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Re:India’s lost 220 languages in past 50 years by primelens on Sunday August 18, 2013 @06:10PM (#6234476)
As a north Indian, I can assure you that is not the case. Several decades of living there has not gotten in the way of my butchering Hindi sentences much worse than I butcher English.

PS: Good to know that your sample set for passing judgement on India is a handful of programmers you met in Bangalore.

Re:India’s lost 220 languages in past 50 years by winter_blue on Sunday August 18, 2013 @06:35PM (#6234568)
> PS: Good to know that your sample set for passing judgement on India is a handful of programmers you met in Bangalore.

I wasn't passing judgment on India. I was just pointing out the fact that the majority of programmers in Bangalore speak pretty terrible English. If I were to "pass judgment" on India as a whole, it would be for the lack of sanitation.[1]

I say majority, because I've met some pretty smart programmers through an HN meetup that was held in Bangalore sometime ago.[2] I also personally know a lot of Indians who have excellent English. Generally, I think the level of one's English is directly proportional to how much of a bookworm one is. (This probably applies to native speakers as well.) India has sizable English readership, who probably all can express themselves eloquently in English.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5623809

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5563491