| Our sensitive relationship with the English language | Send to a friend |
| Thursday, 13 October 2011 21:19 |
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A CHAT FROM LONDON This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Last week we saw how various Africans with no single national language like us claim to manage European languages better than us.Let’s carry on with the contention. I met this Zambian female, a Bemba who frequents the same gym. She had the best teeth I have ever seen. “How come your teeth are so white? Are they real?” She smiled even brighter than before. “Ever since I set foot in London I have heard that question over and over again,” she said. “So do you use some special Zambian toothpaste?” She laughed: “Nooooh! I have a beautiful heart and it shows in my mouth. I never lie.” We kept on till we touched nationalities. Was I Jamaican? She wondered. Ethiopian? “I am your neighbour,” I hinted. She stepped back. “You are Congolese? I love Ndombolo.” I said I wasn’t Congolese but Tanzanian. She screamed so loud that the whole gym stared at us. One of the duty managers looked sternly at me, as if I had hurt the poor female. But Mawamba (fake name) had changed gears; her speech becoming more animated. “Years ago I used to date a Tanzanian. Very lovely guy.” “You still together?” “Unfortunately not,” her vocals dropped; her tone seemed sad. “We could not communicate very well.” “Why not?” “Hamisi wanted to be my lover he was a married man, he wanted to practise English.” It was my turn to shout “Haaah”. “So he just wanted to practise English to be with you?” “Correct.” “And why was that?” “Well, you tell me. He said you guys do not do much English in Tanzania. You speak Swahili and English is only a language for passing exams and learning school stuff.” “So what happened?” “We had fun together; we went out and danced and partied, but it was always crazy, because he would lie that he was going to leave his wife for me; he never did and I got tired.” “You liked him?” “A lot. Hamisi was a great guy. He could be really funny. He would make me laugh until I cried. Sometimes he would get these letters from the government and companies which he wanted me to read for him. As I read he would mimic me. At the beginning it was irritating but I got used to it. It was his way of practising English.” “Where was his wife from?” “Ah, she was also from Tanzania and not very educated he claimed, I wasn’t sure whether it was just to make my head swell or not.” The Mawamba story may throw in certain simple truths that could shed light into our lingual situation. Living overseas always expands one’s horizons. Like Hamisi one wants to learn because there are so many opportunities, peoples and cultures. We are supposed to be a bi lingual country but is the reality true? Our standard of spoken and written English has fallen dramatically during the past decades. Just study the English grammar and vocabulary of comments sent to online newspapers, blogs or hear some officials addressing international meetings. When I was in secondary school (almost 40 years ago); despite policies being completely opposite of what we are these days, i.e. leftwing and Ujamaa, we had different lingual standards. For example we students used to compete reading English written novels. There used to be an English thriller writer called James Hadley Chase . His crime books were very popular; once you start reading you could not stop. We would share Chase novels and actually treated them like chocolates, chips or maandazi. James Hadley Chase’s real name was Rene Brabazon Raymond; he was born in 1906 in London and died in 1985. It is baffling how such an author could mesmerise us youngsters in deep Africa. These days it is so hard to find Chase books in Europe, let alone London.A few years ago I found copies still being sold in Dar es Salaam but were published in India. They are still popular and rare. Chase played a big role in us learning English back in the 1960s and 1970s. Question: would young people today be crazy about an English author? The internet has taken over as a major source of brushing up the English language. Facebook, emails and twitting have in the last decade helped us write faster. But without reading English literature in the traditional sense, instead of a glass screen on a computer will we improve our lingual skills? Mr Macha is a writer and musician based in London. Blog: www.freddymacha.blogspot.com Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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