Jun 16, 2008

Have you been in one of those situations when you want to scream out and tell the other person about their not-so-excusable literary ineptness??
Today happened to be one of those days for me. I got this job opening mail ( and some 356th one of the type!) from this “TOP MNC” and instead of my resume I replied with some serious pent-up animosity , asking the HR person to first take the pains of proof-reading the mail which was ironically for an INTERNATIONAL career opportunity ……and the mail went such

“ ours is one of the best companY …( ooh tough competition)
“ You’re the best candidate for A ERP career! ( and I feel like throwing A egg ,on u , now !)
And this one’s a classic “ for more details Reply BACK “ ( dude I thought when I reply , I was doing some sort of “backing” here….

And you thought Orkut and other social networking sites were the only places which were a breeeding ground for atrocious pieces like the now-legendary friendship making requests !! I wish I wasn't so observant and consequently grammer-finicky either 'cause it's meant turning down a lot of otherwise " desirable" places to work at because they asked me " where you're put up " ( will people stop using "put up" instead of "stay" just to show off their vocab? don't quote me, but put up is not a phrasal alternative for 'stay' . It just means a temporary accommodation! Like " Hey so which hotel are you put up at ?" " Where did you put up alst night after the long party huh"

I'm sure YOU come across such gaffes everyday yourself, and not just by the people who’re obviously not the past masters at the language but college toppers , IIM and other 'top-institute' graduates ( and whatever happened to CAT? ) and even “Journalists”…
Pick up a Midday or some local paper , and if I could claim 1 rupee for every mistake they made , I could buy an iphone by now…

and don't even go into the everyday conversations! coz I think " so " that is not very nice… “ Everyone ARE here…( and what about the others??)
She doesn’t knowS that….( oh and do they KNOWS??)are you going for that party?( dunno about you but im definitely not going to any party!), all my stuffs is there !!( n You stuff it now!!)
and guess what "reward" you get for correcting people and saving them from repeating these disasters again in life " ? A parroted and senseless reply like " you got the point , how does it matter how was it put!" " don't be so particular" ! So why is that you comb your hair to the last strand perfection? Isn't it enough that you're not bald?

Not to sound like a person who looks down on people with faulty English nor do I claim to be an expert at the language myself , but such careless mistakes in ANY language are not unacceptable and make a poor impression..it’s just different that it’s considered cool to make mistakes in say Hindi,,,( oh my Hindi is soooooooooo badd! Yeah and you were born reading Shakespeare Mr North Indian)...It's just that such little and careless but rather annoying mistakes in language can reflect your ability and background in a snap.I mean I for sure won't sign up in a communication institute where the teacher asks me " so You ARE been a topper " ?

I guess I shall be "pushing off now" coz i think SO I'm hungry , reply BACK if you're HAVING any comments or you have MORE (or) better thoughts on the same.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

You ain't see nothin yet baby!Wait till ya have ur ENGLISH teacher walk up to you n say "See ma,I doesn't like Simply dictating notes and u mug upping them and coming...understanding?"....Point taken ma'am,especially considering the fact that poor souls like me don't have the required intellectual prowess for 'mug-upping' Your notes anyhoo.....That'll take some time....But Im getting dere no doubt!
Ever noticed how you automatically tend to come down to another person's level and avoid throwing words at them dat u know dey won't understand?....Well dat seems to be happening to me far more often than desired....N i fear at the end of it,Il have forgotten whatever little even I know....so dontcha laugh at me tmrw if you find me coming to you and quoting one of those verbal atrocities that seem to be so popular here.....best one is dis one I heard just recently...."What da,Shy is coming for you haan???"...{meaning r u feeling embarrased??!}.......Jeez,I rest my case!

Sheks said...

LOL :-) Sample this:Ek gaon mein ek kisan raghu thatha..modified version of rahta tha..a common mistake made my Tamil people who are beginning to learn hindi.

Anonymous said...

hey.. chanced upon your blog from the TOI's listing. Nice read. I blog at www.swattalk.wordpress.com

Cheers

Amin Aijaz Bintory said...

hi monica.. enjoyed throughly goin thru ur blog. its simple but stings! amin

Unknown said...

Well you're taking on the big bad world now Monica! Couldn't stop laughing when you mentioned the born reading shakespeare North Indian..Tell you what I pride myself on the fact that I can speak Hindi much better and clearer than any of my friends! There's something called "diction" that many lack, especially when speaking some of the Urdu words that are now part of the Hindi vocab.

Now coming to angrezi, I've seen such a hell lot of nincompoofs that I've lost count. The worst criminals in this regard are BPO workers...I went for an interview some years back to get a summer job in one such BPO..where many people were introducing themselves with the line "Good morning sir. Myself Shailender Kumar...." (myself???)

OK, I won't consider myself holier than thou coz I actually have used the line "where do you put up" loads of times without knowing it meant temporary accommodation! So enlightening stuff for me here.

Hey, get my blog listed on TOI too :p

tropical seagull said...

that is SO true. and i simply cant comprehend how english classes haven't influenced these people to write well in the first place!
what with us retaining the 'british' style of the language too!

Anonymous said...

Hey, by the way it is "Grammar" :-)

Somebody's me said...

Hi sweetheart, you are a frd in a frd's list on facebook and this one time I stumbled upon your blog and hooked to it now. Let me tell you you got some narrative genius! I hope you dont mind me virtual stalk your blog. :D
Here in this post, couldnt help but bring to your notice that the word unacceptable should really be acceptable.

Somebody's me said...
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