Reply to: Literacy

[CloudWalker]

I worked with a London Indian contractor who when explaining business processes he would finish each sentence with "Ya get me"
Nice chap though...

[SueEllen]

Yup.

Comes from years of experience of stuff being copied variously from the web & from each other.

The majority of the people who speak English as an additional language I mix with learnt it before they were 9 so they can speak and write it fluently. Those that learnt British English are also proud that it's not American English or any other variant.

Then there are those who learnt it as teenagers or adults, and have no problem saying how bad their speaking and/or writing is.

Finally there is a group of others who just won't admit their English is poor even if it's a variant of English. This is the group who love copy and paste....

[SueEllen]

Language is constantly evolving; you watch - 5 years from now we'll all be saying it. Bit like 'upsert' and 'performant'.

It's in some dictionaries already but not the Oxford English Dictionary.

From the Oxford English Dictionary:

upgradation
Indian English.

The raising or improvement of grade, status, or level; = upgrading n. at upgrade v. Derivatives.
1979 P. Nihalani et al. Indian & Brit. Eng. i. 186 The upgradation of a number of posts has been postponed because of the financial crisis.
1986 Business India 8 Sept. 153/1 (advt.) Our Company lays great stress on technical training and knowledge upgradation.
1990 Institutional Investor (Internat. ed.) Apr. s 23/1 The program also has a term loan component which supports investment activity in capacity upgradation and research and development.

[Bacchus]

I think upgradation is my favourite.

presumably the opposite of degradation?

Clearly some holes in the language here, room for a bit patchation.

[DiscoStu]

I heard "updation" for the first time this week, and I have to confess I quite like it.

We have "creation" and "deletion" as being the processes of being created or deleted, so why not the process of being updated?

I think upgradation is my favourite.

[Bunk]

However the ex Esteemed Customer of whom I'm most proud is the chap who got stuck down the hole in Wind Street.

It's on youtube.

Just googled that. It's hilarious

[Bacchus]

When I first heard someone say "updation" seriously in real life I burst out laughing.

I heard "updation" for the first time this week, and I have to confess I quite like it.

We have "creation" and "deletion" as being the processes of being created or deleted, so why not the process of being updated?

[pjclarke]

When I first heard someone say "updation" seriously in real life I burst out laughing.

Language is constantly evolving; you watch - 5 years from now we'll all be saying it. Bit like 'upsert' and 'performant'.

[SueEllen]

Followed by "Updation complete"

When I first heard someone say "updation" seriously in real life I burst out laughing.

[Spartacus]

Followed by "Updation complete"

Gentlemen from foreign climes = much quickness plenty cheapness

[pjclarke]

Try using shorter sentences.

Yes. Sorry. Good advice. Too much Thomas Pynchon.

[mudskipper]

I'm testing a bit of software here, written by gentlemen from foreign climes, and the success message is this:

"Sales Order <nnnnn> would be updated to database".

Followed by "Updation complete"

[I just need to test it]

I'm testing a bit of software here, written by gentlemen from foreign climes, and the success message is this:

"Sales Order <nnnnn> would be updated to database".

[Old Greg]

Are you being ironic? I am surprised by the apparent double standard that communication skills in general and written English in particular are said to be a key element of employability- which I agree with; we regularly get some Captain of industry bemoaning the falling standards in this area and basic numeracy amongst school leavers, and even graduates, while at the same time an increasing proportion of the people I work with at ClientCos are colleagues who don't have English as their first language and whose poor communication skills you would think would render them unemployable. These people seem to get a free pass. I don't get it and I was just wondering what others thought.

Try using shorter sentences.

[pjclarke]

We use it to detect plagiarism.

If the English is good, makes sense, and has punctuation (especially : or ; ) then it's a near dead cert that it's been stolen off the web.

Oh yes. Amazing what pasting a fragment of text in quotes into Google brings up. Sometimes even that is superfluous; I was once at ClientCo A where I wrote a Best Practice Guide, which got shared with a partner agency, let's call them ProWip. Later I was at ClientCo B who were also partnered with ProWip who offered to share their Best Practices with us, as part of their services ...... you'd think a team of IT Professionals would know to change the 'Author' property in a Word Document they're stealing ....