--------------------------------------------------------------------------- **** Goanet Classifieds **** ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enescil, a Brazilian engineering firm requires Engineers, Architects and Draftsmen, proficient in AutoCAD, for their new office in Goa Those interested can email enescil....@gmail.com by 15 November 2011 Selected candidates will be sent to Brazil for 2 months training --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Local accents or colloquialisms invariably get into spoken and written English. Indian English suffers from it as much as English spoken and written in many other countries. I had pointed out earlier on this forum that English in Goa's local papers is poor, but not comparatively bad to English written in many newspapers published in other states of India. Selma is perhaps keeping a track of the newspaper in question to make a bold statement, "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." She is obviously referring to OHeraldo. When I scan the newspaper I normally look for major grammatical errors or often arguments that appear incoherent to me in the opinion columns and in the editorial. I often find glaring mistakes in sentence construction. It is important that editorial copy should be gone through with a fine-tooth comb by at least two other editors after the writer polishes it with at least two drafts. Sometimes, the edited copy may come out worse than the original. That's a big risk that needs to be taken. We all are not infallible when it comes to writing in English. If someone out there says he or she is perfect I would wager a bet. Nowadays we have online grammar checkers, but they are not perfect. Line-by-line editing is a must when at least editing opinion pieces and editorials. Reports are often written in a hurry so as to catch deadlines and the pressure can result in turning out a bad copy. That's the reason there are copy-editor or sub-editors as they are called in India to make sure that the copy is readable and contains no anomalies or inaccuracies relating to the subject. The copy is also tested against the newspaper's guidelines, if the newspaper has guidelines in place. We all make mistakes, often inadvertently, in our writing. Even the best of writers make grammatical errors. It was noted that the late Dom Moraes often lapsed into bad writing. One senior editor at the now-defunct The Illustrated Weekly of India said that they were afraid to make corrections to Dom's copy as Dom had a reputation of being one among the finest writes of English in the world. The late William Safire used to write a column in the New York Times Magazine called On Laguage, which was also syndicated worldwide and India's The Hindu used to carry it. The columns were published in at least three books which I had. He found errors of all kinds in the written and spoken English of some of the politicians, journalists and authors, mostly Americans. I have read Rajan Narayan's book, a collection of his Stray Thoughts, and I have marked sentences which I felt were wrong. Similarly, I have gone through Fred's Another India and did the same. However, Fred's pieces are his reportage in his formative years in journalism. Rajan's book says that it is edited by Tara Narayan, Rajan's wife. I wished it a job better done. Fred's pieces are slapped as they probably appeared in print, and the column width is narrow. This reminds me of Tony Martin, who is probably still on this forum but has chosen to remind in the background, who once criticized a goanetter for using wrong English. When I pointed out to him that his book, Naked Goa, had grammatical lerrors, he replied saying that his manuscript was edited by a senior editor at Gomantak Times. Mind you, Tony has written a book of grammar for school kids. I have gone through it and found that much of the stuff came from Wren and Martin, the bible for teaching English in Indian schools. Coming to Selma's sweeping remark, I would like to know how she came to the conclusion that "Goan Catholics, especially from Salcete, are the most impoverished speakers of the English language." Does that mean that Goan Catholics from Bardez, Ilhas or other talukas are speakers and writers of good English? Is it a case of inflection on the part of English speakers in Salcette? Isn't Salcette Konkani said to be very "different" from Bardezi Konkani by Konkani-speakers from Bardez and Ilhas? It is a question of dialectical linguistics. English spoken in the north of India is far different from English spoken in the south, just as Hindi spoken in central India is far different from Hindi spoken in western India. Unless Selma is aware of certain cases where the "ladies" have become teachers without "inclination nor the ability to teach", I think the statement demands explanation and statistical proof. Teachers become teachers because they want to teach. I don't think anyone can forcibly make them teachers. It is another matter if they are good at what they do or just not cut up to the job. Maybe some of them made a wrong career choice. All schools have good, bad and worse teachers. As I see it, the standard of journalism in Goa has improved since the last decade. The pages of the local English-language newspapers display bylines of people other than journalists. It is a good sign that many columnists have come from fields other than journalism. Some academics have also come forward to pen their thoughts on issues of the day. Readership of English newspapers have grown and there is fierce competition to outbeat each other both in quality and circulation. I have no doubt that the standard of English in written form will improve. I am, however, not sure if spoken English will keep pace, as it is hard to do away with acquired accents and "ethnicity idioms." It is said as a joke that Indians think in their own respective languages and then try to express themselves in English. I recently took a friend from India to meet some Trinidadians of Indian origin in Toronto. My friend could not understand a word of what they said. I saw her face as blank as ever. I then explained to her in "our own English". The dialects of English are many and most of us who speak English may not understand each other. As Fred says it does not matter if It is Hinglish, Konglish or any other "lish" as long as people can communicate with each other and at least understand each other to maintain the conversation. Gabe has pointed out Selma's opening sentence could be grammatically wrong. I too felt it that way when I read it. It would have been better if Selma had rewritten the sentence to make its meaning clearer. Whenever in doubt of a sentence I am reminded of the William Strunk's Elements of Style 's central trust and that is to rewrite it in a simple way. Fred has mentioned that book here on this forum. As Fred mentios, Selma is lucky to have her early education in a British sytem of education in Dubai. The education system in Goa is far from being perfect. Selma has mixed the issue of Medium of Instruction (MoI) in English with that of teaching good English. As for the MoI issue, those in favour of English have made their point that children learning in English in the early stages will help them in the long run. However, the argument that children educated in Konkani or any other language in the early stages will suffer in latter stages in learning English is not well grounded. There are cases where students who studied in a language other than English have done well in both spoken and written English. May I ask the erstwhile Selma or her pubblisher, Fred Noronha, if her book Into The Dispora Wilderness was edited by anyone else other than herself? Eugene --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protect Goa's natural beauty Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php ---------------------------------------------------------------------------