Inferiority complex

I was at a conference recently where a lot of speakers were from different countries in Europe. It was hard to ignore their accent and usage of English. One speaker, I think she was a native of Scotland  but living in Oregon,  pronounced 'aqueous' as 'a quiz' and had other quirky twists. Several presentations had minor typos in the slides (which is kind of bad practice in scientific presentations).

The remarkable thing was, none of them had even a hint of regret, despair or guilt for not being able to speak 'correct' English. Of course, almost all of them periodically and jokingly apologized for their 'poor' English. But it was apparent that they did so out of politeness. The audience too did not seem to mind these lapses and differences.

I couldn't help comparing this scenario with how a person from India speaking poor English would be perceived by fellow Indians in a similar situation. There are so many examples I've seen  - if someone can't speak English fluently, they are considered fair game for ridicule and mockery.

Yes, there are some jerks and show-offs who try to use English to hit on girls or sound scholarly (and end up falling flat on their faces). But for every such person, there are many others who have not had the opportunity or did not feel the need to learn the language very well. Their thoughts and ideas are often needlessly sidelined. Why not pay more attention to the content? You can be articulate in your native language too.

This is of course not a new issue. Some would attribute it to the Macaulization of Indian education, others to liberalization and westernization. I don't know the root cause. But there definitely is a deep-rooted inferiority complex among many Indians when it comes to English. Those who have had the privilege (and others who have worked hard) to learn the language often look down upon the 'natives'. We have politicians and celebrities reminding us of their degrees and educational pedigrees. I wonder if this is a sub-conscious  attempt to mask their own inferiority complex.

It doesn't look like any of this will change any time soon though. From anecdotes, I can see that the number of middle-class households where English is the main language (proudly) spoken at home, are increasing. The gap between these folks and the 'natives' seems ever expanding.