On 2/17/07, Thomas Hruska <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Milan Babuskov wrote:
> --- Thomas Hruska wrote:
>> Just checked the moderation queue and here's a bit of spam that
>> someone wanted to get through to the group:
>>
>>> I AM NOT A HEADHUNTER, JUST TRYING TO HELP THE PROJECT
>>> MANAGER OF A PROJECT!!! SWEAR!!!
>>>
>>> There is an urgent requirement for C++ (3-5 years
>>> experience) in a CMM Level 5 company in Hyderabad
>
> Yes, those "urgent requirements" are always funny...
So are the "i am having a doubt" messages. Sounds like the species name
is "Doubt" but how males (mostly) giving birth to extraterrestrial
children relates to C/C++ is just confusing. And weird/bizarre.
Whoever is teaching English to Indians is somehow missing some of the
more important subtleties of the language. After encountering the first
half-dozen messages of "i am having a doubt" here on c-prog, I
eventually determined it means the rough equivalent of "I have a
question" but with some attempt to "save face" mixed in. In other
words, a lot is lost in the translation. Still, it sounds odd even
today when I know what the person means. (I'm making a lot of
assumptions based on observations, but the Indian culture has a lot of
"saving face" aspects built into it. To ask someone directly "I have a
question" would be inappropriate in that culture because it causes the
person asking the question to lose face. But you don't want to say
something that causes either person to lose face so they settle for "I
am having a doubt". Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)
Lets not generalise things based on what a small time recruiter has written
in the automated mails that he has tried to spam thousands of users with. I
assure you that is not what the common Indian does.
I belong to Indian culture based on the belief that I have spent almost all
of my 27 years in India with a few months in between in the US and Japan. I
could always say that in the US, the kid may be son of a Smith in the
morning but by the evening he might have had 3 different fathers. But that
would be absolutely rude and foolish to say.
Also, "asking a question" in the Indian culture does not mean you are being
in-appropriate. Alas most of the people who spam these mailing lists sound
so foolish that most of the people outside India start having this feeling
that this is what majority of the Indians do. BUT thats not true. [using
same phrase ("most of the people") again is bad English]
I think the "urgent requirements" is something along the same lines.
The author doesn't fully comprehend that it sounds odd to us because we
don't say "urgent requirements" in association with a job offer...all
the employers I've ever met only open positions that need filling
because there is a need for the position within the organization. The
relationship of the need being filled and its importance is expected on
both ends (here in the U.S.) to be _implicit_. To say the position is
an "urgent requirement" is redundant, explicit, and unnecessary. Thus
saying it leads to an awkward situation. Again, the Indian culture
plays a role here - from what I understand, it is somewhat "laid back"
except in the business sector. Without saying "urgent requirement", an
Indian would take it to mean that the position isn't available right
away or there is no rush to fill it (i.e. take your time).
Again wrong. There is no relation between "urgent requirement" and "position
availability" [atleast in the Indian culture or whatever little I know about
my culture]. Again the recruiters who lack English grammatical skills are
the ones who spam the most giving a mis-conception.
Still, both aspects are somewhat humorous from our perspective just
because they sound a tad "off" and our minds start wandering trying to
piece together a reasonable sentence that makes more sense to us. When
we can't figure it out, we write it off as one of "those funny things
Indians do".
Actually there are lots of funny things we Indians do either out of lack of
knowledge and / or intentionally. That I must admit is one of the good[or
bad] things about the Indian culture.
Just a couple thoughts. And I could be wrong, but that's MY brain
trying to make sense of things people say.
Please excuse my English skills because I only started learning the English
language once I reached the 5th grade. Again, I must point out in todays
generation, most Indians start learning English even before their mother
tongue in the schools. Alas, I cannot say about their English grammar skills
though.
--
Thomas Hruska
CubicleSoft President
Ph: 517-803-4197
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