Can you believe it : India has the second highest English speakers in the world after the US. I feel proud and happy that we are doing so well with a language that is not naively ours (however, even if I can speak, read, write, talk, understand basic English - I still have to take silly exams like TOEFL (Test of English as a foreign language) and IELTS.
From reading my blog, I am sure you will at least concur with the idea that I can write/read decently in English. However, the usage and meaning is so different in various parts of the world.
When I came to the United states, I was literally starving - all I ate were apples, and bananas - because they were the few things I could recognize by name and taste. I remember that day so vividly when my host parent took me to the grocery store to buy me biscuits (yes Indian biscuits). She showed me the biscuits in the store and I said they were buns. Fine, we moved to the next aisle and she said "Ah,here we go." I looked at her in disbelief, she was holding pastries, they were not biscuits to me. She tried in vain, showed me cookies and brownies - alas, they were not my biscuits. After combing through the entire bakery section, we decided to leave, and as we were walking out - I gave out a shout of relief and pointed out to biscuits. She looked at them and said "Oh well, Ritz Crackers."
English as a language is not very uniform all over the world - it is surprising. I am not talking about accents or dialects - I am discussing names and terms. I thought I would post this list; it might help someone.
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