Eswatini: 3rd Term report 2019

Eswatini: 3rd Term report 2019

students in class [file pic]

An Admission of Failure

The recent announcement by the Prime Minister of Eswatini that English Language will no longer be a required passing subject in schools is a huge admission of failure, a throwing-up of hands, reflecting a huge decline in standards both in the national school system and in our wider society. It appears to solve a problem but in reality it's a way of saying 'Problem? There's no problem!' which is our government's favourite way of dealing with issues.

I can imagine that a lot of students awaiting the results of the recent round of examinations are smiling, saying, "Hey, it's easier to pass school now." Quite so. But will it help to get a job? No. Because there are no jobs. And lowering requirements won't help to create jobs. What is currently needed in our brave new world are school graduates with multiple language skills: I've long argued that students should be studying at least 3 languages in school if they are to be competitive in the workplace [my suggestion for eSwatini is siSwati, English and Portuguese].

The buzz words these days are entrepreneur, start-up, portfolio and e-commerce: there's a general consensus that if you really want a job you will most likely need to create one.

And how do you become an entrepreneur? What is a start-up? How do you build a portfolio?

Studies have demonstrated that a prerequisite for entrepreneurial thinking is a population that reads.  And our population mostly doesn't. (Do you remember those block-like things that have pictures on the cover, a blurb on the back, and no navigation buttons or batteries? We used to call them books.) So how will lowering language requirements and standards help us? Obviously, it won't; rather, it will exacerbate the problem--we're digging a big hole here. Of course, the rot was previously encouraged by the decision to dumb down the teaching of English by making English a 'second-language' in schools: ie, it's taught as a foreign language, which is a much easier syllabus. 

In short, the teaching of English has become a political issue when it's actually a practical one. There's a suggestion that we start learning Mandarin; it's a valid idea; but did you know that there's more English spoken in China and India than in America? And considering how important China and India are becoming in our world, that is something to seriously ponder.

It's not about English, or siSwati, or Mandarin, or French or any of our babel-tongues: it's about communicating. If you plug a printer directly into a computer, will it just work? It will work only if the printer and computer understand each other. Technically, you might say the computer needs the right driver. If the printer software and the computer software understand each other, then it will work. 

Here's another way to look at it. Recently an African e-commerce platform was launched. So you sit down, come up with a business plan, and register a website domain. You want to sell your product to as many people and in as many markets as possible, so what language will you use for your website? A sensible approach would be to choose a widely-spoken language. Currently that list doesn't include siSwati; I wish it did but it doesn't. So announcing that English is no longer a required passing subject is a political statement, not a practical one. Politicians have a habit of clouding or dodging issues. Language has always been seen as a political issue but it really isn't; it's an emotional issue, and I expect this recent announcement to be popular. But if we are to turn around our moribund economy we need to start working on it now. We don't need to make everything easier, we need to roll up our sleeves and start learning skills. We should be upping our standards, not dumbing them down.

The Christian Rats

The Christian Rats

Here’s an interesting example of how language and its idioms change through the passing of years and movement between different cultures.

In Shakespeare’s lifetime (1564-1616) there was a common expression, “to be as hungry as a church mouse”. This expression came about because in those days churches had neither kitchens nor storerooms, unlike eating places and homes, so a mouse that tried to live in a church could literally starve to death.

During the next few hundred years, however, the saying became “to be as poor as a church mouse”. This change is easy to explain, for the poor of every nation have always struggled to get enough food to eat well.

Then, in the nineteenth century, when Christian missions began to spread throughout the world, establishing churches and the English language, this revised expression naturally travelled with them.

Fast-forward to our era, and the expression has changed again. I came across this interesting passage recently in the introduction to a book discussing the proper Christian approach to wealth:

‘Once upon a time, an extremely poor person used to be likened to a church rat. The expression was ‘as poor as a church rat’. This meant that the Church/believers were so poor that they barely managed to survive and so could not have anything left over for the rat in the Church to feed upon.’

Here, not only has the mouse become a rat but through personification the rat itself has become a Christian!

This is yet another fascinating example of language change. I hope you found it as interesting as I did.

© Kenneth Rowley 2015

Early English Music (update)

This is not to say that melancholy music can't be beautiful~ listening to the CD transfer, most of it clearly is~ but the beauty is severe, as for example a statue of the Virgin is beautiful; it doesn't come across as a beauty of joy.

English Music 1600-1750

The title comes from a record that I recently transferred from tape to CD. I have no idea who the performers are, but the composers are the usual suspects: Purcell, Adison, Boyce, Brade and Handel. The tape was made from a record borrowed from Wimbledon library sometime in the early 1970s.
What strikes me most listening to this recording now, apart from the performing style (more about that later), is how minor-key, sombre, almost mournful, the music is~ even with dotted rhythms; even the 'dances'.
Of course, 'mournful' is my appellation; others might call this music 'serious and stately'.
Then again, it might be the performance that is the culprit. As a teenager I loved a recording of concerti by the Neapolitan composer Francesco Durante (1684-1741). It was an old recording and quite rare~ recordings of Durante are not common. Anyway, a few years ago a different, CD, recording that included a couple of the Durante concerti appeared and I bought it: but I recognised nothing! Contemporary period perfomance really makes these old works new...