Canadian - I thought it was your Canadian name. Do you speak Indian? You speak very well… isn’t your first language hum… Indian? Where did you learn to speak such good English?
The first time I was told ‘Oh you speak English well, albeit with an Indian accent,’ I really felt affronted. And I kept thinking – what’s wrong with people in Canada? Haven’t they heard Indians speak English? But it didn’t stop there. College proved to be an even bigger challenge. From trying to decipher the Canadian accent to getting myself to speak at snail pace and repeat the same damn sentence four times, got me vexed, wondering if the flight across the Atlantic had addled my brains and my tongue, because I suddenly felt like the village idiot from India. To top it off, people kept asking me - do you speak Indian?
When I finally deciphered what that sentence meant I figured two things. One, most Canadians are still ignorant of the fact that even though there are other cultures, English is still the world’s dominant language. Two, has Canada really done enough to bridge this cultural gap?
I slowly started preparing a script in my head to make people understand why my English was strong. It sounded like this – Yes although it may sound surprising, I am Catholic, hence I have a catholic name and not because I’ve come to Canada and adopted a new name for myself. If you are aware, India was under the British Raj, so we have a strong British education foundation in most cities. Yes, I speak only English at home. Maybe it's because I was born in Bombay. Yes, I’ve been brought up in a western environment and yes, I have an insatiable thirst for English books. End of story. So I don’t blame Canadians for thinking that way, because for most Indian immigrants, English is their second or maybe third language.
After being in Canada for almost two years, I’m still trying to find my niche and fit in. Having been called a wannabe American all my life, I thought Canada would be a walk in the park. Tragically, not so. It isn’t a problem for the person doing the stereotyping, but it is a problem for the person being stereotyped. The lady who asked me - who taught you to speak English?, had no problems with stereotyping me as an Indian-looking, Hindi or Punjabi speaking person, I was the one who had a problem with being stereotyped in that manner.
Sometimes, all it takes to bridge the cultural gap is making an honest effort to do so. Whether we succeed or not is immaterial, as long as we have tried. It’s the effort to imagine where others come from or what context shapes what they speak. The knowledge of someone else’s culture makes the task much easier and that is appreciated.
1 comment:
Stereotypes make sense at times, but to blindly label someone is just pure ignorance.
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