Prose - 1. The Last Lesson

Franz was admitted to the French class. His teacher, Mr. Hamel asked them to be prepared with the participles as he was going to ask questions from the students and Franz never studied seriously and was scared of being scolded and get beaten by him.

Franz noticed that instead of hustle-bustle, that used to happen in the school every morning, there was a silence in the school and everything was so still and there was no usual tapping of the ruler on the table that his teacher used to do. Also, some villagers were sitting on the benches at the back of the class. Mr. Hamel was wearing clothes that he used to wear on special occasions.

There was an order on the bulletin-board that an order had come from Berlin that only German will be taught in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine after the Prussians defeated France. The order indicated that native language of France will be banned from the country.

After the order to impose German in France, Mr. Hamel was going to leave and German was to be taught then onwards. There was no noise in the school. Everybody studied patiently. Mr. Hamel wore the clothes, he used to wear only on special occasions and some important and eminent people from the area, the postmaster, the mayor and others were sitting at the last benches of the classroom.

The forceful imposition of German appeared as a shock to Franz, as a little kid. He forgot everything about the strictness of his teacher and listened to him carefully. He started feeling a sense of belongingness towards French and it started appearing very easy to him all of a sudden. He was also sympathy towards his teacher.

The language of a community is directly linked to their identity. It is their language that makes them unique. As Mr. Hamel has pointed out that one’s own language is the only key to the prison of enslavement. Thus, when people of Alsace and Lorraine become enslaved, they suddenly realized that holding on to their language depicts how free they were. This shows us, the importance of one’s own language and culture and this happened because another foreign language, German was imposed upon them.

Franz wondered if pigeons can sing in German shows that humans can force other humans but cannot impose it on nature. It implies that human power always has limitations. They cannot control everything in this world. Similarly, Prussians can control their schools and learning pattern, but cannot kill their love for their country and language.

Linguistic Imperialism : The forceful imposition of a language by a community on the other.

Some examples of linguistic imperialism are:

A. Imposition of English in India during colonisation by Britain.

B. Arabization in North Africa (imposition of Islam and so, imposition of muslim languages)

C. Imposition of Chinese in Tibet

D. Imposition of French in Britain (Francization)

E. Imposition of Hindi in South India

A linguistic minority is suppressed most of the times by the majority group.

They can keep their language alive by taking following measures:

1. Enhancing their literature by writing books

2. Conversing in their language in daily lives

3. Spreading it through performing art

4. Through T.V., Radio programmes

5. By opening minority schools and institutions

People sometimes take too much pride in their own languages and suppress another language. Though it is wrong and we should treat all the languages and cultures as equal.

Linguistic chauvinism means taking too much pride in their own language. Carrying pride refers to be overaggressive and fanatic about one’s language.

Tycoon- It originated from the Japanese word “taikun”, means great lord.

Barbecue – It originated from Carrebian word “barbacoa”, refers to a wooden structure used to cook. Meat- It has Germanic origins.

Zero- The word zero has French origins but originally its originated from Arabic ‘cipher’.

Tulip– It originated from French but has its origins in Persian dulband means flower shaped turban.

Veranda– It originated from Hindi ‘baranda’ means railing.

Ski- Norwegian ‘snowshoe’

Logo – It has its origins in Greek logos means ‘imprint’

Robot – It originated from Czech word ‘forced labour’

Trek- South African word means to travel in Dutch

Bandicoot- Telegu word pandikokku, means pig-rat

(a) ( ii) startling and unexpected

(Thunderclap refers to something that was unexpected and happened all of a sudden.)

(b) (ii) are attached to their language

(Language is the identity of one’s own culture and freedom)

(c) (i) very late.

(These words are used as a sarcasm or a taunt. Sarcasm is a figure of speech that means exactly opposite to what is said.)

(d) (b) seemed very confident

Five sentences in the past perfect tense:

1. For the last two years, all our bad news had come from there- the lost battles, the draft, the orders of commanding officer, I thought to myself.

2. I had counted on the commotion to get to my desk without being seen.

3. I had to open the door and go in before everybody.

4. When people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language, it is as if they had key to their prison.

5. But he had the courage to hear every lesson to the very last.

This tense has been used because in the story, the incidents are happening at two different points of time. The incidents that took place earlier takes past perfect (had+v₃) and that happened later took v_2.

For example: In sentence 1, first the information had come and then Franz thought to himself.

In sentence 2, first he got scared and then he tried to get to the desk without being seen.

In sentence 3, he had to open the door before getting in.

In sentence 4, they had their key to prison before they were enslaved.

In sentence 5, he had the courage and so, he listened to the lesson to the end.

FOR:

Language is a means to communicate that is being used by everybody who can listen, speak, read or write. The application of three language formula in the Indian schools is a significant move towards education and employment in the country. This helps children’s brain to grow and to broaden their knowledge. By learning various languages, they get exposed to the cultures of many countries and regions and thus their span of understanding increases. They can communicate with larger audience and their chances of being hired in MNC’s increases. Thus, imposition of three language formula is an excellent move towards preservation of culture and heritage.

AGAINST:

The idea of imposition of three language formula is not right according to me. In the today’s world, students already have a lot of work to do and I don’t feel a need for a third language. The official language of the nation and the mother tongue is sufficient according to me. The two language formula will save energy and time and third should be an option and can be taught only to the one’s who are interested. Thus, I oppose three language formula.

Earlier, when I and my best friend first met, I thought he is a quiet and bad boy and I never talked to him. But, one day he helped me when I was about to be beaten by some boys. Then, we started talking, playing and sharing our joys and sorrows together. Thus, my opinion changed and slowly we became best friends.

(a) Linguistic human rights are rights of humans to preserve and promote communication in any language in private and public sphere. International human rights law has been imposed all over the world, which gives right to promotion and protection of identity to all the groups.

In the international law, linguistic rights come under educational and cultural rights.

Some of the linguistic rights include, right to one’s own language in legal work, education and media.

There are many worldwide organisations such as UNESCO are working on the protection of linguistic human rights.

(b) The term “Linguistic minorities” is referred to the people who speaks a language that is not common in an area and is spoken by less number of people. For example, Tamil language in Northern India.

The constitution of India is the longest and most elaborated constitution in the world. It guarantees and preserves right of every group in the society. In the same line, there are some articles that prevents exploitation of the rights of linguistic minorities in India. Some of them are:

Article 29 : Right to establish and manage educational institutions to minorities

This article gives right to the people to establish the minority group based educational institutions and giving instructions accordingly, to preserve their culture and heritage.

Article 350A : Facilities of instruction in mother tongue at primary stage

Every child in India has a right to receive education in their mother tongue at the primary level, taht is till class 5.

Article 350B : Provision for Special officer for linguistic minorities under constitution

For the preservation of a minority group’s language, a special officer is appointed to keep a check if the rules are being followed or not.

I talked to 5 of friends, Aarushi, Sahil, Mandeep, Aasha and Aamir. The details they provided me are: