I have occasion to often speak with people of Indian descent for whom English is not their native language. I notice that they will often throw in the word “OK” alot between sentences. “OK” is a pretty American word, so my best WAG is that there is an equivalant word in their native language that is often used. Whats the SD?
I think it is just a form of politeness, making sure that you are keeping up with the conversation. Other people (some Russians and some Asian nationalities) seem to do the opposite - they say “yes” during converstions to indicate that they are listening and paying attention. However it doesn’t necessarily mean that they agree and/or understand.
Lots and lots of Indians I know do the same thing, but they can’t communicate to each other in their own native languages, so they use English to talk to one another. My point is, them’s a lotta languages all to have a common “okay” in them.
“OK” may have started as an American word but has become a standard English word. Many Indians speak English, therefore they use English words.
I have a very good Indian friend who had a girlfriend from a different part of India, English was the language they used to communicate. Many Indians speak PERFECT English and have the amazing ablity to speak half a sentence in an Indian language and the other half in English without batting an eyelid.
The OP seems to be indicating excessive use though. OK. So it would be like they use it all the time. OK. Even native speakers have a limit. OK. So if they are doing it excessively, OK, and it’s not common English to do it, OK, then perhaps it is connected to something in Indian. OK?
^ Is an example of what I think the OP means. I can’t say that I have run into this, so perhaps it is just a local thing to where the OP is.
I think it’s to prevent hemming and hawing: when you can’t think of what to say next and fill in the silence with “umm…” or “uh…” No one can be an effective speaker who does that. So instead, train yourself to replace the grunts with something like a coherent syllable.
I have noticed inexpert public speakers doing this. One would say “Hah?!” sharply after each phrase. Another (from Bangladesh, I think) would begin every other phrase with “I mean…” Just to cover up the gap when you’re trying to think of what to say next.
Americans tend to say “Y’know” in these situations.
In the 1933 movie The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, one of the speakers (speaking German) says “OK,” and it’s translated in the subtitles as “OK.” I’m just guessing that it crossed the Big Pond during The Great War.
And recently in a program on the Discovery Health Channel, an Egyptian woman was speaking to someone about her condition (in Arabic). During the Arabic gibberish (to me, as I’m not a speaker), she very clearly said, “OK” and that was translated in the subtitles as “OK.”
Anyway, it doesn’t look like it’s just an American saying anymore.
You apparently have never called Tech Support.
And I also work with Indians, and it’s not unusual to hear “OK” included in their native Telugu or Tamil.
Native Spanish speakers (in my area, at least) also make liberal use of the word “OK.” I think OK’s spread all around the world.
Yeah, I’ll confirm that. On the occassions when they are able to speak to one another in a common, native language, you can distinctly hear “okay” every fews seconds just like when they speak English! They also have a lot of borrowed words that’re easy to recognize, much more so than in Spanish (for example). In Spanish, at least they try to prounce the word as if it were Spanish. The Indians, though, just say the word the way we say the word. Okay?
I hear the Chinese use it a lot.
First of all, the word “OK” has spread all over the globe. An amazing number of languages use it with more or less the same meaning as in English.
Secondly, English is one of the official languages of India. I would say that many people in India speak it Natively. Certainly Indian English is different than American or British English, but then so are Australian English and Canadian English (and all of them are different from each other).
The point being that maybe using OK a lot is more acceptable in Indian English than American English (or maybe the Indian you heard isn’t using it more than an American, he (or she) is using it in different places than in American English).
Hmm. I can’t say I’ve noticed this, but I’ll ask my SO if I say Ok a lot.
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He says, not really. And I haven’t noticed it in my family at all. Will continue observing.
Oddly in India I noticed a distinct lack of the word “okay”, which surprised me because I found “OK” to be pretty universal in my other travels. I thought I could use it everywhere- largely English-speaking country and all- but I ended up quickly learning the local equivalents…indeed, “theek hai” and “achcha” (spelling probably mangled- each covers a different aspect of “OK”) are probably the only Hindi I picked up
It looks to me like saying an general affirmative quite often is a part of Indian culture which happens to transfer over well in to English.
theek hai = it’s alright
achchaa = {acknowledged}; closer to the informal use of OK; pronounced [such without ‘s’] + [‘aa’]
Hmm, even ‘theek hai’ can be used just for acknowledgement, although I use it for the former meaning.
Mostly I heard it from my uncle to mean something like “got it”. As in “Give me the same price you’d give that guy over there. I live here, Theek-hai? I’m not paying 500 rupees for a five minute ride.”
accha literally means ‘good’. “Acknowledgement” is a good description of how it’s used as in interjection. Like ‘got it’, ‘roger wilco’, ‘OK’. Acknowledgement plus assent. For plain acknowledgment that a statement was heard, without necessarily agreeing, you could say ha~ (with a nasalized vowel), literally ‘yes’. English “OK” covers all these meanings.