------------------------------------------------------------------------ * G * O * A * N * E * T **** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Enjoy your holiday in Goa. Stay at THE GARCA BRANCA from November to May There is no better, value for money, guest house. Confirm your bookings early or miss-out
Visit http://www.garcabranca.com for details/booking/confirmation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is not more fodder for the great language debate in Goa. I don't want to comment on the sentimental loyalties of the Marathiwaddas or on the virtues of Devanagari versus Romani script. I am ill equipped to do so. Language has always been of interest to me. It is the very foundation of all our thought processes. To quote Karl Kerenyi: "The interdependence of thought and speech makes it clear that languages are not so much a means of expressing truth that has already been established, but are a means of discovering truth that was previously unknown." It is precisely because language is so fundamental to the development of a society, that we as Goans are doing ourselves a great dis-service by speaking English. The vast majority of Goans, including a great many teachers, have a very poor grasp of the English language both in terms of grammar and vocabulary. At the lowest end of the socio-economic strata, vocabulary may be limited to as little as 100 words in English. Yet, grandmothers, nannies, virtually everybody involved in the rearing of children will insist on speaking English. This impoverished form of English that is beginning to be passed down from generation to generation, is negatively impacting our society. By the time, a child is 6 to 8 years old, his vocabulary should be extensive enough for him to recognise puns, form sentences to express emotion and verbalise abstract thinking. If he is not equipped with a language that enables him to do so, he is unable to develop the mental templates that lead to higher order thinking. Doubtless, there will be a section of our society who is able to expose their children to books, theater, cinema and other mediums that increase a child's linguistic prowess, but the vast majority is disenfranchised from such opportunities and suffer from a paucity of a strong linguistic system. It is far better to speak to children in the vernacular then it is to speak to them in broken and vocabulary impoverished English. "Speaking English in the house" should not be a badge of honour and not speaking English should not be a source of embarrassment. For those interested in reading how language influences thought here is a good link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_hypothesis __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org