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**** Goanet Classifieds ****
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Enescil, a Brazilian engineering firm requires Engineers, Architects
and Draftsmen, proficient in AutoCAD, for their new office in Goa
Those interested can email [email protected] by 15 November 2011
Selected candidates will be sent to Brazil for 2 months training
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In recent months the standard of Goa's leading English daily has fallen so
drastically, I am hard-pressed to find a single sentence which isn't
grammatically incorrect or a transliteration. The staff of this newspaper -as
shown in a recent photograph - are predominantly Goan Catholics, as is their
readership. Goan Catholics, especially from Salcete, are the most impoverished
speakers of the English language. If you come from a village in Salcete, you
are likely to have a terribly deficient vocabulary and grasp of grammar. In
fact, the spoken English is not English at all but a transliteration of Konkani
into some words stitched together in English.
The reasons for this are many; the most pertinent one being they insist on
speaking English at home, an affectation which they quaintly refer to as
"speaking English in the house," quickly followed by another affectation, that
of being unable to speak in Konkani -except of course to their Bihari maids.
Sadly they learn English from their aging grandparents who might have known one
or two words of Portuguese de cuisine, which are now translated into English.
They then go to school where the teaching staff speak equally poor English -if
not worse, as most ladies in Salcete have embraced teaching as a career without
either the inclination nor the ability to teach.
Though I fully support the right of parents in Salcete and the rest of Goa to
insist on English as a medium of instruction for their children, I shudder at
the thought of generations and generations of Goans growing up with inadequate
languages skills. Growing up deficient in language skills will produce a
society unable to articulate complex thoughts because the development
of thought-processes and language go hand-in-hand. It is all very well to
introduce English as a medium of instruction but until the government
legitimately recognizes English as a language of Goa and makes the much needed
investment in this language, in terms of getting skilled teachers and upgrading
the actual mode of imparting the language, we are stranded. Merely swapping
English textbooks for Konkani ones is not the solution. If we continue speaking
and writing English the way we do, we are practically speaking, an illiterate
society. So the question is, foo will titch our
chillren English?
Best,
selma
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Protect Goa's natural beauty
Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve
Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php
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