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The Last Lesson
What was the mood in the classroom when M. Hamel gave his last French lesson?
When M. Hamel gave his last French lesson in the classroom, there was no commotion. There was pin-drop silence. He was politely and dedicatedly talking with the students. There was no strictness, looked solemn, serious and deeply grieved. Whenever he spoke, his throat choked. He felt as if his bodily parts were being pierced.
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Franz thinks : “Will they make them sing in German, even the pigeons ?” What could this mean ? (There could be more than one answer).
‘When a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to their prison.” Can you think of examples in history where a conquered people had their language taken away from them or had a language imposed on them?
What happens to a linguistic minority in a state ? How do you think they can keep their language alive?
For example:
Punjabis in Bangalore
Tamilians in Mumbai
Kannadigas in Delhi
Gujaratis in Kolkata
Is it possible to carry pride in one’s language too far? Do you know what linguistic chauvinism means?
English is a language that contains words from muny other languages. This inclusiveness is one of the reasons it is now a ‘world language.’
For Example:
petite – French
kindergarten – German
capital – Latin
democracy – Greek
bazaar - Hindi
Find out the origins of the following words.Notice the underlined words in these sentences and tick the option that best explains their meaning:
“What a thunder clap these words were to me !”
The words were:
“When a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to their prison.”
It is as if they have the key to the prison as long as they
Don’t go so fast, you will get to your school in plenty of time. “You will get to your school.”
I never say him look so tall. M. Hamel
M. Hamel had said that he would question us on Participles. In the sentence above, the verb form “had said” in the first part is used to indicate an “earlier past.” The whole story is narrated in the Past. M. Ilamel’s “saying” happened earlier than the events in this story. This form of the verb is called the Past Perfect.
Pick out five sentences from the story with this form of the verb and say why this form has been used.
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