Indian English, Part 3

This is the last lesson in this series and finishes my tribute to India. While I was traveling in India, I often had to go through metal detectors and then get a quick non-invasive pat down.

At the Taj Mahal, security was a bit tighter and they go through everything you're carrying(no food, toys?, etc.). When I was going through it I had my copy of the Lonely Planet book Indian English in my pocket and the security guard asked me to take it out. When he saw the book he just laughed and said Ok. hahaha

Today, I am going to talk about some common misunderstandings between speakers of standard English and Indian English.

latrines

In Indian English it means toilets, it probably came from British soldiers since the only time I've ever heard this word was in a military context, like: "You guys go dig the latrines!".

Where are the latrines?

curd

This means yoghurt in standard English.

bearer

This means waiter, it comes from the verb to bear which means to carry. It isn't used so often in standard English anymore. From the U.S. Constitutions 2nd Amendment:
The right to bear arms.

Where's the bearer?

Ground Floor

Just like in most of Europe the first floor(North America) is G and then the 2nd floor is 1F. It's kind of confusing to me... ^_-

nose cut

This doesn't mean that you cut your nose. It actually means humiliation, in Japanese 凌虐 (りょうぎゃく) .

I was totally nose cut.

Meaning "I was totally humiliated".

tight

In Indian English it means broke or すっからかん.

I'm tight.

Meaning "I'm broke".

Ok that's all for this series, I'll try and post a new lesson this weekend.

Phil