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The Last Lesson

Question
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Why did M. Hamel blame the parents and himself for showing little care to the learning of the French?

Solution

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.

Some More Questions From The Last Lesson Chapter

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.
tycoon      barbecue     zero
tulip         veranda      ski
logo          robot         trek
bandicoot


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