There was this questionnaire on a WhatsApp group. I could not read it actually because it was meant for the students. That is to say, the first few entries in the questionnaire were such that only a student could process it. The questionnaire was about the difficulties students from small towns face when they come to a bigger city in search of further opportunities which could include further studies, job openings, settling down in the big city, et al.
Absolutely agreed that students should not face any problems just because of the medium of instruction/expression. Could I ask a few basic questions though? To begin with, how many senior college students attend the English Language lectures?
In any college these days, out of the roughly hundred and twenty students per division, not even twenty would be present! How would anybody learn any subject in absentia?
I am sorry if I sound cynical, but even the so-called post-graduate qualifications of most students appear vacant, in fact, absolutely meaningless, because they would not have attended even twenty per cent of the total lectures of any subject! How they manage to pass the qualifying exams is anybody's guess!! Mug up whatever material from some cheap guide during the night before the exam, puke up in the answer sheet whatever is foggily remembered, try n copy as much as possible when it comes to internal assessments, et al, right???
I have often wondered at the parents' absolute lack of interest in whether their "ward" is attending/not lectures! I know any number of girls from lower middle class families who wander around the city during college timings instead of attending lectures! How come their parents never get to know? Do not parents ever talk to their "wards" about what is happening during lectures, how their studies are going on, what they have learnt newly, and so on?
Often there is this talk about students not being industry ready. How would they be if they do not bother to attend even ten per cent of the total lectures? Forget soft skills! Where are the core, the hard skills, and this sick plight in an era of information explosion! Sad scenario!
Pratima@ In addition to attending lectures regularly, how about appearing for internationally qualifying exams such as the CEFR exams? If the exam fees, payment for lectures for these appear steep, how about cutting down on a few avoidable expenses and comforts?
One of Aai's 'mavashi' (that is, the caretaker) had daughters who expected dresses worth five thousand rupees for Diwali, for their birthdays! Often Netflix packs, regular data packs kind of "necessities" cost thousands, given the all night long binge watching and game playing! All that money could be used to take proper tuitions, right?
Anyways, other inexpensive options, too, are available for language improvement. Instead of working on one's language sincerely, why choose the easy option of blaming the medium???
Quote of the day: "Concern yourself more with accepting responsibility than with assigning blame. Let the possibilities encourage you more than the objections discourage you," asserts Ralph Marston.
Word of the day: the blame game. The 'blame game' is a situation in which different individuals or groups attempt to assign blame to each other for some problem or failure.
Let us learn grammar: So far we have learnt two basic sentence constructions; namely, 1) s+v and 2)s+v+ direct object (+ to + indirect object). Now let us look at subject +verb+ subject complement. To begin with, look at the term 'complement'. It does not mean what you would share with the valentine on February 14! That is "compliment". 'Complement', on the contrary, refers to 'complete'. The subject complement completes the meaning of the subject. Let us explore this sentence pattern tomorrow onwards.
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