Jose Carillo's Forum

STUDENTS' SOUNDING BOARD

We’ll be glad to help clarify matters about English usage for you

This Students’ Sounding Board is a section created especially for college and high school students. On request, it will provide informal advice and entertain discussions on specific questions, concerns, doubts, and problems about English grammar and usage as taught or taken up in class. If a particular rule or aspect of English confuses you or remains fuzzy to you, the Students’ Sounding Board can help clarify it. Please keep in mind, though, that this section isn’t meant to be an editing facility, research resource, or clearing house for student essays, class reports, term papers, or dissertations. Submissions shouldn’t be longer than 100-150 words.

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What do you think of compulsory speaking of English in our class?

Forum member forces20 sent me the following letter by e-mail last July 9:

Hello sir Joe,

I would like to ask your opinion or inner sentiment regarding a system that’s already in full swing in our school. It is about the compulsory speaking of the English language in our classroom. We are obliged to express ourselves fully in English in all subjects whose medium of instruction is English. If any of us is heard speaking with Filipino words or expressions, he or she is subjected to the punishment of paying 20 pesos at the end of the class. This is unless he or she fails to pass on the punishment to another classmate who violates the English-speaking rule.

Even if we are at the canteen, we should express ourselves in English. I find it very awkward but there’s nothing we can do but to abide by the rule.

I know that we have a natural propensity to speak using Filipino words especially when we are shocked or for some other reason, but this is not taken into consideration by the English-speaking rule of our class. I believe, though, that improving oral communication skills is not a matter of forcing people to express themselves but of their willingness to learn and put into practice what they have learned.

Respectfully yours,
Forces20

My reply to forces20:

I encountered a similar strict English-only-speaking rule myself when I was in grade school many decades ago, so I know how you feel about it. My inner sentiments about such a rule, then and now, are embodied in the essay below, “English in a Used Jar.” I wrote it for my English-usage column in The Manila Times way back in 2002 and it later became part of my book English Plain and Simple: No-Nonsense Ways to Learn Today’s Global Language. I actually posted the essay in the Forum in May last year, but let me share it with you now by posting it in direct reply to your letter:

English in a Used Jar

Several summers ago I tried to interest my two sons, then 15 and 9, in learning a third or fourth language. For their age they were already admirably fluent in English and Tagalog, so I thought that perhaps they should learn French, Japanese, or Chinese to give them the edge not only in school but in their future careers as well. I also had an ulterior motive in wanting them to do so. They were using too much time and energy playing those extremely violent Japanese-language computer games. I figured that they might as well put their amazing computer proficiency to use in something more educational, intellectual, and useful in the long term.

The language program that I wanted my sons to get into was an impressive multimedia routine entitled “The Rosetta Stone.” It offered a suite of 24 languages, if I remember my figures correctly, ranging from Dutch to Swahili and from German to Polynesian. I had found the program on the Worldwide Web and I took great interest in it because of a sad experience I had in my early teens. Tantalized by Ian Fleming’s accounts of the romantic adventures of James Bond behind the Iron Curtain, I had tried to learn Russian single-handedly. With no tutor and learning tapes and with only a battered English-Russian dictionary from a Peace Corps volunteer who had hurriedly flown back to the United States, that enterprise withered in the bud in less than two weeks.

My sons at first took to Rosetta Stone like butterflies to nectar. The older one began honing his piddling Japanese and also took a fancy to German after a day or two. The younger focused his learning resources on French exclusively, and in three days’ time was already speaking a smattering of the language complete with the schwas and the nasals. But less than a week after that, their elder sister came home from overseas and gifted them with a three-dimensional CD on time travel entitled “The Messenger.” That, in short, was the end (only for the time being, I hope) of Rosetta Stone and of my dream that my sons would become multilingual before entering college.

My predicament with my sons brought back memories of my own travails in learning English in grade school, back in my farming hometown in those years when there were yet no TV sets, no audio-visuals, no computers, and certainly no multimedia educational tools like Rosetta Stone. The only good thing going for us were our teachers, a hardy breed that rarely displayed lawyerly eloquence in English but was deeply steeped in the learning and teaching discipline. What they lacked in methods and tools, they amply compensated for in native resourcefulness. And what they did to make their pupils learn English was simplicity itself.

Our teachers made the whole school compound a strictly English-speaking zone. We were absolutely forbidden to speak any other language or dialect anywhere inside. This rule was rigorously enforced through a used two-ounce glass jar of mayonnaise or pickles. It was labeled “I was caught not speaking English,” and every time you used the vernacular or Chinese or Hindi, you were obliged under a strict honor system to accept the glass jar and drop a five-centavo coin onto it as penalty. You had to screw back the cap and furtively prowl the campus to catch another dialect-speaking violator in the very act and, bingo! the glass jar—plus his five-centavo penalty—could now be transferred to his custody. At day’s end, the last pupil with the glass jar had to surrender it to the teacher and formally remit the coins.

Oh, there were all sorts of complaints from parents and pupils alike against the dictatorship of the glass jar! There were several brawls and black eyes among early jar passers and receivers. But after a week or two, the pupils got the hang of it and started doing their damnedest best to speak straight and fluent English. The complaints stopped, and in a few months pupils from the school began winning English declamation contests at higher and higher interscholastic levels. In my case, I was an inveterate dialect-cursing maverick when the glass jar campaign started, but I learned my lessons early enough. I learned to hate being handed the jar and parting away with my five-centavo coins, which was a big drain on my school allowance. So, one day, I just decided to converse and curse consistently in English to bring down my contributions to the glass jar literally to zero.

Looking back to those days now, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that if not for that used glass jar, I would not be writing this little piece in English at all. At this very moment I would likely be already out in the old farm, tilling the family’s small parcel of riceland with a carabao-drawn plow, and certain to be doing the same for the rest of my life. Not that I would have hated farming, whose utterly predictable procession of planting, growing, and harvesting has a poignant way of giving you inner peace. But truth to tell, nothing really compares with the psychic reward of getting your thoughts printed in English and having a receptive audience for them. (2002)

From English Plain and Simple: No-Nonsense Ways to Learn Today’s Global Language © 2004 by Jose A. Carillo. Copyright 2008 by The Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

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Avoiding gender bias in our English

Question from Miss Mae, Forum member (June 22, 2010):

Good day! I just would like to know your opinion about using both “he” and “she” as pronouns for a third-person subject. Some media outfits still use only “he” when the third-person subject is unknown, and I’m still getting you-must-be-a-feminist stare whenever I decide to just use “she” in some of my writings. What should I keep in mind?”

My reply to Miss Mae:

The English language indeed has an inherent gender bias, particularly in the conventional use of the male pronouns “he,” “him,” and “his” when the antecedent is a noun of indefinite gender, as in “A trustworthy lawyer is he who respects confidences,” or an indefinite pronoun like “everyone” or “everybody,” as in “Everyone is entitled to his opinion.” The easy way out is, of course, to use the “he or she” form, as in “A trustworthy lawyer is he or she who respects confidences,” or the “his or her” form, as in “Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion.” This is fine if you’ll use the “he or she” form or “his or her” form only once or at most twice in a typical page of written work, but it could grate on the reader’s nerves when repeated several times.

I must tell you frankly, though, that you would be gender-biased yourself in favor of women—and deserve to get that “you-must-be-a-feminist stare”—if you habitually use the “she” or “her” form when referring to antecedents of indefinite gender, as in “A trustworthy lawyer is she who respects confidences” and “Everyone is entitled to her opinion.” Both forms do look and sound like you’re rubbing it in against men, so I would suggest that you confine such usage when you’re in the presence or company of an all-female group like, say, the Women Lawyers League.

A much better and more politic way of dealing with gender bias is to avoid it in your writing and speech as best you can. For the same situations in the sentences given as examples above, in particular, you can: 

1. Use “one” instead of “he” or “she”: “A trustworthy lawyer is one who respects confidences.” Or pluralize the antecedent noun to avoid making a gender choice: “Trustworthy lawyers are they who respect confidences.”

2. Pluralize the antecedent indefinite pronoun to avoid making a gender choice: “All are entitled to their opinion.”  

One more thing: You need to be extra sensitive to the need to avoid gender bias even in less obviously gender-skewed sentence constructions. For example, you need to cultivate the art of avoiding writing or saying, “Everybody is enjoined to bring his wife to the club picnic this weekend.” The gender-bias-free construction for that sentence is, of course, “All are enjoined to bring their spouses to the club picnic this weekend.”

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Questions and answers on using complex sentences to texture ideas

Forum member curious cat, who is currently reading my book Give Your English the Winning Edge, sent me last June 17 some questions about the discussions in Chapter 8, “Using Complex Sentences to Texture Ideas.”

Below is the set of curious cat’s questions and my answers to them. Curious cat’s statements are set in blue text; my answers in black text.

The following questions are based on the examples you used in your book: 

(1) A dependent clause can take on the following parts of speech section:

Object: "The dazed woman went whichever way the crowd ahead of her went."

The dependent clause here, functioning as the direct object, is supposed to be "whichever way the crowd ahead of her went" right? 

That’s right, the entire clause “whichever way the crowd ahead of her went” is the direct object of the verb “went.” To make this idea easier to grasp, think of that entire clause as the equivalent of “there” or “that way” as direct objects in this sentence: "The dazed woman went there.” "The dazed woman went that way.” (A simple test for determining whether “there” and “that way” are indeed direct objects is to answer this question: “Where did the dazed woman go?” The answer, of course, will be: “There” or “That way.” Both of them directly receive the action of the verb “go.”)

(a) Could you help me see the subject and predicate that makes "whichever way the crowd ahead of her went" a complete sentence? It seems like an adverbial phrase for some reason.

No, a dependent clause can never be a complete sentence, for it is always preceded by a dependency marker—in this case “whichever”—that makes it functionally a phrase and not a clause in the sentence. Indeed, a dependent clause can never stand by itself as a sentence and is forever consigned to the role of latching on to a main clause to serve its purpose. 

(b) If that's the dependent clause, then "The dazed woman went", the remaining part of the sentence should be independent, but is not a complete thought without the rest of the sentence. So do we have two dependent clauses that make up one independent clause?

No. In a complex sentence, there should always be a main clause and a dependent or subordinate clause. In your particular example, the main clause “the dazed woman went” can actually be taken as a complete sentence in itself. It has a subject, “the dazed woman,” and a verb, “went,” that’s a complete predicate by itself. Together they form a complete sentence: “The dazed woman went.” In contrast, the dependent clause "whichever way the crowd ahead of her went" can’t stand by itself, for it has no functional or operative verb to carry out the action. That dependent clause needs the verb “went” of the main clause to make it functional: “The dazed woman went whichever way the crowd ahead of her went"

(2) Object of Preposition: "You have to remind me every time where we must take a turn if you don't want us to get lost."

(a) "remind me every time where we must take a turn" is the object of the preposition "to". At first glance this looks like an infinitive. But I'm not sure if there's such a thing as an infinitive clause to begin with.

To avoid being confused, think of a dependent clause as always preceded by a relative pronoun (“who,” “which,” “where”) to be a dependent clause to begin with. As such, it will always be functioning as a noun form, in which case it can be the subject, doer of the action, or direct or indirect object in the sentence. Thus, in the sentence in question, the direct object of the preposition is actually the dependent clause “where we must take a turn if you don't want us to get lost,” the indirect object is “me,” and “every time” an adverbial time phrase.

There’s such a thing as an infinitive phrase but not an infinitive clause. The italicized words in the following sentence is an example of an infinitive phrase: “To love so deeply without being reciprocated is often a traumatic experience.” Here, it’s acting as the subject of the sentence.

(b) if an object is the receiver of an action, "remind me every time where we must take a turn" receives "have to", which is more likely an auxiliary than an action verb. How do auxiliaries figure in?

Let’s examine this sentence: “You have to remind me every time where we must take a turn." The action verb is “have” in the sense of causing or commanding to do something. It is followed by the infinitive phrase “to remind me every time,” which completes the main clause. The dependent or subordinate clause “where we must take a turn” serves as the direct object of the verb “have.” (The auxiliary “has”/”have”/”had” figure in the perfect tenses, of course, where they are used to indicate continuing action in the past, present, or future.)

(3) 
(a) “After she appeared in the award-winning movie, the young actress started receiving many offers for plum roles.” (The dependent clause acts as an adverbial clause)

That’s right; the dependent clause acts as an adverbial clause modifying the entire main clause.

(b) “Because the volume of his business had dropped so low, the entrepreneur decided to invest more in radio advertising.” (The dependent clause starts with a conjunction, Because, but the rest of the clause acts as a noun?)

No. Here we have a complex sentence: “Because the volume of his business had dropped so low, the entrepreneur decided to invest more in radio advertising.” Of course, it can also be written with the main clause ahead of the subordinate clause: “The entrepreneur decided to invest more in radio advertising because the volume of his business had dropped so low.” In both cases, the subordinate clause “because the volume of his business had dropped so low” denotes the cause of the action in the main clause. The clause after “because” doesn’t act as a noun but as a complete statement describing the nature of the cause of the result described in the main clause.

(c) “I will have to let her go as my executive secretary, unless she changes her careless ways.”
(The dependent clause starts with a conjunction, unless, and the rest of the clause "she changes her careless ways" seems to be dangling though. I'm not sure about this.)

Yes, a dependent clause always starts with the subordinating conjunction that introduces it. No, the clause “she changes her careless ways” isn’t dangling; by itself, in fact, it’s a complete sentence: “She changes her careless ways.” (It only seems to dangle because it’s in the present tense and doesn’t say what changes are made.)

(d) “When the general manager returns from his foreign trip this Sunday, meet him at the airport unless you get a call from me by seven that morning not to do so.” (The first dependent clause starts with When, which makes this an adverbial clause, the second starts with unless, and again, I am at a loss with what this clause is supposed to be)

A better way to deconstruct that sentence is this: The main clause is “meet him at the airport.” Subordinate to this main clause is “unless you get a call from me by seven that morning not to do so.” Another subordinate clause—you correctly describe it as an adverbial clause—is “when the general manager returns from his foreign trip this Sunday.” What we have here is a complex sentence with two subordinate clauses. 

(4) I noticed that you switched the dependency clauses from the head, to the tail end of the examples (mentioned above) in your book. Was that just to show the acceptable placements for dependent clauses?

Yes, of course. 

(5) What did you mean by "motivation and limitation" in this passage:

In example D, we have 2 subordinate clauses flanking the independent clause "meet him at the airport" giving the statement both its motivation and its limitation.

By “motivation,” I meant that the adverbial clause “when the general manager returns from his foreign trip this Sunday” is the reason for the command to meet him; and by “limitation,” I meant that the execution of the command depends on a particular condition, in this case ““unless you get a call from me by seven that morning not to do so.”

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The correct usage of “due to” and “because of”

Question from forces20, Forum member (May 28, 2010):

Sir, what is the correct usage of “due to” and “because of”? This question has baffled me several times.

My reply to forces20:

You are not alone in being baffled by the usage of “due to” and “because of.” A lot of people use these two prepositional forms interchangeably, thinking that they mean exactly the same. Well, sometimes they do, but you’ll know it when they don’t because of the awkward sound of the sentence. Now let me restate that sentence, this time using “due to,” to illustrate my point: “Well, sometimes they do, but you’ll know it when they don’t due to the awkward sound of the sentence.” See and feel the difference between the two sentences? The first, which uses “because of,” looks and sounds OK; the second, which uses “due to,” reads and sounds badly. Indeed, in the second sentence, the syntax of the phrase “when they don’t due to” is simply awful; I would even say that, if not totally wrong, such phrasing is grammatically and semantically suspicious. But the big question, of course, is “Why?” 

Let’s begin with the definitions of these two prepositional forms. 

“Due to” means “as a result of,” as in this sentence: “Due to inclement weather, the concert at the park was cancelled.” In this sentence, “due to” means exactly the same—well, almost—as “because of.” This can clearly be seen in the following versions of that sentence where “due to” has been replaced with “because of”: “Because of inclement weather, the concert at the park was cancelled.” “The concert at the park was cancelled because of inclement weather.”

On the other hand, “because of” means “by reason of” or “on account of.” The “on account of” sense of “because of” is clearly the same as that of “due to” in the sentence we took up as an example above: “Because of inclement weather, the concert at the park was cancelled.” However, the “by reason of” sense of “because of” doesn’t seem to work in that sentence; we don’t normally say “By reason of inclement weather, the concert at the park was cancelled” or “The concert at the park was cancelled by reason of inclement weather.” This is because these two statements, aside from being awkward to say, give the distinctly wrong impression that the cancellation of the concert at the park was a direct result of the inclement weather. This isn’t the case, of course; the cancellation was only an indirect consequence of the inclement weather. The cancellation was a human decision prompted by the inclement weather; indeed, the concert could very well have been held despite the inclement weather.

We can probably draw this general rule from the above discussions: The prepositions “due to” and “because of” mean the same and can be used interchangeably only if a consequent action is not the direct result of another action or event but only an indirect consequence of it, as we have already shown above. On the other hand, if the outcome is the direct result of a certain action or process, “because of” is the semantically appropriate prepositional form to use, as in “The offshore drilling rig was destroyed because of an explosion in the oil well.” (The explosion directly caused the destruction of the drilling rig.) In cases like this, using “due to” doesn’t work as well from a semantic standpoint: “The offshore drilling rig was destroyed due to an explosion in the oil well.” (This construction gives the impression that instead of the explosion directly destroying the drilling rig, there might have been other consequent actions or events after the explosion that led to the destruction of the drilling rig.) In this sense, “due to” and “because of” are clearly no longer interchangeable.

Having said that, I would like to cite another interesting prescription for using “due to” and “because of,” this time from the standpoint of syntax. I am quoting verbatim below the explanation by Kelli Trungale in “Grammatically Correct,” a weekly grammar tip created by Academic Center Peer Writing Tutors of the University of Houston-Victoria in Texas:

When to use: “Due to” versus “because of”

Due to and because of are often used interchangeably in both written and spoken language. However, these two phrases have different meanings; thus, they are not interchangeable.

Due to is an adjectival prepositional phrase, meaning it modifies a noun. It is commonly preceded by a form of the verb “to be” (“be,” “is,” “are,” “was,” “were,” etc.). Because it follows a “be” verb, it is considered a subject complement: It modifies the subject of the sentence.

Ex: Jeff Gordon’s loss was due to a broken tie rod.

In the above example, the adjectival prepositional phrase “due to a broken tie rod” follows “was” (a form of the verb “to be”) and modifies the subject of the sentence: “Jeff Gordon’s loss.”

Because of is an adverbial prepositional phrase, meaning it modifies a verb. It usually answers the question, “Why?”

Ex: Jeff Gordon lost because of a broken tie rod.

The adverbial prepositional phrase “because of a broken tie rod,” as seen in this example, answers the question, “Why did Jeff Gordon lose?”

Kelli Trungale then gives the following exercises to test our understanding of the proper choice between “due to” and “because of”:

Test Your Knowledge
1. George said that Lennie’s problems were (due to/because of) a childhood injury.
2. Julia became ill (due to/because of) the high pollen count.
3. The debate team won (due to/because of) their dedication and hard work.

Answers:
1. George said that Lennie’s problems were due to a childhood injury.
2. Julia became ill because of the high pollen count.
3. The debate team won because of their dedication and hard work.

As an additional test, you may want to check out Kelli Trungale’s answers against the general rule I proposed earlier for the interchangeability or non-interchangeability of “due to” and “because of.” Doing so may take some mildly strenuous mental exercise, but I’m sure you’ll get a deeper insight about the usage of these two slippery prepositional forms.

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Can you help explain the usage of “less” and “fewer” to me?

Question from forces20, new Forum member (May 25, 2010):

Oftentimes, I commit errors on these troublesome words, “less” and “fewer.” Can you help explain their usage to me and give several examples? Thank you.

My reply to forces20:

The usage of the comparatives “fewer” and “less” can be better understood in terms of whether the nouns they are modifying are countable or noncountable. In English, as we all know, something is countable if we can figure out without great difficulty how many of it there are; we then use “number” as an indefinite measure for it, as in “the number of candidates,” “a number of job openings,” “the number of parties involved,” and “the growing number of complaints.” In contrast, something is noncountable if it is in bulk form and counting its constituent units would be insufferably difficult or impossible; we then use “amount” as a measure for it, as in “the amount of potable water,” “a great amount of energy,” “a great amount of patience,” and “a large amount of dissatisfaction.”

Now, the word “fewer” is used as a comparative for plural count nouns, or things that use “number” as measure; thus, we say, “There are fewer candidates for club president this year,” “We find fewer job openings in the classified ads these days,” “Fewer parties took interest in the public bidding for the irrigation project,” and “The city police reported fewer robberies in 2009 than those of the previous year.” It may not be immediately apparent to nonnative English speakers, but native English speakers would find it grammatically odd if someone used “less” instead of “fewer” in those four sentences. 

On the other hand, “less” is used as a comparative for singular mass nouns, or things that use “amount” as a measure; thus, we say, “We consumed less water this month than last month,” “Our factories should consume less energy to remain competitive,” “The manager proved to have less patience with the student interns than we anticipated,” and “The latest consumer survey shows less dissatisfaction with our products than last quarter’s.” If one used “fewer” in place of “less” in those four sentences, native English speakers would notice something grammatically wrong with the statement. 

There are some notable exceptions to these prescriptions, though. When plural count nouns are thought of as an aggregate, “amount” instead of “number” can be used as a measure for them, as in these examples: “We will supply you with whatever amount of Hawaiian pineapples you will require.” “No amount of words will convince a rational-thinking person that Earth is only 5,000 years old.” Also, in certain cases, it is grammatically correct to use a singular mass noun in the plural-count sense, like “food” in the following sentence: “We need to reduce the number of kilos of food we buy weekly.”

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Can somebody post the usage of every tense of the English verbs?

Question from morrie (May 11, 2010):

Can somebody post the usage and example of every tense of the verb from simple to perfect tense? They are one of my weaknesses.

Reply by Joe Carillo:

The verb tenses in English are actually the most often and most extensively discussed topic in the Forum, but I’m afraid that there isn’t a single posting here that discusses all of the tenses thoroughly and comprehensibly. You’ll therefore need to go through the English grammar textbooks for an intensive review. Alternatively, though, you can read the following chapters in two of my English-usage books for a quick, comprehensive review of the tenses:

English Plain and Simple: No-Nonsense Ways to Learn Today’s Global Language:

Section 3 – Rediscovering the Verbs
Chapter 4 – Coming to Terms with Verbs
Chapter 5 – Transitives Overt and Covert
Chapter 6 – When a Verb Acts All By Itself
Chapter 7 – Verbs to Tie Up Loose Ends
Chapter 8 – The Hierarchy of Verbs
Chapter 9 – When Verbs Stray Too Far Off
Chapter 10 – When Verbs Take Different Guises

Section 10 – The Perfect Tenses

Chapter 41 – Dealing with the Perfect Tenses
Chapter 42 – Timeline for the Present Perfect
Chapter 43 – Timeline for the Past Perfect
Chapter 44 – Timeline for the Future Perfect
Chapter 45 – The Perfect Progressive Takes Its Time

Give Your English the Winning Edge:

Section 7 – Mastering the English Tenses
Chapter 45 – Clarifying Tense with the Adverbs of Time
Chapter 46 – Tense in Cases of Clause Dependency
Chapter 47 – The Arranged Futures
Chapter 48 – The Predicted Futures and Timetable Futures
Chapter 49 – The Described Futures
Chapter 50 – The Uncertain Futures
Chapter 51 – The Historical, Literary, and Eternal Present
Chapter 52 – How Verbs Behave in Exceptional Sequence
Chapter 53 – Dealing Better with the Past Imperfect

In the Philippines, both books are available in major outlets of National Book Store and Powerbooks. If you are based abroad, simply click this link to the Forum’s Bookshop section for the ordering details.

Let me know what you think when you’re done with your review, and afterwards, don’t hesitate to post in the Forum any questions you still might have about the tenses.

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African literature in English class?

Question from Musushi-Tamago (March 26, 2010):

Just something off the top of my head...

This may sound a bit strange. But, why is literature tackled in English class? For example, in our class, we studied Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, which is African literature.

Is there such a thing called “literature class”? If there is, why are pieces of literature that are not distinctively English taken up in English class?

Any help would be appreciated.

Reply by Joe Carillo:

By definition, literature is the body of written works produced in a particular language, country, or age, and it so happens that over the centuries, English has attained widespread use in countries other than England, its country of origin. In the Philippines, for instance, English is the second official language next to Pilipino and, over the past 114 years (48 of which was under American colonial rule), the country has developed an English literature of its own—meaning literature originally written in English by Filipino nationals, with literary writers like Nick Joaquin, N.V.M. Gonzales, and Bienvenido Santos as prime examples. The same is true with certain countries in Africa, which, I’m sure you learned in school, became colonies of Great Britain for many decades and acquired English as their second or third language, in the process developing an English literature of their own.

One such African country is Nigeria, where the author of Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe, was born and was raised by Christian parents in the village of Igbo in southeastern Nigeria. Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies, later becoming a novelist writing in English. In 1958, he published Things Fall Apart, which is considered the archetypal modern African novel in English. This well-written novel about traditional village culture in Africa received global critical acclaim, and is now required English-literature reading not only in schools all over Africa but also in many English-speaking countries worldwide. And this, of course, is also why it has also become required reading in your English literature class—yes, there’s such a thing as a literature class—in your school in the Philippines.

Today, Things Fall Apart now forms part of the world’s widely acclaimed literature in English, written originally in English by writers who are not subjects of the United Kingdom.

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