You know Catholic / Catholism briefly, and commensurate with you knowledge of Hinduism and Idlam?
Venantius J Pinto On Apr 26, 2015 6:38 AM, "Brian Mendonca" <[email protected]> wrote: > Goan Teenagers and the English Language > < > http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-grvV7uAq0dg/VTyGIlZwP0I/AAAAAAAAB9o/4tks4tZPZr0/s1600/images%2B(1).jpg > > > > > -Brian Mendonça > > *'Religion: In India there are many religion and the three which I know > brifley are Catholic, hindus and Muslim. People say that there are > different gods but I believe that there is only one and just one god.* > *Politics: Earlier politics and today's politics there has been a lot of > change. Earlier politics was clean, smooth and fare all were treated > equally whatever goods were there were distributed equally and everyone was > loved equally but today if we go to be our politican and politics it has > been rough and dirty politican only feel their pockets they don't give a > sheet to see the people, their needs only think of their self and their > family. Even if others people die they don't care. It's full of corruption. > The roads today are full of 'holes' but the poiticans don't repair them > because of them today many young youth have died. Other main thing and that > is politicans have entered our religion . . . They made the Catholic people > suffer a lot our nouns what harm they made why they are suffered a lot?? > They made our Catholic hope less but as I have seen through this our > Catholic faith has been increasing day by day there have a rally which was > recently done by our Catholic brothers and sisters and in which many people > took part lot number of priests and nouns were also there . . . Its > important and one must not get politics into religion. Religion is separate > and politics.'* > > *Commentary*: The above is an excerpt from an English essay by a teenager > in Goa. > > While it is plain to see that the student has ideas, command over the > English language to provide a vehicle for these ideas is sorely lacking. Is > the teacher going to go back to the drawing board and begin to teach > spellings, homonyms, punctuation and palindromes? > > Is the world view of the Goan teenager inscribed only by three religions? > This is a pathetic perception of India. Still, festivals like Navroz - the > Parsi New year is scarcely commemorated in school. Why is there such a > disjunct between theory and practice? > > In another question on diary entries for a festival of India spread over 4 > days, most students gushed over generalities like 'many cultural > performances,' 'great music,' 'lovely dances,' and 'boring' poetry > readings. What was absent was any confidence to name any thing unique to a > particular state, viz. *Bihu* from Assam; *Khakra* from Gujarat, *Bhangra > *from > Punjab or Kamala Das from Kerala. Students seem to shy away from this > cultural immersion. > > The problem is systemic. Teenagers hardly read the papers. IT and smart > phones have given most of them a false sense of eloquence. Take-home > assignments are ridden with material copied from the internet, and passed > off shamelessly as one's own. > > With few exceptions, when it comes to Goan teens, there seems to be a > general apathy towards India, academics and English language skills - a > crucial matrix --with scant hope in sight. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Published in Gomantak Times *Weekender*, St. Inez, Goa on Sunday, 26 April > 2015; pix courtesy zazzle.com >
