Who says Indians cannot speak English well?

That  Mr Donald Trump says Indians are the most difficult people to understand in English is perhaps itself a sheer misunderstanding on his part. And when S. Nihal Singh opines that those (Indians) who have forgotten the basic rules or never learned them need to be taught the peculiarities of English as it is spoken. But spoken in which context? Then again, Fanny Gupta fails to make it crystal clear how the da de da de da de da and da da da da da da system virtually works in the use of spoken English and in English when spoken as a second language. All these versions simply are perhaps akin to shooting in the dark tunnel, not realising (rather completely ignoring) the specific practicalities in which we Indians learn English.     These people completely ignore the point for what purpose a language is learnt or spoken. Isn't a language (and so does English) used as a method by which a person expresses his thoughts and feelings in such a way that they are understood by others? If Mr Trump says that Indians are not well understood in English, does he think that the Americans are well understood when they speak in English? If the Americans can differ from the Britishers when they speak, and spell words like colour, honour, labour, why can't Indians differ in pronouncing English words with a bit of change as per the natural impact of their native languages, which psychologically no speaker on the earth can ever do away with?

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First of all, it is the phonetic system that makes us pronounce a word right or wrong as these people have tried to opine. Any speaker, of whatever language he/she may be, makes sounds with the help of a steam of air that he/she breathes out from the lungs. That stream of air passes through the narrow spaces in his/her throat and mouth. The analogy is the same as a forceful wind that is flowing through a house or hut and thus produces a gushing or howling sound. The only difference is this that here in our vocal system the wind can be controlled, while the flow of that of the natural wind flowing though a hut or house is beyond one's control. But do you think that the sound produced by the wind passing through each hut or house can be similar? If not, why is it not so? The answer to this would make it crystal clear why the English spoken by we Indians is not similar to that of the native English speakers.

Why does a child when she learns the mother tongue naturally, tries to speak “ma,” “pa,” “mama,” “papa,” etc. at first? Simply because these fall easily from the child's lips, and these are the words that he/she often hears from his brothers and sisters around him/her. It means language learning is basically a matter of imitation rather than a matter of intentionally learning. As the child learns to speak one's mother tongue easily and smoothly in a matter of weeks and months then one can learn the second language that easily and smoothly. But then why the pronunciation of a second language can't be similar to that of the latter's native speakers as in case of the Indians who learn English as a second language?

 An Indian child if brought up in the English context and surroundings can speak English like the native speakers but an Indian child brought up in Indian context and surroundings can never speak exactly as the English speak. The reason is simple. While learning our mother tongue, we frequently use our vocal organs like lips, teeth, teeth ridge, tongue, larynx, and vocal cords in such a way their shape and structure undergoes a bit of change and thus keep developing so firmly and strongly that the sounds that they produce are somewhat more like the mother tongue, and to use them in different contexts would not produce the exactly similar sounds as the native English speaker could do. 

Speaking like the native speakers becomes all the more complex as no single vowel in any language corresponds exactly with any in the other language. The thick lips of Africans can't allow them to speak English language the way the English speak. 

While at the Central Institute of English & Foreign Languages, Hyderabad, I observed that the native speakers at Hyderabad can't speak the word “think” with the sound of “th” as we Northern Indians pronounce, but they pronounce it as “tink” as the sound “th” is not used in their mother tongue.   

What Trump has forgotten is that the aim of learning English by  Indians is not to pose that when they speak English a listener should not be able to know whether the speaker is the English gentleman or an Indian by birth. Should we not care to learn English with accuracy when it comes to speaking English? Surely we must try our best. We Indians have many languages of our own. At every 12 miles, the use of language changes. From birth till death, a language is a method to express thoughts and feelings in such a way that they can be understood by others. The purpose of spoken English is well served when it conveys the meaning.  

The writer is a senior psychologist & educationist based at Kangra, Himachal Pradesh.