Maureen, thanks for forwarding this piece. I totally agree with Milburga that Uganda has to take French language education very seriously. Uganda is well positioned within the east african region -- we (used to) have a better command of English than any other country. We also have great opportunities to the North of us -- Arabic, and to the east and south - great kishwahili! If only we could encourage French, Arabic and Kiswhahili at our schools, our youth would have a competitive advantage over their counterparts in the region/whole of Africa.
The importance of being able to function in many languages was best put by Canadian Astronaut Julie Payette during her address at my graduating ceremony in 1999. Of the more than 5000 applicants to the Canadian Space Agency for the Astronaut selection program, Julie emerged among the four victorious candidates -- according to her, not because she had the best degree -- she only had a Master's degree then while thousands of applicants had Doctorates but because she was well prepared...she spoke her native French, English, Spanish, Italian, Russian and German. If our youth in West Nile could speak English, French, Arabic and Kishwahili (in addition to our local languages), they would stand a better chance of facing the challenges that lie ahead of them. Milburga, thanks for the commentary! Charles On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 8:40 PM, Ayikoru <ayiko...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > Dear All, > > Here is an opinion about the above subject from one of your own, you may > find it useful- click on this link: > http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Commentary/-/689364/1128274/-/13c31tsz/-/index.html > > Cheers, > > Maureen > > Sent from my iPhone > _______________________________________________ > WestNileNet mailing list > WestNileNet@kym.net > http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet > > WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > > All Archives can be found at > http://www.mail-archive.com/westnilenet@kym.net/ > > The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including > attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. > _______________________________________________ >
_______________________________________________ WestNileNet mailing list WestNileNet@kym.net http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/westnilenet@kym.net/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. _______________________________________________
