Applied Languages

Beggars in India are preparing for next year’s Commonwealth Games – by learning new languages. While the city authorities are busy preparing for the Games, thousands of homeless in the Indian capital New Delhi are hoping for better business from foreign tourists if they learn their native tongue.

And although English is spoken in the majority of Commonwealth countries, New Delhi’s brainy beggars are teaching themselves other languages such as French and Spanish. Savitri, a street performer said: “There will be thousands of foreign tourists when the games are going on. That is why some beggar families are teaching young child beggars to beg in foreign languages.”

Savitri’s family of 25 people, including 15 children, belong to a tribe from the eastern state of Chhattisgarh. Together they perform acrobatics and tight-rope tricks to earn money on New Delhi’s streets. Her daughter Kusum, 10, is also an acrobat. “We say: ’Please sir. Give me 10 rupees. Anything…’,” she said.

Vijay Babli, who claimed to be the leader of more than 1,200 families inhabiting a place called Lal Quarter in the city, said “classes” preparing young children to target the tourists expected during the Games have already begun. Many child beggars who have never been to school can now speak English, French and Spanish due to the classes they hold, Mr Babli told the Indian paper the New Indian Express.

Raju Sansi, who claims to be a “tutor” at the night school in Lal Quarter, said: “Students are taught how to say phrases like ’I am an orphan’, ’I have not eaten for days’, ’I am ill and have no money for medicine, please help me in the name of God’.” One of them, at the Jantar Mantar astronomical observatory in New Delhi, said the trend to ask foreign tourists for money in their own language added a “personal touch” to begging.

From a few thousand in the capital during the early 1990s, Delhi University’s School of Social Studies estimates the beggar population will touch 100,000 next year.

Read more: The Sun

Oliver Radtke says he first discovered the odd and wonderful world of Chinglish in 2000 in a Shanghai cab, where he saw a curious sign reading: “Don’t forget to carry your thing.”

Nine years later, the German multimedia producer has written two popular books on the subject, and is working hard to preserve China’s special brand of English for generations to come. “There is a lot in Chinglish that is so much more than just incompetent English or incorrect English,” said the 32-year-old Radtke, who focuses on written examples of the lingo on signboards, menu cards and shop fronts. “A lot of the Chinglish signs carry a certain Chinese notion in them which enriches the English language and makes English more Chinese in the sense that there is a certain Chinese flavour, a certain Chinese way of thinking.”

The view held by many – not least by the Chinese authorities – is that Chinglish is an embarrassment that must be wiped out at all costs, but Radtke disagrees, saying the ‘language’ should be preserved.

Some signs highlighted in Radtke’s two books are decidedly politically incorrect – “Cripple’s lane” rather than “Wheelchair path,” or “Deformed man toilet” instead of “Handicapped restroom.”

Others seem almost poetic, attaching emotions to inanimate objects such as grass or fire. “Our life will be ceased if you step hard,” a sign at a lawn in the southwest city of Kunming says, while visitors to one section of the Great Wall are reminded to be careful: “Do not forget the fire is heartless.”

Radtke’s fascination first led him to launch a blog in 2005, followed two years later by a book, “Chinglish: Found in Translation,” which has now sold 50,000 copies. A follow-up title has just been published.

“The initial reaction of many Chinese users was very much against the project. They thought I was making fun of them,” he said. But Radtke says the Chinese are increasingly supportive of his efforts, as they have come to understand that he believes Chinglish is in fact enriching the English language.

The entire notion of one single, standard version of English is outdated, he says, because it now has far more than one billion regular users worldwide, and a rapidly growing number speak it as their second language. “From their usage the language will be influenced one way or the other, whether native speakers like it or not,” he said.

Read more: AsiaOne

Shakespeare had fewer than 100,000 English words to choose from when writing his plays – but now the language is fast approaching 1million.
The landmark figure will be reached on June 10 at 10.22am, with the millionth word more likely to come from India or China than the Bard’s native country, according to the Texas-based Global Language Monitor.

There were just 2million English speakers when Shakespeare wrote Hamlet but now 1.53billion people use the language worldwide. Global Language Monitor has been tracking new English words since 2003.

Once the group identifies one, its depth of usage and its impact on culture is measured. George W Bush even created a handful, the most prominent of which is ‘misunderestimate’.

Words that could be approved as the millionth include ‘greenwashing’ – used by environmentalists to describe groups which mislead the public – and ‘noob’, which means a new computer game player.

‘English is different in that it absorbs words like no other language,’ said GLM’s chief word analyst Paul Payack. ‘But despite having a million words at our disposal it is unlikely we will use more than just a fraction of them.’

Read More: Metro

Language skills are a requirement in 26.64% of skilled employment vacancies, with English being the most demanded language by companies in the UK. English is required in 75% of job vacancies that require languages, followed by French, with 6.84%, and German, with 6.55%, according to Infoempleo.

Increased worker mobility, globalization of companies and high migration are the factors that have contributed to the gradual increase in demand for language in job vacancies, according to the Infoempleo report. In relation to this trend, the president of Infoempleo.com, María Benjumea, appreciates that language skill is “an essential part of any professional profile, it is a key differentiator, adds value to the worker and can be key when a company decides to choose between one candidate or another.”

Italian and Portuguese continue being less valued than Enmglish, French and German. They show a decline that leaves them each with a stronghold of less than 0.5% in job vacancies that require languages.

In relation to the requirement for regional languages in job vacancies, the Infoempleo report points out the Basque Country and Catalonia in Spain as the regions that value local languages skills the most, with 28.8% and 13.2% respectively.

Read More: Finanzas, Infoempleo