Mother Tongue Influence, “the disease”

April 19, 2007 at 7:47 pm | In News and Views | 20 Comments

Must have heard of this certain “disease” subtly called MTI, and expandedly known as Mother Tongue Influence.

This is a “disease” most of non-English speakers suffer from (though no one would want to admit it). Having this disease could make you almost an outcast. Society finds it really difficult to keep such “diseased” people among their circle. Though it’s not actually communicable or an epidemic, it’s dreaded like any other disease.

Who all suffer from this “disease”? Most of us actually…

So, what is this “disease”? It’s a speech-related problem which would make us incomprehensible to a lot of people or in more complicated words, MTI is the influence of your mother tongue on your accent, basically while speaking English.

Do only south Indians show the symptoms? Not only south Indians, all non-native speakers of English do (that would make all Indians vulnerable).

If a south Indian and a north Indian suffer from this and are talking about making things ’simple’, you might hear it as either “simbl” or “simpal”. Or you could hear “konstrukson” (construction), “bhaat” (what), “aadio” (audio), brekphast (breakfast). These are the few symptoms of this “disease”. So, beware of “the disease”.

But jokes apart. Does it really make any difference? We speak English and as far as people can understand I don’t think any kind of influence should actually bother anyone. English is a universal language and is all accepting. The English we speak can be termed Indian English and is completely acceptable, then why do we make such a hue and cry and mockery out of it?

21 Ways to Maintain A Healthy Level of Insanity

April 18, 2007 at 2:06 pm | In random thoughts... | Leave a Comment

I found something for people like me. And it’s definitely not original but please don’t sue me for copyrights (because I have no clue who’s written this). 

21 Ways To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity:

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With  Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars .See If They Slow Down. 

2. Page Yourself Over the Intercom .Don’t Disguise Your Voice.

 3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries With That.

 4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label it “In”.

 5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks . Once Everyone Has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

 6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write ” For Smuggling Diamonds”.

 7. Finish All Your sentences with “In Accordance With The Prophecy”.

 8. Don’t Use Any Punctuation.

 9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk. 

10. Order a Diet Water Whenever You Go Out to Eat, with a Serious Face. 

11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is “To Go”.

12. Sing Along At The Opera.

13. Go To A Poetry Recital. And Ask Why The Poems Don’t Rhyme?

14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area and Play tropical Sounds All Day.

15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can’t Attend Their Party Because You’re Not In The Mood.

16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.

17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream “I Won! I Won!”

18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling ”Run For Your Lives! They’re Loose!”

19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, “Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.”
20. Go to the fitting rooms with a packet of condoms and say you would like to fit it.

 21. And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity …..
Share This Post With Someone To Make Them Smile. 

Its Called … therapy.

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