All kinds of thoughts come to my mind as I think of the term mother language. I love the fact that so many languages exist. I love the celebration of language as both art and skill.Yet, working as I do with children and adults in diverse environments, I can't help seeing other implications.On the one hand, celebrating the mother language is a way to understand privilege and language politics. On the other hand, I see children struggling to answer the question of why they don't speak their mother tongue.Sometimes it's because their mother tongue and father tongue are different and speaking one excludes the other parent who, perhaps, does not have the time or mind space to learn a new language. Sometimes, children come from recomposed families and need to make an active effort to integrate themselves into new structures and languages. What of them?Language fluency, or the lack … [Read more...]
Examinations again
It's time for some more of those gems -... he just wants to say that they are too nervous to make good but is describing by writing so many words for it.The poem has very shocking connotative and also short story plot used.The priest was just chilling out. (Commentary on The Eve of St. Agnes)The sound is attach as well as detach.They all were behaving very badly everyday and then at night all of them just some their problems and the make each other cry and laugh and when they have to apologize, they are forgiven.The setting of this essay was done to show the enthusiam between the people and it made it too creative and contractive.When Nay Cathy died they did'nt even knew this would happen and they started shouting and without thinking Joseph ran through the wind and storm and fetched the doctor and brought him, by the doctors response they could'nt realise how, when all … [Read more...]
After the Story Games
With the One-Word-Story-Game and the One-Phrase-Story-Game, my purpose was to point out how powerless we feel when we can't control language. I spoke about different aspects of language as power and why we feel more in control when we have a whole phrase to ourselves, rather than a single word.Then, I moved to the third group and whispered to them, "I want you to explain 'triangle' without using the words 'sides' and 'three'."The students thought about it for a while. Finally, they said, "This is a closed figure, closely associated with Bermuda."Of course it was clear enough. The other students got it very easily.I smiled. "Wouldn't it have been easier to draw it?"They hadn't thought of it. And thinking about why they hadn't thought of it perhaps brings us to what Theory of Knowledge tries to do. … [Read more...]
Language
Teaching Language as a Way of Knowing, I wanted to introduce to my students what a powerful tool language is. In keeping with that, I also wanted to bring out how powerless you feel when you don't have control over a language. So I played some stuff that I learned at the Storytelling workshop I attended recently.The first round was the One-Word-Story-Game. In a group, each participant is allowed to contribute just one word at a time. It's particularly frustrating when you know you can't contribute something meaningful. For instance, suppose you're third in the group. The first person says 'Once'. The second person says 'upon'. How much choice do you have? I wanted students to experience this powerlessness that comes with limited language. So, I made a group of six play it. I asked them to create all of four sentences to make a story. The theme was magic."Creativity ..." "... lived … [Read more...]
Storytelling Workshop
Time flew. I simply could not hold on to it.When I thought about an 11-3 workshop, I confess I did think, "Hmm. There'll definitely be parts where I'm bored." I was wrong.Travelling from my school in Loni to British Library on Fergusson College Road, I realised for the first time why all the residential staff at my school thinks of 'going to Pune' as such a big deal. By the time I reached the library, I felt sticky and irritable, as one does after a long and rather tiresome journey. I definitely was not in the mood for an over-enthusiastic shedding of inhibitions that I assumed would be associated with a storytelling workshop.But Nell Phoenix created that mood. In slow steps, she guided us from being polite, formal listeners, sitting poised on wooden chairs to becoming active participants, relaxing on the carpet and using our entire bodies to tell stories.Nell Phoenix is … [Read more...]
The Peculiar English Language
Of course we know that language is peculiar. And English? Any new speaker finds it ridiculously bewildering.I'm reading a book by Rachel Anderson called Asylum. More about that will come in a book-review soon, but it brought me to laugh aloud at the ridiculous English language.We learned similes in school. As fresh as a? Daisy! (Never mind if none of us really knew what a daisy was) As cool as a? Cucumber! (I always thought of the vendors all the way up to Sinhagad, and imagined them calling out 'as cool as a cucumber, as cool as a cucumber, as cool as a cucumber'.)I remember all these comparisons that we cheerfully chanted in school.Rosa, a young immigrant in Asylum, loves figurative language. She picks up expressions like a magpie picks up anything that shines.As pretty as a picture. As sharp as a needle. As light as a feather. Of course, all of that is understandable.But … [Read more...]
Getting a Promotion
In the Air Force, it is compulsory to speak Hindi to get a promotion. Commands must be given in Hindi.So my grandfather, a recipient of the AVSM (Ati Vishisht Seva Medal) had to prove he could speak at least a little Hindi in order to be promoted. The problem was that he could not speak Hindi. (For my foreign readers: that happens a lot in the south. Many south Indians - particularly in my grandfather's generation - find Hindi and other north Indian languages hopelessly difficult. No one around them speaks Hindi; it was not even compulsory to study it in school. Sounds, grammar and gender - they're all complicated.)My grandfather was told, "Tell that soldier to come here."Proudly, my grandfather said, "Idhar aao!""Good! Now send him back there."That was a difficult one. My grandfather had no clue how to say 'back' or 'there'. So he did the only thing he could think of doing. He … [Read more...]
Exam Gems III
Asked to 'write a commentary' on a poem, students write:'...one thing where I felt that it is wrong is that he did not divide the last line properly, the last line's word is going in the next paragraph.' 'The name given to the poem is very good' 'The poem does not start with a boy sleeping but we can imagine this because the situation will be like that only.' 'I don't understand why does he just start to talk about his own self instead of ending it in a good way. I just did not like the ending because it was confusing but the rest of the poem from the starting was wrote in a decent manner... it was rhyming also when it was needed except the last part' 'The short sentences create a great mood of reading the extract, as their is less to read and more to understand.' 'The tone of the narrator is in a very appreciable fashion.' '[The poet] has a great critical thinking power.'We asked for … [Read more...]
Exam Gems II
Attempting to create pathos and anger: 'Reaching hospital it was looking like messy type' 'I got him into the last point of insultation'Attempting - um - I don't know what: 'And if the film is ya some actors take more many if they don't hard work' (Mm? Can you say that again?)Imaginative writing: 'Their colour was blue as dark blue in the ocean, just as ocean their body was made of ocean.'Arguing for equality: 'The removal of Girls and a huge unrespect for girls is seen in the parts of India.'Innovative spelling:buque (Say it aloud; you may understand) masculur paniced humguous maintedLet's make up words and phrases! fightings unequality By mistakely step on your own feet … [Read more...]
Exam Gems
Correcting papers is a crazy experience. There are some things each teacher in the staff room feels compelled to share with the others.Commenting on a poem's language and style, students write... 'This heart-touching poem...', or better still - 'This tear-dropping poem...'Commenting on the expected audience, a student has a bewildering response - 'The language used is abit complex probably not aiming for audience but for readers who are mature.'Describing a forest, a student wants to create rich imagery, so talks about 'barked densed trees'The students are also tested on their ability to empathise. One exercise was a letter written by Theo to his famous brother, the painter, Vincent Van Gogh. A student writes - 'You have to treat such problems as a video game'Spelling is the most exciting - use your imagination here. Be warned, students cheerfully invent … [Read more...]