India Talk
I was on a call this morning with our offshore partners in India discussing some stuff related to work. Two words came out frequently from pretty much everyone dialing in on the call from India ( There must have been at least 8 individuals from Bangalore and Mumbai ).
1. Doubt. ‘Bob, I have a doubt on this?’, ‘My next doubt is…’. This was one of the first things I learnt when I started working in US. Thankfully, it was only my second or third day, and I was talking to a senior HR lady(from India), to whom, I had asked something like ‘ I have some doubts?’. Perhaps, she had her own revelation in her past, She instantly explained to me the difference in asking the same question as ‘I have some questions?’. I guess it is a cultural thing, in which to Americans, ‘doubt’ implicitly means a negative connotation. Usually in America, you doubt someone’s ability or character or you doubt if something is worth its price or status. For eg ‘I doubt if she can complete it’, ‘I doubt if this food is healthy’ etc. Though I understand how common the usage of the doubt in Indian classroom, and now in workplace is, there are subtle, but important, differences in the meaning of words in various parts of the world that we should attempt to adapt it accordingly once we learn about it.
2. Actually. ‘Actually, we….’, ‘Actually, there…’, Actually, can you…’. A lot of guys on the call started their sentences with ‘Actually’. I think this is simply an acquired habit more than anything else. I still remember how Azharuddin used the word ‘like…like….like’ about 20 times before he completes two or three sentences. This is not a bad thing though; but too much of a one word’s usage within a short speech will drag the unnecessary attention. The one thing I can suggest here is to consciously introspect what and how we speak and correct it.