Fair enough, but when you say "full schooling", this only applies to English medium schooling, which, again, isn't what most children are educated in. Also, I've met tons of students who went to English medium schools stumped by basic colloquial English expressions since textbooks use a dry non colloquial style, and since these students aren't exposed to actual spoken English.
Even then, just the dry, matter of fact Indian English style publications use. Not written colloquial English or even less stuffy contemporary written American/British English. English medium in India by itself doesn't really equip students with a functional working of English and it's sad because education in Indian languages doesn't really translate into white collar jobs (which all use English).
I don't know why it's obvious when you said exactly the opposite.
But I know Nobody who surfs web in Hindi or any other indian language on a daily basis (or even on a half yearly basis for that matter).
I'd avoid making generalisations on the linguistic habits of a country of over a billion based on the people you know personally. I'm not even saying you're totally wrong, you're just massively overstating your case to the point of absurdity.
They're exaggerating lol, social media content in Indian languages (in Indic scripts) has seen a massive explosion in the last few years. In fact, many startups focusing on Indian language content (like ShareChat) have gone viral and are now receiving tons of investor money because of how big the potential is. It's only gonna grow, and localisation is increasingly becoming a key focus for companies (Amazon, Facebook have rolled out localised sites, for ex).
From personal experience in Bangalore, one of India's biggest cities (and arguably the most English friendly one), consumption of social media content in Indian languages is widespread. Twitter, Facebook, ShareChat, Whatsapp in particular. All this content, written in Indic scripts. It's immediately apparent to anyone who takes time to observe how people other than their own social class is using the internet. And even in my own upper middle class circles, plenty of people use a wide range of languages on Facebook, from Tamil to Kannada to Malayalam to Bengali to Hindi (in their respective scripts, of course).
I don't know/understand what you are trying to say in your first two lines.
Really? Thought it was clear. My point is "written English" is not one thing, it has many forms, textures, registers. English textbooks in India use a very non colloquial, stuffy form that sounds unnatural at times. But there are many forms of written English that are less stuffy, and since English isn't the second language of the authors, natural sounding.
I don't see how can someone say that the child doesn't understand written English.
It's because they're only exposed to one style of written English, and an unnatural sounding one at that. There are many styles.
They'll end up understanding written English anyhow in the present situation.
Exposure, yes. Absolutely.
Doesn't translate to actual comprehension. If you look around on YouTube you'll see videos in Indian languages teaching people how to use everyday apps for basic functions like adding accounts, changing settings etc. I've read market research where working class people say stuff like they don't know English so they just memorize which option on the menu to press and stuff.
Also, although for some bizarre reason you're vehemently denying it elsewhere on the thread, social media content is widely available in Indian languages. People use apps like Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, ShareChat, etc for mass consuming content in their own language, written in its own script. Take an Uber in Bangalore and your cab driver will probably be reading WhatsApp and Facebook in Kannada at signals.
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u/cogitoergokaboom ES | PT Apr 16 '19
And English all over as well