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The Last Lesson

Question
CBSEENEN12020355

Everybody during the last lesson is filled with regret. Comment. (The Last Lesson)

Solution

Everything was unusual about the day when an order was released from Berlin instructing that only German was supposed to be taught in all schools of Alsace and Lorraine. This news caused great disappointment to M. Hamel, his students and the villagers. That day, the villagers, as well as the students, realized the importance of their national language. For the first time, they felt sorry for taking Hamel’s classes leniently.
The villagers had ignored the classes because they had been engrossed in their professional lives and in making a living Before the declaration of the order, the children and the adults had not taken the French lessons seriously because they thought they had a lot of time to learn the language. However, today during the last French lesson they realised their mistake and regretted what they had done. They felt shameful realising that they were not well versed in their own native language. Accordingly, everybody attended the last lesson with full sincerity and earnestness to pay tribute to their own language which, unfortunately, was no longer theirs.

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