/ (as < ज >). This is common among people without formal English education.
• Many Indians with lower exposure to English also may pronounce / f / as
aspirated voiceless bilabial plosive [pʰ]. Again note that in Hindi (devanagari) the loaned / f / from Persian and Arabic is written by putting a dot beneath the
grapheme for native [pʰ] < फ >: < फ >. This substitution is rarer than that for [z], and in fact in many Hindi-speaking areas /f/ is replacing /pʰ/ even in its native words.[citation needed]
• Inability to pronounce certain (especially word-initial) consonant clusters by people of rural backgrounds. This is usually dealt with by epenthesis. e.g., school /is.ku l/ː .
• Sometimes, Indian speakers interchange /s/ and /z/, especially when plurals are being formed. Whereas in international varieties of English, [s] is used for
pluralization of a word ending in a voiceless consonant, [z] for that ending in a voiced consonant or vowel, and [ɨz] for that ending in a sibilant.
• Again, in dialects like Bhojpuri, all instances of /ʃ/ are spoken like [s], a
phenomenon which is also apparent in their English. Exactly the opposite is seen for many Bengalis.[citation needed]
• In case of the postalveolar affricates /tʃ/ /dʒ/, native languages like Hindi have corresponding affricates articulated from the palatal region, rather than
postalveolar, and they have more of a stop component than fricative; this is reflected in their English.
• While retaining /ŋ/ in the final position, Indian speakers usually include the [ɡ] after it. Hence /riŋ.iŋ/ → /riŋ.ɡiŋɡ/ (ringing).[citation needed]
• Syllabic /l/, /m/ and /n/ are usually replaced by the VC clusters [əl], [əm] and [ən] (as in button /buʈ.ʈən/), or if a high vowel precedes, by [il] (as in little /liʈ.ʈil/). Syllable nuclei in words with the spelling er (a schwa in RP and an r-colored schwa in GA) are also replaced VC clusters. e.g., meter, /mi tər/ː → /miːʈər/.[citation needed]
• Indian English uses clear [l] in all instances like Irish English whereas other varieties use clear [l] in syllable-initial positions and dark [l] (velarized-L) in coda and syllabic positions.
[edit] Spelling pronunciation
A number of distinctive features of Indian English are due to "the vagaries of English spelling".[13] Most Indian languages have a very phonetic pronunciation with respect to their script, and unlike English, the spelling of a word is a highly reliable guide to its modern pronunciation.
• In words where the digraph <gh> represents a voiced velar plosive (/ɡ/) in other accents, some Indian English speakers supply a murmured version [ɡʱ], for example <ghost> [ɡʱo st]ː . No other accent of English admits this voiced aspiration.[12]
• Similarly, the digraph <wh> may be aspirated as [ʋʱ] or [wʱ], resulting in realizations such as <which> [ʋʱɪtʃ], found in no other English accent.[14]
• In unstressed syllables, native English varieties will mostly use the schwa while Indian English would use the spelling vowel, making <sanity> sound as [sæ.ni.ti] instead of [sæ.nə.ti].[citation needed] Similarly, <above> and <ago> can be heard as
[e.bʌv] and [e.go] instead of [ə.bʌv] and [ə.go].
• English words ending in grapheme < a > almost always have the < a > being pronounced as schwa /ə/ in native varieties (exceptions include words such as <spa>). But in Indian English, the ending < a > is pronounced as the long open central unrounded vowel /a / (as in <spa>) instead of schwa. So, <India> isː
pronounced as /ɪn.ɖɪ.a / instead of /ː ɪn.dɪ.ə/, and <sofa> as /so .fa / instead ofː ː /soʊ.fə/.[citation needed]
• The word "of" is usually pronounced with a /f/ instead of a /v/ as in most other accents.[13]
• Use of [d] instead of [t] for the "-ed" ending of the past tense after voiceless consonants, for example "developed" may be [dɛʋləpd] instead of RP /dɪvɛləpt/. [12]
• Use of [s] instead of [z] for the "-s" ending of the plural after voiced consonants, for example <dogs> may be [dɒɡs] instead of [dɒɡz].[13]
• Pronunciation of <house> as [hauz] in both the noun and the verb, instead of [haus] as noun and [hauz] as verb.
• The digraph <tz> is pronounced as [tz] or [tdʒ] instead of [ts] (voicing may be assimilated in the stop too), making <Switzerland> sound like [svit.zər.lænd] instead of [swit.səɺ.lənd].[citation needed]
• In RP, /r/ occurs only before a vowel. But many speakers of Indian English use /r/ in almost all positions in words as dictated by the spellings.[13] The allophone used is a mild trill or a tap. Indian speakers do not typically use the retroflex
approximant /ɻ/ for <r>, which is common for American English speakers.[citation needed]
• All consonants are distinctly doubled (lengthened) in General Indian English wherever the spelling suggests so. e.g., <drilling> /dril.liŋɡ/.
• <Here> is pronounced as [heə(r)] (like in <hair> and <hare>) instead of [hɪə(r)].
• English pronunciation of the grapheme < i > varies from [ɪ] to [aɪ] depending upon the dialect or accent. Indian English will invariably use the British dialect for it. Thus, <tensile> would be pronounced as [tɛn.saɪl] like the British, rather than [tɛn.sɪl] like the American; <anti> would be pronounced as [æn.ti] like the British, rather than [æn.taɪ] like American.[citation needed]
• English words borrowed from French are often given a French-influenced pronunciation, but in India, such words are sometimes pronounced according to the rules of English pronunciation. e.g., <bouquet /bu.kɛt/ or /bau kwɛt/ instead of [bu.ke ]ː ;[citation needed] <entrée> as [ɛn.ʈri ] instead of [ː ɑn.t̪re ].ː
[edit] Supra-segmental features
Any of the native varieties of English is a stress-timed language, and word stress is an important feature of Received Pronunciation. Indian native languages are actually
syllable-timed languages, like Latin and French. Indian-English speakers usually speak with a syllabic rhythm.[15] Further, in some Indian languages, stress is associated with a low pitch,[16] whereas in most English dialects, stressed syllables are generally
pronounced with a higher pitch. Thus, when Indian speakers speak, they appear to put the stress accents at the wrong syllables, or accentuate all the syllables of a long English word. The Indian accent is a "sing-song" accent, a feature seen in a few English dialects in Britain, such as Scouse and Welsh English.[17]
[
edit
] See also
• Hinglish
• Indian English literature • Regional accents of English
• Regional differences and dialects in Indian English • Indian numbering system
• Languages with official status in India • Republic of India
• Sri Lankan English
[
edit
] References
1. ^ Census of India's eCensusIndia, Issue 10, 2003, pp 8-10, (Feature: Languages of West Bengal in Census and Surveys, Bilingualism and Trilingualism). 1991 statistic.
2. ^ Wells, p. 624
3. ^ BBC. Also see the OED.
4. ^ dicky, dickey, n., Oxford English Dictionary, 2009, Accessed on July 1, 2009 5. ^ multiply, v., Oxford English Dictionary, 2009, Accessed on July 1, 2009 6. ^ like, a., adv. (conj.), and n.2, Oxford English Dictionary, 2009, Accessed on
July 1, 2009
7. ^ http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=like%20anything Reference.com, Accessed on July 1, 2009
8. ^ 1756 BURKE Subl. & B. IV. iii, "An unnatural tension of the nerves" 9. ^ abcd Wells, p. 627 10. ^ ab Wells, p. 626 11.^ Wells, pp. 627-628 12. ^ abcd Wells, p. 62 13. ^ abcde Wells, p. 629 14.^ Wells, p. 630
15.^ Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (Cambridge University Press, 1995), page 360
16.^ http://www.linguistics.uiuc.edu/sala25/verma.htm "Onset of Rising Pitch in Focused Words in Hindi: an Experimental Study"
17.^ Varshney, R.L., "An Introductory Textbook of Linguistics and Phonetics", 15th Ed. (2005), Student Store, Bareilly.
[
edit
] Bibliography
• Wells, J C (1982). Accents of English 3: Beyond the British Isles. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521285410.
[
edit
] External links
• 'Hover & Hear' pronunciations in a Standard Indian English accent, and compare side by side with other English accents from around the World.
• "Linguistic and Social Characteristics of Indian English" by James Baldridge : A rather thorough analysis of Indian language published by the "Language In India" magazine.
• On the future of Indian English, by Gurcharan Das.
• An exploration into linguistic majority-minority relations in India, by B. Mallikarjun.
• 108 varieties of Indian English, Dharma Kumar, India Seminar, 2001 (Volume 500).
Date:17-09-09 Collected Articles: Soft Skills Training
Have a look at our Business Soft Skills Training page
Soft Skills
People's ability to handle the soft skills side of business - influencing - communication - team management - delegating - appraising - presenting - motivating
is now recognised as key to making businesses more profitable and better places to work. Increasingly, companies aren't just assessing their current staff and future recruits on their business skills.
They are now assessing them on a whole host of soft skill competencies around how well they relate and communicate to others.
We now find it a bit shocking and somewhat disturbing when someone displays the old autocratic style of bullying management tactics (though we know it is still unfortunately far more prevalent than is desirable).
Many companies simply will now no longer put up with it (bravo!). Measuring these soft skills is no easy thing.
But in the most progressive companies, managers are looking for people's ability to communicate clearly and openly, and to listen and respond empathetically.
They also want them to have equally well-honed written skills so that their
correspondence (including emails) doesn't undo all the good work their face-to-face communication creates.
Good soft skills also include the ability of people to balance the commercial needs of their company with the individual needs of their staff.
Being flexible and able to adapt to the changing needs of an organisation also qualify as soft skills, as do being able to collaborate with others and influence situations through lateral and more creative thinking.
The ability to deal with differences, multiculturalism and diversity is needed more than ever.
Very few companies are untouched by the ever-widening influence of other cultures and good soft skills facilitate better communication and people's ability to manage differences effectively.
Everyone already has some form of soft skills (probably a lot more than they realise) They just need to look at areas in their personal life where they get on with others, feel confident in the way they interact, can problem solve, are good at encouraging, can schmooze with the best of them.
All these skills are soft and all of them are transferable to the workplace.
Not only that, the best news of all is that soft skills can be developed and honed on an on-going basis through good training, insightful reading, observation and of course, practise, practise, practise.
Focus On Soft Skills:
A Leadership Wake-up Call
by Carole Nicolaides © 2002
The rules for succeeding in business are changing daily. Yet people are still asking for the magic formula that contributes to a successful organization. Is it talented, knowledgeable people plus innovative products? That's a great start, but something vital is missing from this equation.
More and more corporations around the world recognize that, in order to gain a competitive advantage, they also need to make sure their people know how to handle themselves at work and how to relate with their customers and peers. From showing
empathy and optimism to extreme self-awareness to knowing what's going on around them, these vital competencies are an integral part of a progressive organization. They fall under the umbrella of Emotional Intelligence (EI).
These soft-skills, or emotional intelligence skills, revelations open the door to a lot of discussion. The western civilization and our traditional management theories tend to lead us in the direction of individualistic promotion. They display our strengths rather than the demonstration of our humanness. These ideas have been so tightly woven into our
leadership mentality that they can be challenging to break.
Unfortunately, most graduate schools don't teach you how to cultivate your soft skills. While courses such as Business Writing and Public Speaking are offered, I have never seen a course entitled, "The Effective Art of Listening to Your Customer." We live in a society that measures intelligence through quantifiable metrics. A professor will give you good grades once you know XYZ, but he or she will not increase your grade for being able to deal with a difficult situation, showing compassion, or solving an unexpected problem. Yet most compliments that you or your employees receive deal more with the use of soft skills than with your actual knowledge about a particular situation. Most customers appreciate a "willingness to help" and the fact that "she listened to my complaint." The use of these skills is what elevates your organization above the competition.
You don't compete only with products anymore, rather with how well you use your people. Too often we focus on what employees need to "know" when evaluating and hiring them instead of "who they really are." I will illustrate this with an example. John was promoted to Technical Project Manager at his consulting company. Some people wondered why John had risen to this level of management. His educational level was lower than others in the firm and his degree wasn't in an area that pertained to
consulting. However, one of the strengths that was nowhere on his resume was his ability to be positive in all situations and to naturally motivate people. He was quick to smile and see the positive side of every project. He was generous in praising people and was consistently happy. These were his strengths - his natural attributes. They made up the sum of who John was. These soft skills are just as important as what John knows. The challenge nowadays is to introduce a program that will allow your leaders to learn and capitalize fast on their soft-skills competencies. Soft skills are important and always have been. It seems we have laid them aside and opted to emphasize too much on
expertise and credentials. Let's get back to our values and the basics of good internal and external customer service.
Soft skills are the underlying principles that trademark a company for professionalism and excellent customer service. They provide differentiation between all the cookie-cutter look-alikes and play a vital role in customer loyalty. In today's working environment, where customers and employees are demanding more, instilling the use of soft skills in your team members is something you simply can't survive without.
When it's time to focus on soft-skills training as a tool to improve performance, leadership potential, and bottom line organizational success, consider the following: 1. Start Slowly - Instead of getting a large number of people in a room and preaching to them about their soft skills - move slowly. Introduce the concept with an informative and fun workshop. The program should also be designed to enhance their skills.
2. Involve Your People From the Start - Involve as many employees as you can on the decision to create a program, what to include within the program, and how to maintain the program. People support what they help create. Engage them, give them the
possibility to make changes with your training curriculum, do a pilot program with key people, and use the pilot program as an introduction to the group.
3. Hire Expert Help - Coaches and Organizational Consultants are experts in building rapport and establishing the right culture for these initiatives. With the right culture and the appropriate training, managers can continue the task of training and cultivating good relationships.
4. Recognize Individual Achievement - There is so much talk about teamwork today that we forget to emphasize how important it is to praise individual achievement as well. From time to time praise your stars. Recognizing personal contributions to the team is an excellent morale booster.
5. Discover the Group's Soft-Skill Identity - All people are not the same, so their soft skills and strengths are not the same either. Once you know who you have on your team, leverage their strengths and differences because these are the facts that will help
distinguish you and your organization from the competition. Illustrate how they can leverage each other's strengths inside the team to develop a new group "identity." The essence of your business is your people. Making soft-skills development a priority will bring your team to a new level because it focuses directly on them. By allowing the human aspect of your employees to shine through, you are encouraging them to do what comes naturally to them. Don't overlook these all-important skills when evaluating areas of improvement for your team. Find a way to incorporate soft skills into your leadership development programs and see results immediately.
Communication Skills Training
Tailored and In-House Communication Skills Training
Our Communication Skills Training (Basic and Advanced) can be tailored as an in-house management programme to address specific issues within your company.
Communication Skills Training Objectives
* Raising Awareness
* Understanding Communication Dynamics * Working with Body Language
* Dealing with Assumptions
* Working with Differing Points of View * Understanding Patterns, Habits and Beliefs
* Developing Great Listening and Responding Skills * Developing Individual Strengths and Qualities * Understanding Active vs Passive Choosing * Using Positive Reinforcement
* Conflict Management * Being More In Charge * Gaining Confidence Communication Skills
All Businesses talk about needing better communication skills, but often don't know exactly what that means or they don't know how to go about making it happen. And without doubt, unless you are a company of one, at some point or another, communication will go awry through no one's fault or intention - it's just the way it happens.
You might have pockets of 'them and us': marketing vs finance, IT vs admin, HR vs operations, consultants vs full time staff. You might have cross-functional or virtual teams whose ability to communicate efficiently is vital.
If your business has groups of people who simply have to communicate more effectively then giving them communication training may be just what you need.
Effective Communication takes real skill
Communication skills have to be developed, honed and added to on an on-going basis. They are at the heart of interpersonal skills and the greater your awareness of how it all works, the more effective your communication will be.
Most people in business think they communicate pretty well, and in our experience that's generally true.
However, even the best communicators can have their communication skills undermined when they get wrong-footed, face potential humiliation, feel misunderstood or get really surprised by someone else's behaviour.
That's when it all seems to fall apart and people regress to all kinds of inappropriate and unhelpful behaviour.
We deal with communication skills training by unpicking what happens - if you know how the dynamics work, you can be in charge of them.
Then you can choose from a whole range of tools and techniques that fit your personal style. We're big on personal style because when it comes to communication under pressure you can't be anyone other than yourself.
Therefore, we like to develop the communication skills people already have and the things they already do well, rather than focusing on what's wrong or what needs to be fixed.
Being a good communicator is often about feeling confident in those situations where you don't always feel comfortable, so we make life easier for you by enhancing what's already there. In other words, you don't have to learn a whole bunch of radically new things.
Being an effective communicator means that other people take you seriously, listen to what you have to say and engage in dialogue.
Our work on Communication Skills Training includes influencing, negotiation, making an impact, dealing with conflict and difficult people - really, anything that has to do with people dealing with other people with far more confidence, assurance and authenticity.
Communication Skills Training - Effective Communication
Find the next available Open Communication Skills Course
Good Communication Skills are essential
Being an effective communicator takes real skill. Communication skills have to be developed, honed and added to on an on-going basis. They are the heart of interpersonal skills and the greater your awareness of how it all works, the more effective your
communication will be.
To be effective in business, you have to communicate well. To be a good manager, you have to communicate exceptionally well.
Here we look at basic communication dynamics, learning skills to improve your communication, using effective communication to improve and promote interpersonal relationships, creating an effective communication strategy.
We could write a book about the importance of communication key skills, but for now you can content yourself with some essentials for becoming a more effective
Communication Core Skills - The Essentials
• Communication is Individual • How Communication Happens
• What can get in the way of Effective Communication • Conflict Resolution
• Improving Communication Skills
Communication is Individual We're Not All The Same
When you look at communication, presentation skills are not all there is to it. Far from it. Everyone communicates differently and sees the world differently. The greatest skill you can have in order to instantly and significantly improve you communications skills is to understand the other person's point view and how they see the world. Then you can adjust your own communication to take that into account.
Change Yourself to Change Others
Alongside this has to be the knowledge that the only person you can be sure of changing in any communication is you. Therefore, the most effective way to be in charge of what happens in any communication dynamic is changing what you do. When you can do this you are well on the way to promoting better relationships.
You are the Only One of You
There's never one right way to communicate. Authentic effective communication always happens when we reply on those things we know to be true about or for ourselves. Remember your personal style probably says more for you that all the words you use can.
What's Already Working?
Most people tend to look at what's wrong with themselves and other people rather than focusing on what already works. Remember, something (more than one thing, of course) has to be working well for you to have got this far already!
How Communication Happens
Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication
Interpersonal skills. Everything communicates. Remember! If you aren't clear about what you mean and what your intention is, the other person (or people) could easily (and sometimes deliberately), misinterpret what you mean.
What you do matters as much as what you say. It's now accepted that the words account for only 7-11% of a communication. Your behaviour will 'read' unconsciously to other people and you can certainly be more in charge of the reading matter!
Language is one of the most powerful reflections of how we think and feel about
ourselves and others. You need to be aware of the padding, justifications and excuses you use and whether they are appropriate. You can make a big impact simply by changing some of your language and developing your verbal skills, This way you can significantly improve your communication skills.
Communication Cycle
There is a neat communication cycle we've come across that can help you understand how to make communication work better. It means that you can take responsibility for every stage on the Communication Cycle:
Spoken - Heard - Understood - Agreed To - Acted On - Implemented. Be aware of where you or others tend to fall off the cycle.
What can get in the way of Effective Communication
Here are some Common Barriers to Effective Communication. We all make Too Many Assumptions
Be aware of the assumptions you make, especially making something up and then acting as though what you made up was true. Notice if you alter your behaviour with certain people because of the assumptions you make about them. Also be aware of the assumptions you think other people make about you.
Assumptions aren't necessarily 'bad'. Sometimes it's important to let people keep their assumptions (or some of them at least!) about you.
One effective way to deal with assumptions is to say to the other person, 'I've assumed such and such. 'Is that true?' or 'I'm making an assumption here about... Do you agree?' Good communication in the workplace is often sabotaged by too many unconfirmed assumptions.
Patterns/Reverting to Type
We are pattern-making beings, which is good. However, sometimes we get so used to behaving and responding in certain ways that it's hard to see that there's any other way of doing things. When the pressure is on or we are under stress, even our best intentions may go out the window as we revert to type.
