Illiteracy amongst Indian professionals

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A few years ago, I could pick up the phone, ask for the production manager of a publishing company, and tell them about the services we offer in India. I would have a cordial chat which might not come to anything. But now there is no chance of me getting through. Why? Because of the hundreds or thousands of illiterate companies, mostly Indian, bombarding the poor clients with phone calls and emails. I got a mail today from a company called Equiretech, offering the following services:

  1. E-pub Conversion(Mobi,Kindel,Palam & All digital format).
  2. Copy Editing
  3. Typesetting(Page Layout,Composition)
  4. Image Processing.

Not only do they not know the basics of spacing and punctuation — I have emailed them and reminded them of these before — but they don’t even know how to spell ‘Kindle’ or ‘Palm’!

A classic case of not knowing whether to laugh or to cry.

Category: Language, India

23 comments on “Illiteracy amongst Indian professionals”

  1. Yes! I get loads of these and the phone calls that make little sense. So odd when they are so often trying to sell copyediting services.
  2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l29SlQhIa0g&feature=player_embedded
  3. Hi,

    We are converting more than 100000 pages a month in different European languages(Spanish,Italian,German etc) with 100% quality.Just by one mail you can speak about a company or Indians.

    Have you ever made any mistakes.Stop blaming other but thank for pointing out the mistake which we will correct it.

    Regards,

    Nataraj Sasid

  4. We all know what 100% quality means in India!!

    I hope your operators put a space after commas and full stops.

  5. And one more thing it not necessary one should know all the languages in the world to be a service provider.We or providing our services for European Languages for that I cant learn all the Languages we have specialist to take care of it.I do know you have your back office in India so all you staffs in your office or English Scholars.Just go and read the meaning of illiteracy.
  6. Have you tested our quality,send as book we will do a conversion free of cost for you.If you find a single spacing or a small error.I will stop marketing,That the confidence I have in my team!

  7. You have confidence in your team, but the world does not have confidence in you, Nataraj. I am not saying everyone in your company should speak perfect English, but you, as “Head of Business Development” should know the basics of writing English.

    I wish your customers the best.

  8. Thank you for your wish.And the world does have confidence in me that why you are scared of us!

    We have more than 30 happy customer who are ready to give us references!We are based in Pondicherry which is once a French Colony my first Langues or Malayalam,Tamil and French we have very good Team mates who are there to take care of the English!

  9. OK, Nataraj. I have to admit now. I am really scared of you and your company. Sometimes I wake up screaming uncontrollably.

  10. Thank you for spoiling my mood in the morning and sorry to spoiling yours.Have a nice day bye!

  11. I didn’t mean to spoil your mood, Nataraj. My mood is fine.

  12. Did you delete my comment from your blog:

    http://equiretechnologies.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/sony-targets-college-students-with-new-e-book-reader/

  13. Nataraj, please tell me why you removed my comment from your blog (if you can call it that!). On at least 4 occasions you deleted whole threads from LinkedIn, and then you denied it. Can you confirm that you deleted my comment? And if so, why? What are you afraid of?

    Oh, secondly, can you clear up the case of Denver McDonald:

    http://www.linkedin.com/pub/denver-mcdonald/19/b08/525

    who was your previous New York sales representative? There is a rumour that you invented him just to pretend you had a US representative, and there is no such person. Here is your chance to deny these vicious rumours. I await your reply on these points.

  14. Hi,

    I have deleted your comment in my blog check with the Linked-in group owner about the comment deleted in the group.Regarding Denver he was working with equire and he has left the Job.Check with him if you want more clarification .In not necessary for us to show a false Identity we have many representative US and Canada in fact we are in final stages of acquiring a company there so stop spreading the rumors!

  15. A blog is where you put your opinion, not where you copy from other blogs (without their permissions) and even put their names as authors. You have to understand such simple concepts if you want to be taken seriously by professionals. Of course I explained this in a comment on your “blog” but you did not have the courage to leave it there!

    Regarding the 4-5 posts on LinkedIn, you are not denying it. I did check with one group owner who said they did not delete it and then they kicked you out of the group. Perhaps the group owner is a lier, but I doubt it.

    I will try and contact Denver. His English was very similar to yours. 😉

  16. A blog is a place were you can share the thing you have learned.I posted it since it might be useful for some one ok jobless.I have no more time to fight with you .What ever I say you will come up with something.All the best do what ever you want.I cant reply for all your question it doesn’t mean that I am afraid of you it mean I have some jobs to do.
  17. Problem is everyone reading this blog understands what I am saying, except you. So I agree, no point in arguing more. I never said you are afraid of me. Please think a little about things I have said. I am trying to improve the image of your company, and stop people laughing at you.
  18. Very interesting exchange I must say! 🙂
  19. It appears that you, Kaveh, are both scared and disgusted with the new companies that have come up. Scared not because they’ll take away your business but because they’ll muddle the playing field by spoiling the perception of ‘getting work done overseas in India’. I’ve followed your comments on a couple of Linkedin groups and had respect for your opinions until this discussion above, which shows your pique.

    You misspelled ‘liar’: “Perhaps the group owner is a lier, but I doubt it.” As a corporate development head, shouldn’t you be spell-checking your comments, too? Take it easy. Live and let live.

    Viv

  20. Viv, I am sorry you feel that way. Belatedly I tried to look you up, but I cannot find your name in LinkedIn. Are you listed under a different name there?

  21. Viv, I tried to contact you on the email you used to comment, but there is no reply, so I will let matters rest there. I assume you do not want to identify yourself.

  22. I wonder if Viv is a sock puppet?

  23. Chuck, I have tried hard to find her, but she is hiding. 😉