Indian Orkut Profiles

April 10, 2007 at 10:53 am · Filed under WriteThings

Languages I speak:

lang.gif

Orkut profiles have a field like “Languages I speak”, & for all (Indians) those who put “English (US)” there, this is for you fellas. Lemme me ask:

  • Do you say how much you weigh in “Pounds” instead of “Kilograms”?
  • Do you say that “you are positive” instead of saying that “you are sure of”?
  • Do you say “no problem” instead of “its my pleasure” when someone thanks you?
  • Do you write deliberately “colour” as “color”?
  • Do you say, attimes, “F@#k You” to somebody before you?
  • Would you able to say without any fumble, the number of miles you travel for work every day?
  • When you flunk, do you use your “FallBack” plan or your “BackUp” plan?
  • How do you go to a floor on Top of a building, using an “Elevator” or a “Lift”?

Here for:

One may witness these in many girle profiles. They would say that they are in Orkut for (making) friends & not to date men. But their “Relationship status” would say they are still “Single”. Why is that so? How does their “Relationship status” gonna affect their friend making ventures?

People have beliefs that they are into Social Networking to make friends. Is that true? Never! It is to connect with the existing friends & to make their existing friendships corroborate.

In case someone bumps into a stranger & their relationship cruises into a friendship like pathway, Orkut like social networking sites doesn’t give enough power to grow the connection. Friendship breeds somewhere beyond & outside of Orkut, & it just gets reminded at Orkut.

Happy Orkutting!.

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Viewing 10 Comments

    • ^
    • v
    Your post has got me thinking whether I should put English(US) or not....
    • ^
    • v
    I didn't quite get your point on the 'single' status. Are you saying that girls shouldn't put their relationship status as single when they are not interesetd in dating?
    • ^
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    @Aparna

    Ho Good Good! You say this post makes ppl to think! :) Great!

    @Rahul

    Yep! Thats exactly my point! How come you got a doubt! :P Then, this screenshot is from your profile. ;)
    • ^
    • v
    So, if a girl is not married yet, what else can she put apart from 'single'.

    Yeah, I did suspect that it was from my profile :-)
    • ^
    • v
    the single status is for her existing friends,an indication that she is still open to flirting. may be,just maybe,my primary school buddy is till interested in me. or my high school sweetheart who fell out of contact could revive the friendship and there is always a possibility of romance...just the matter of possibilities! the single status is not an invitation for strangers,just as "my profile" states.
    • ^
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    @Rahul
    Yep, it is to be "single" when shes single. I'm wondering, how that "single" status is gonna to affect their wanna be "friendships"? :)

    @Nithya
    You are right! They are "single" & will open-up for flirts. :) I presume that its a willingness to be a date? Which also means that they are willing to date men (could also mean, their manly friends). But, they are not willing to state that. ;) This is what, I was trying to say!

    I'm a stranger & I can't get to your profile. :P
    • ^
    • v
    er... I didn't wanna nit-pick, but pound is more of Brit than Yankees. So it perfectly makes sense to say I speak more of English (US) than English (UK).

    And I do think a lot of us write color and not colour. I also think a lot of us write "realize" and not "realise". We use more of a z in these cases, where as English (uk) uses more of an s. And I hardly meet people who say 'its my pleasure', its more of a no problem these days. But that probably is just me.
    • ^
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    @Sagaro
    Welcome to thŕattle!

    The English that is taught at school is British. But its usage in reality is more American. I agree with you. :) As I get to see a lot of english movies in recent years, my spoken english is slowly translating from UK to US. Written one is 70% US complaint. In this post, I was wondering how others in my circle are different from me.

    The Britons call a busy tone, "engaged". When you make a call from a Landline phone & if it is busy, you say it as "engaged". But, if it is from a mobile phone, you say "busy". The PSTN is from British, while the Mobiles are from the modern world which is US centric. :D

    ps: I follow ur blog for all the college galatta that my work life misses. :)
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    @Ranjhith:
    Exactly. Language is more often learnt from listening than reading. Which is why there is a huge transition from UK to US of A. Cauze most English films came from the Hollywood banner and are essentially English (US).

    Actually the reason English spread out to most countries is its nature to adapt and accommodate the other languages into itself. When English came to India it borrowed from Hindi (hinglish), Tamil (tanglish) etc. Similarly English borrowed from French, Dutch etc. We don't see any other language do that. When they do they lose their identity. We had Sanskrit. When Urdu came by, Sanskrit and Urdu became Hindi. Both lost their identity. We don't hear Tamdi or Hidil etc.

    English is very flexible and therefore people all over the world could accept it. So this also means we Indians can't call our English US or UK, it is just plain Indian. But since there is no option in Orkut, we tend to foot in English US as our spoken language... :D
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    @Sagaro
    Yep! English was very accommodative to Hindhi, Tamil,... Like picking words such as Ghee in its dictionaries. But its not Hinglish/Tanglish/..., I suppose. English spread wide because of the American supremacy & British colonies. This is because people in the non-english countries learnt to express themselves in English just to foster trade, to educate themselves in various fields of study & for employment. At the same time, as they were well versed in their local language, english became receptive & got its local/native tinge.

    We don't have Tamdhi/Hindil because there is no necessity for it. I donno abt China, but atleast in Japan, everything is in Japanese. ASCII is useless there. All the language needs of people in Japan are fostered in Japanese & they need not embrace any other language such as English to develop themselves. Of course, they need English for Business, so they are taught minimally. The reverse also happens, the English knowing businesses learning Japanese to expand themselves. So, I guess, its the need that promotes or invents a language.

    Yes yaar! All we speak is English (IN). :D
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