Lankan English: How far do we go?
View(s):On attending a seminar titled ‘Kaduwa’ at the just concluded Colomboscope, Dinoo Kelleghan shares her views
On the way home in the tuk-tuk from “Kaduwa”, the ColomboScope seminar on Sri Lankan English learning, while chatting with the driver in an amalgam of our native tongue and fragments of vocabulary stolen from the Sceptred Isle, I ruminated on the substance of the symposium.
I had enjoyed myself. The speakers – Dr. Sumathy Sivamohan of Peradeniya University, Dr. Shermal Wijewardene of Colombo University, writer and editor Malinda Seneviratne and moderator Shyamalee Tudawe – were erudite. The participants were enthusiastic and acute. They knew English and they knew Sri Lanka. But how many of the issues spoken about at the well-attended event last weekend were located in the past – the 30-year-old experiences at university at the height of the JVP class war, the Sinhala Only Act?
The Kaduwa panel: (L-r) Dr. Sumathy Sivamohan, Shyamalee Tudawe, Malinda Seneviratne and Dr. Shermal Wijewardene
People spoke of past personal challenges and individual disappointment; they spoke to past attempts at delivery systems and of dusty legislation. All of these were important.
It is time, though, to unglue ourselves from these baggage-ridden past points of reference in visualising the future: about how the learning needs of our schoolchildren and university students mesh with our national goals.It is inescapable that English will remain the lingua franca of global communication. (Zut alors! Here I am, rattling on about the future and about English as the utility of choice for those who do not share a common language, and I use an ancient Italian term. The complexity and joy of language!)
Certainly, other global languages such as Spanish or French or Chinese challenge the hegemony of the English tongue. But a quarter of the world speaks English today, and most of this number are not native English speakers; English is the Lingua Franca (ELF, as the pundits say).
It is a given that a superior national bank of English language skills will significantly boost Sri Lanka’s performance in all areas of national diligence. A community that can communicate well in English cannot but contribute to the national bottom line.
A provocative topic at the seminar was the prevalence and validity of Sri Lankan English. Of course this metamorphosing variant exists but I applaud Dr. Sivamohan’s view at the seminar that it should not become a fetish.
Localised English is warm and amusing, and often carries layers of cultural meaning uncaptured by orthodox English. But let’s use it like that, sparingly and to make a particular point of nuance, not bring it into the mainstream with a false patriotic sentiment.
Let’s face it, we can’t carry Singlish/ Tanglish into public and official life either here or as export-workers if we want to be taken seriously, if we wish to be understood universally and without ambiguity in English-speaking environments.
If we wish to be upwardly mobile and desire ready acceptance in the global marketplace – so vital, with more than two million Sri Lankans working abroad, then – as those of us who have gone overseas to work or study know full well, the sooner we think and speak clean, straight English the easier our path becomes.
We learn quickly to become chameleons, we Sri Lankans who have lived overseas–all that sing-song intonation, all that head-wagging stops as we progress through the phase of being regarded indulgently by the host community to wanting to be seen as a source of power.
We learn to strip away the Sri Lankan accent in public and resume it in Sri Lankan company – where it becomes a necessary part of fitting in to that milieu. Language can certainly be political, as Malinda Seneviratne said, but let’s not introduce unnecessary complexity into our lives by thinking our idiosyncratic usage of English determines our Sri Lankanness.
Accent in every respect should be taught along with grammar and vocabulary because it is so important for easy and authoritative communication. I studied in the English medium and spoke English at home as a child, thought I knew it all, but never understood until I went overseas that my accent in words, on the first syllable, was almost invariably in the wrong place.
Mortifyingly, the effect would produce bemusement in listeners as they tried to recognise a familiar word in unfamiliar clothing, and work out whether I knew what I was talking about. In middle-age, I still need to pause to pronounce “adVERtisement”, not “ADverTEESEment”.
These slips create the impression that we don’t know English rather than simply not knowing how to pronounce it properly, and out there, where the race is to the swiftest, we can’t afford such slips. Accent and pronunciation need to be incorporated into English teaching for a 100 per cent result.
It will be a long training process because currently only Sri Lankans with overseas experience have faced this hurdle. It is vital that senior public servants are taught effective English communication that clears away such difficulties. My husband, who teaches English in Australia to non-English-speaking adults, semi-jokingly says that the “best accent wins”. This is so even in England: remember Professor Higgins in “My Fair Lady” asking, “Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?”, and telling his upper-class friend, Colonel Pickering, that if he spoke with a Cockney accent like Eliza Doolittle did, he “might be selling flowers too”.
A strong accent sets an ELF speaker back even more than comic mistranslations from the native tongue – I well remember how a Chilean-born high-level colleague in Australia received affectionate laughter when she referred to toes as “foot-fingers”, but the sniggering came at her Chilean pronunciation of English. Sad, but this is reality.
A speaker at ColomboScope asked whether English should be taught as a skill only, like driving a car, given its practical utility in employment. This is tempting as a cheap option, but limiting. Just as much communication is, in fact, non-verbal, communication is also about mutual reference points, of verbal shorthand that captures an idea in a short phrase. This shorthand springs from English versions of literature, including the Bible, in culture, in popular culture, and in history, and all these channels must feed English communication to Sri Lankan children in cities and villages.
From great literature we have, for instance: some are more equal than others, a pound of flesh, et tu Brute, Big Brother is watching you, elementary my dear Watson, East is East and West is West; from the Bible: a broken heart, a fly in the ointment, a labour of love, a wolf in sheep’s clothing; from history: I came, I saw, I conquered, we will fight them on the beaches, Ich bin ein Berliner (the semantic power of Kennedy’s declaration at the Berlin Wall could prompt a whole new essay), the light on the hill, I have a dream; from pop culture: Sisters are doing it for themselves, This land is your land; 50 ways to leave your lover; The green, green grass of home, Imagine, Hang down your head Tom Dooley/ Somarama.
Somehow, the teaching of English must recognise that effective communication is not by words alone but also ideas. Words are the ocean, ideas the waves; shared ideas elevate and deepen relationships because we not only understand what is being said now but also what the speaker might think and say another time.
There needs to be acceptance of the need for a cultural lingua franca, unappealing though this idea might be to some. Our Sri Lankanness will not be weakened by it but strengthened and reinforced as we forge our own verbal reference points as links with others.
There is optimism: “Even with all the talk of standards of English having dropped,” said Dr. Sivamohan, “I find far more students speaking English today than 20 years ago.” That is a good foundation. The trick now is how to work to achieve a national level of English language competence that is appropriate to Sri Lanka’s requirements. Current government initiatives in developing English training packages that demystify the subject, and the provision of a chain of language laboratories are, without doubt, positive moves.
Catching the learner young at school will be positive in enhancing language competencies in the long term. Teaching and curriculum need to provide a rich learning experience that captures the young person’s imagination and innate interest in language. Teaching any language simply as a life-skill creates the fault-line between those who use words and those who love words. There was little doubt where the “Kaduwa” speakers stood. As Sumathy Sivamohan said firmly, “Language is not a skill. It is about change, negotiation, transaction, and it’s always about power.”
Then again, the adult learner has different language needs. Individuals are most frequently looking for skill-sets that would help them in their employment. This lifts the lid again on the idea of language as a utility tool!
The sheer complexity of language education is revealed in the amount of commentary it receives. I think I need to go for another long tuk-tuk ride …
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