[OT] Indian C programmers and "u"

J

Joona I Palaste

I've been wondering about this for too long. Why is it that *every
single* Indian C programmer I have seen on this newsgroup writes "u"
for "you"? Many manage otherwise perfectly grammatical English but
that one mistake sticks out. Do they have a law in India forcing
schools to teach mangled English or something?
 
N

Nils Petter Vaskinn

Why is it that *every
single* Indian C programmer I have seen on this newsgroup writes "u" for
"you"?

Because when they don't you don't notice that they are from india.
Many manage otherwise perfectly grammatical English but that one mistake
sticks out.

Perhaps it's a miguided attempt at beeing 1337 ?

Or perhaps that they're better at spoken english more than english (a
significant amount of people learn most of their english from TV) and the
fact that "u" and "you" sound the same leads to the mistake.
 
N

Naren

Hello,
Not at all ,I would say that this slang we have learnt from westerners
while we communicate with them.They most of the times use "u" for
"you","coz" for "because",and many more.

I think this makes communication rather informal and it also is stylish..:)

Of course nowadays it has become a trend to use these slangs.

Do you agree with it?

Best Regards,
Naren.
 
N

Nils Petter Vaskinn

They most of the times use "u" for
"you","coz" for "because",and many more.

I think this makes communication rather informal

But in a newsgroup discussing C beeing as formal and accurate as possible
is desirable.
and it also is stylish..:)

I disagree.
Of course nowadays it has become a trend to use these slangs.

Do you agree with it?

That it has become a trend: yes. That it is stylish and a good idea: no.

There are people reading the group that are not too good at english, slang
makes things harder for them so it should be avoided.

Mistakes are ok, writing less readable to be cool (or because typing
because is too much work compared to coz) is not.


Everything here is ofcourse my opinion, other readers of clc may disagree
with me.
 
R

Richard Bos

[ Please do not top-post. And please do learn to snip. ]
Not at all ,I would say that this slang we have learnt from westerners
while we communicate with them.They most of the times use "u" for
"you","coz" for "because",and many more.

You must only have communicated with school children and script kiddies
(frequently the same thing), because they are the only people I can
think of who regularly use d00dsp33k. The rest of us know that it makes
us look illiterate.
I think this makes communication rather informal

Informal, and awkward.
and it also is stylish..:)

For values of "stylish" that also include the day-glo tracksuit, the
purple PVC couch, and driving circles around the block on your scooter,
perhaps.
Of course nowadays it has become a trend to use these slangs.

In some circles, yes, but not in any circles with which a serious
programmer wishes to be associated, frankly.

Richard
 
A

Anupam

Joona I Palaste said:
I've been wondering about this for too long. Why is it that *every
single* Indian C programmer I have seen on this newsgroup writes "u"
for "you"? Many manage otherwise perfectly grammatical English but
that one mistake sticks out. Do they have a law in India forcing
schools to teach mangled English or something?
<OT>
Not *every single* Indian C [or see] programmer. [Yo]u will find
a very small percentage of my posts containing the SMS lingo. At the
roots of this is a socio-developmental cause. That would be quite OT I
should think. The fact that it is a third world country may have
something to do with it. It is easy to be judgemental sitting in the
comforts of an AC cabin in places where people are paid good cash and
given free cars as social benefit for doing absolutely nothing. Here
education is a luxury, not a sure fire access scheme. People go to
great lengths to achieve it. Some of the people who do the posting may
have learnt from local language schools.. maybe that would be a valid
cause ... A good percentage of us learn it purely from the foreign
media. In fact it is a tribute to the tenacity of our people that BPO
is coming to us in a major way.
When choosing between grammer and food the choice may not be too
difficult. Regardless, there is an increasing percentage of people
specially in the cities who are Anglicised in the real sense of the
term. In concluding, I would just have to say that judge
Indians/Mexicans/Martians...and any other creature not on the basis of
the outward characteristics, but on the inner correctness as a whole.
And don't go at nations/communities ... with the advent of the
Internet and globalisation we should be moving out of that phase at
least now. For too long we have been involved in uncivilised groupings
which served our purposes in the long dead past. Now look at the
future and a removal of barriers and not vice versa.
<\OT>
 
C

Christopher Benson-Manica

Naren said:
Of course nowadays it has become a trend to use these slangs.
Do you agree with it?

No. In an intellectual environment (such as comp.lang.c), there's no
place for slangy shorthand, at least not if you want to sound
intelligent and be taken seriously (IMHO).
 
C

CBFalconer

*** rude top-posting corrected ***
Not at all ,I would say that this slang we have learnt from
westerners while we communicate with them.They most of the
times use "u" for "you","coz" for "because",and many more.

Then you have been hanging out with an extremely low class and
ignorant group of westerners. They seem to also have taught you
to top-post and to omit blanks following periods and commas.
I think this makes communication rather informal and it also
is stylish..:)

Of course nowadays it has become a trend to use these slangs.

Do you agree with it?

No. It makes communication awkward, hard, and often erroneous.
 
C

Chris Dollin

Naren said:
Hello,
Not at all ,I would say that this slang we have learnt from westerners
while we communicate with them.They most of the times use "u" for
"you","coz" for "because",and many more.

Many westerners do not abbreviate like that. This one, for example.
I think this makes communication rather informal and it also is
stylish..:)

Stylish, like yoghurt in the engine oil, doesn't have to mean "good".
Of course nowadays it has become a trend to use these slangs.

Not *here* it hasn't. No more so than thenadays.
Do you agree with it?

Probably not.
 
A

Alan Balmer

When choosing between grammer and food the choice may not be too
difficult.

I find it difficult to believe that anyone posting here must make that
choice.
 
D

Dan Pop

In said:
I've been wondering about this for too long. Why is it that *every
single* Indian C programmer I have seen on this newsgroup writes "u"
for "you"?

You must have a very selective vision. There are plenty of
counterexamples, posted during the last 24 hours.
Many manage otherwise perfectly grammatical English but
that one mistake sticks out. Do they have a law in India forcing
schools to teach mangled English or something?

The abbreviation is particularly common among Americans, especially not
the very educated ones. Non-native English speakers see it on the
Internet and, not knowing any better, think that it's a cute/clever
idea.

Dan
 
M

Martin Ambuhl

Naren said:
Hello,
Not at all ,I would say that this slang we have learnt from westerners
while we communicate with them.They most of the times use "u" for
"you","coz" for "because",and many more.

You need to serious rethink which "westerners" you choose to copy.
Illiterates and warez-kinder are not a reasonable choice.
I think this makes communication rather informal and it also is stylish..:)

No, it is not informal or stylish. It marks the user as an idiot. There
is nothing stylish about being a fool.
Of course nowadays it has become a trend to use these slangs.

That something might be trendy does not make it right, stylish, informal,
cool, or intelligent. It does not show independence of thought or
rebellion at convention, but rather complete subservience to the stupidity
of the day. It does mark the user with a "group identity," namely as being
one of the brainless children.
 
T

Thomas Matthews

People go to
great lengths to achieve it. Some of the people who do the posting may
have learnt from local language schools.. maybe that would be a valid
cause ... A good percentage of us learn it purely from the foreign
media.

I was taught that the past tense of "learn" is "learned" not "learnt".
Is "learnt" from the Queen's / King's english or from the lazy tongues
of some American suburbs?


--
Thomas Matthews

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http://www.slack.net/~shiva/welcome.txt
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http://www.raos.demon.uk/acllc-c++/faq.html
Other sites:
http://www.josuttis.com -- C++ STL Library book
 
D

Default User

Joona said:
I've been wondering about this for too long. Why is it that *every
single* Indian C programmer I have seen on this newsgroup writes "u"
for "you"? Many manage otherwise perfectly grammatical English but
that one mistake sticks out. Do they have a law in India forcing
schools to teach mangled English or something?


While annoying, I see plenty of good old 'Mericans doing the same thing.
The one I wonder about is the frequent use of the word "doubt" to mean
"question". Is this something being taught in English classes in India?
It happens so frequently that I wonder.



[crossed to AFT-S for newsfeed reasons]


Brian Rodenborn
 
A

Alan Balmer

I was taught that the past tense of "learn" is "learned" not "learnt".
Is "learnt" from the Queen's / King's english or from the lazy tongues
of some American suburbs?

"Learnt" is an acceptable past tense and past participle of "learn",
as is "learned." The latter is much more common.

When I grew up in the Pennsylvania countryside, "learn" as a synonym
for "teach" was still in common use by folks of my grandfather's
generation.
 
A

Anupam

<snipped most of previous post>
<OT>
Also please have the decency to mention off-topic when it is so. And
what you people are writing is potential high flame material. Dont
think that your C knowledge gives you the right to make judgemental
decisions about races and peoples as a whole. Rascism might be hip
where you belong. But as flag bearers of the intellectual elite dont
behave like a bunch of illiterates. I would have a lot to say about
the hypocrisy of the so called developed (*financially*) nations as a
whole if I wanted to do so but this is definitely not the right
platform to do so. Remember the loads of times you have flamed people
for being off topic and dont be cowards without the heart and the
knowledge to say sorry when you know you are wrong.
PS. At least the OP mentioned OT in his header(headers are not
visible in all mail clients ,still...). Others seem to have lost all
track of their self-made conventions.
<\OT>
 
A

Anuj Heer

i do agree with anupam. but he seems to have a very poor image of his
country as a third world country. come on man be proud to be an
indian. we do what we do because we are the best and programming is
one feild where we are the trend setters. so who cannot bear with us
and our whims can go to hell. i am sorry if it sounds a bit harsh but
that's the way it is. we don't need extensive support structure to
make us the best programmers in the world. we do it on our own without
any outside help and mostly with outdated computers. but let me tell
you my most out dated computer will outrun your fastest computer
anyday. so just learn to live with it.
anuj
(e-mail address removed)
 
C

Christopher Benson-Manica

Thomas Matthews said:
I was taught that the past tense of "learn" is "learned" not "learnt".
Is "learnt" from the Queen's / King's english or from the lazy tongues
of some American suburbs?

"Learnt" is perfectly acceptable, although its use is diminishing. It
was good enough for E.M. Forster in his 1908 novella "The Machine
Stops," in any case. I personally think it sounds more interesting
and poetic, FWTW.
 
D

Dan Pop

In said:
The one I wonder about is the frequent use of the word "doubt" to mean
"question". Is this something being taught in English classes in India?
It happens so frequently that I wonder.

My theory is that this is a mistake induced by the native language of
the poster, where the same word could be used for both.

A typical, but non-obvious example is "eventually". When used by a
non-native English speaker, it is very likely that it was not supposed
to actually mean "eventually", but "probably" (as in most other European
languages).

Dan
 
D

Dan Pop

In said:
I was taught that the past tense of "learn" is "learned" not "learnt".
Is "learnt" from the Queen's / King's english or from the lazy tongues
of some American suburbs?

According to one of the most popular Web dictionaries, the former:

Main Entry: learnt
Pronunciation: 'l&rnt
chiefly British past and past participle of LEARN

Dan
 

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