Along with other 22 official languages, India is an English speaking country.
The problem is that Indians are not an English speaking people. Signs are in English, money are in English, documents are always also in English. Clerks in the grocery store only know rice, bread, how much? and some numbers. Rickshaw drivers only know left, right, straight, meter, how much and numbers. Taxi drivers might eventually know the difference between madam and sir. The painters only know the English name of the brand of paint they are using, and stool.
Then when you meet someone that speaks English, the pronunciation problem kicks in. Indian accent is quite heavy, and most of time it is very hard to understand a whole sentence. There is always something you miss, for a combination of the usage of obsolete British terms and the way they say them.
But then: English speaking population in the US is 300 millions, in the UK is 60 millions, in Australia is 20 millions. Indians are 1 billion 129 millions and counting, so their English totally sets the standard.
So most of time you just must forget about talking and try to communicate with the good old universal gestures. Good luck, because here you will discover that they are not that universal. If you need someone to do something for you, they will begin, naturally, by asking in Hindi (at least in Delhi, Hindi works). But you don’t speak Hindi, so you will ask for English. But no English that side: they will repeat the same thing in Hindi, only faster, this being a thing that, all over the world, only them and French do. You will repeat what you need in slow simple English, this time trying to make it clearer with hand gestures. Let’s say you need something to be carried away from where it is, you’ll point it and move you hands in a way that means “this has to go”. The guy will say something back pointing at the object, doing your same gesture, and you will nod. “Okke”, he will say, and right when you thought you got it done, he’ll leave without moving anything.
What really is universal, though, is what I call the “bubble head”: a circular movement of the head that can mean yes, no, thank you, please leave me alone and much more. I think you can understand its exact meaning from the situation, but most of time you have no clue of what is going on, so you’ll probably get it wrong, and get inside a rickshaw when the guy just told you he is not taking the ride.
It takes about three months of that for you to find a solution to the misunderstanding and sign up for Hindi lessons.
