☰
The Last Lesson
Why did M. Hamel blame the parents and himself for showing little care to the learning of the French?
In the last lecture, M. Hamel told the importance of learning their own language. He pointed out that most of the people of Alsace pretended to be Frenchmen but they were illiterate about the language. Even the parents were indifferent towards its learning and they would prefer their sons to learn a little instead of learning the language. Blaming himself as well, he told that he himself had often sent the students to water his plants. He gave them a holiday because he wanted to go for fishing.
Sponsor Area
The people in this story suddenly realise how precious their language is to them. What shows you this? Why does this happen?
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
Sponsor Area
Sponsor Area