Indians, fix your English please

There's nothing racist about the post title. Native Americans, you guys can chill. It was the fault of a Spaniard from the sixteenth century who did not know what he was doing who thought you guys were Indians. History's biggest misnomer, I think.

This post is directed to my countrymen: the real Indians! Guys this is going to be rough but my intentions are not bad.

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A strong opinion and a suggestion

I am a fucking nobody here on Steemit, but that doesn't stop me from having an opinion, does it?

So this is my opinion and my suggestion to my fellow countrymen Steemians: Do a better job of writing in English while you are at it.

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_{Image Credit: @indiaunited}

Curation Conundrum that prompted me to write this post

Guys, we have this great group called @indiaunited and a curation process but it's so difficult to find good posts well-written in proper English to recommend.

I had a discussion with @bala41288 and I told him that I was thinking about a no holds barred post on what we Indians are posting on Steemit. He suggested me to write a mellow post and guide people how to write better.

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Why do I care?

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I can perhaps do that but I can't teach people how to write good English. I am not an English teacher, you see. Besides, that will not drive home the point and people will say things like good post, nice job bro and move on.

That's not my intent. I want the world to read good English writing coming from the Indian community. The bitter pill is, I think, the best way to drive home my point. This way at least a few will take notice, or so I hope.

I will not even speak about the shit posts with no content whatsoever, my current tirade is only about the basic grammar that makes English, English.

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_{Image Credit: @svkrulze. Created using Canva}

The problem and why it needs to be addressed

Yes, we are not native speakers of English but that can't be an excuse for the kind of English I see on most posts by Indians.

Are you not here to write for an English speaking audience? If you are writing in English, it's obvious that you are not targeting people from your locality. If it's not for the international community, then why write in English and expect the whole of Steemit to come and vote for you?

Our jugaadu mentality is what makes us mediocre, always the third world. Sab kuchh chalta hai doesn't work everywhere.

We can't always say "We are like that only". The world doesn't care. If we want an international English speaking audience to read whatever shit we are posting, we need to write it in proper English. That's the least we need to do.

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Face it, don't run away from it by getting pissed off

I know I am pissing off people who must be thinking who the hell is this guy with his holier than thou superiority complex. Perhaps a Shashi Tharoor is reading this now and making fun of what a big idiot I am giving lectures on good English when my English is itself pathetic.

I know that my English is not of the best quality. It's not even free of mistakes. It can't be. All Indian writers can't be a Naipaul or a Rushdie. The least I can do is write in the correct grammar, at least try to be as correct as possible. That's the bare minimum I can do, we all can do.

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_{Image Credit: @svkrulze. Created using Canva}

The disease is easy to diagnose

One can improve his writing style over time, but there is no excuse for bad grammar. That turns off even a second language English reader like me. A mistake or two is okay, everyone does that but a post can't be full of mistakes. Mistakes and idiosyncrasies of how you use language can be cleverly used to stylize your writing or characters.

But spelling mistakes? No clue of what tense to use? The most common thing I see is of people having no idea of how to associate person and number while forming sentences. Guys do a search on first, second, third person and singular and plural number, please.

You may have been screwed by a bad English teacher or perhaps you yourself did not pay attention during the grammar classes in school. Perhaps you did not even have English classes at all. I know how it is here. But what's stopping anyone from learning now? It's pretty easy to learn English if you use the internet properly.

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_{Image Credit: Grammarly}

Great tool to help you out: Grammarly

Just do yourself this favor: use the Grammarly app for everything you write. The free features of the app do a great job of correcting spelling and grammar mistakes. It’s the least you can do. Trust me, you will find many mistakes as soon as you start to use Grammarly to fix your articles.

I do that with almost all my posts. Start using it, you will see the difference. Trust me.

Even if one of you start using the app, I will think I have contributed to someone's life and to Steemit in a positive way.