this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2025
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It is actually nice when the person has better language proficiency in English. What people often make fun of on the Internet are many who either don't know how to speak English or don't know it well, and that's pretty common and normal for that country of 1.5 billion. If you listen to any seasoned Indian journalist (especially a bit older), you'd hear that faint old English lilt (from the middle of the start of the last century). You will also find that in the way Pakistanis speak English. It's very similar.
Colonisation has somewhat preserved elements aspects of English in our vocabulary in South Asia.
For example I almost never hear anyone on the anglosphere say "ta ta" but in Bangladesh it is a semi-regular part of our "goodbye speech"
Another such phrase is "Oil your own machine", I never hear it in the anglosphere.
Interesting. Got any names I can search for to listen to this? Links to sound clips?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7CW7S0zxv4 this is just an example as he is kinda famous. But you can find more. Here's two seasoned journos talking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4682YUnN_yQ and this https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TXokRjBVSaA (I don't like this journo to be honest but it's another example of very common Indian accent - hers is actually less sophisticated as the previous ones have had kinda more "private school" upbringing).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha-LoNqOaEk few examples of subcontinent English
Yeah, both of the older guys seem to have spent a substantial amount of time outside India (for instance the first one is born in London and the second went to Cambridge, according to Wikipedia). I guess that would affect their accents?
Actually people who don't live outside have those accents as well. His parents actually moved back when he was 1 or 2 years old. This is really on the lines of the typical accent of people from this subcontinent who are highly educated (via English), well travelled, well read etc.
I have a friend who went to UK and came back after 13 years. Spent most of the time at SOAS. Her accent didn't change at all. It is what it was when she left at the time of her bachelors. She did masters, PhD, and post doc there (the last one is still ongoing - not sure, some people study a lot).
But I see people coming from America in 3 bloody months and speaking English in American accent.