Light a Torch

Have a good look at the following article:

In fact this problem with the use of torchlight was addressed in my If post. I suppose another way of explaining the difference between torch and torchlight is by comparing them to moon and moonbeam. Torch and moon are tangible but torchlight and moonbeam are not.

The problem could also have arisen because Americans refer to torch as flashlight. Go figure.

A working Sponge

Students are like selective sponges. What you want them to remember, they conveniently forget. What you want them to disregard, they remember for life.

During my teaching practice, I had this student who would make it a habit of talking to the person behind her even when I was talking. No amount of dissuasion could stop that behaviour of hers.

And so one day, I accidentally spilled out, “We are a progressive lot. And it’s a pity that one of you is still backward-looking.” That did the trick. She never once looked back after that.

I didn’t expect much from her on my last day in that school. Farewell cards were given to me plus a short speech by the monitor. But the best gift was what this backward-looking girl told me. I can’t remember her exact words but it was the fact that she couldn’t stand the thought of being branded a person who’s not progressive. The fact that it was uttered without malice, I feel, also had a small part to play.

The Sound Of Music

How many of you find The Sound of Music pure music to your ears? I find that a number of people that I’ve met found it unbearable. Times have changed but to me, the songs in that musical remain evergreen. The musical is a repository of excellent materials which can be used for teaching.

For one, the pronunciation is British which is a rarity in modern English songs. Though our students are more familiar with American English, the irony is our English syllabus is still modelled on British English.

If you remember the opening scene, the first few lines sung by Maria (played by Julie Andrews as she runs up to the top of the hill) sound British because of the absence of the ‘r’ sound or what is known as non-rhotic. The words hearts, birds, church, lark and learning prove my point as evidenced in the following:

My heart wants to beat like the wings of the birds
that rise from the lake to the trees
My heart wants to sigh like a chime that flies
from a church on a breeze
To laugh like a brook when it trips and falls over
stones on its way
To sing through the night like a lark who is learning to pray
(excerpted from the song ‘The Sound of Music’)

The other added advantage is that it has a number of interesting expressions which not many students are familiar with. What’s a flibbertigibbet and will-o’-the-wisp? The nuns should know for that’s what they call Maria. As far as love is concerned, Liesl feels these are things beyond her ken. Well, I can wax lyrical about those lexical items which we can use to enrich our student’s essays.

If you still think that The Sound of Music is the Sound of tragic, just give it a try. One taste of it may change your mind.