Undergraduate / I find the English people very fascinating; People you'd like to know/ GRINNELL SUPP [2]

One of the fascinating qualities of Grinnell College is the diversity of its student body. Grinnell students come from around the world and from innumerable socioeconomic, religious, and cultural backgrounds. What place, people, or culture would you like to get to know better and why? (approximately 250 words)

As a girl who loves exploring almost everything British, I find the English people very fascinating. A feeling of euphoria is bestowed on me when I am immersed in my collections of British historical novels. I mostly find myself being pulled, as an observer, into the world of the characters. From my enormous readings I envisioned the English people not only as people who are friendly and patriotic, but also people who take so much pride in their culture and way of life. And that is the reason why I have an enormous interest in observing and getting to know more about the English people. I was so eager to learn more of the English people that I almost got my enthusiasm killed on my way to realizing this. It all began on a typical Summer Saturday morning. My sister had asked me the previous day if I was interested in meeting up with some British girls who were friends with her old mates. In that moment all I could think of was how great of an opportunity that would be and I said yes with no hesitation. All seemed to be going on well enough until the arrival of the English girls. They were the complete opposite of the people I envisioned the English people to be: rude, arrogant and egoistic. I began to see to the reason why the English people are being stereotyped as rude, arrogant and was no different from those who see the English People only in light of their egoistic behaviors. But as luck would have it, my second encounter with an English girl, Anne, became my turning point. Consequently, she helped me realize that she just as most of other English people are not to be seen in light of the act of person who seemed to portray her country in a bad way. My encounter and experiences with Anne has helped revitalize my old eagerness to learn more of the English people's culture.

Essays / Should the mother tongue be the medium of instruction in South African schools? [2]

Please I need urgent proofreading!

The mother tongue is the first language(s) learnt as a child, rather than a language learned at school or as an adult (Cambridge Dictionaries Online, 2013). The term mother tongue originates from the notion that linguistic skills of a child are honed by the mother and therefore the language spoken by the mother would be the primary language that the child would learn. Just as Phillipson (1992:120) has said that, 'an apparently sound focus on the mother tongue as a medium of education does not in itself provide a guarantee of enlightened education', in this paper arguments supporting the non-implementation of the mother tongue as the medium of instruction in South African schools will be laid out.

One of the main factors militating against the application of the mother tongue as a medium of instruction is the multilingual setting in South Africa. It is a known fact to all that South Africa is a multilingual country adopting eleven languages: Xhosa, Zulu, Afrikaans, English, Venda, Setswana, as its official languages. From this arises the issue of the difficulty in choosing a single mother tongue i.e. single language policy as a medium of instruction in South African schools, which would suit every school context in South Africa (Felix Banda.2000). Furthermore, the implementation of the mother tongue instruction would result into the division of schools into different and respective language groupings as a result of the diverse mother tongue inherent to each pupil, which could possibly result to a sort of linguistic apartheid (Anthea Fraser Gupta.1977).

According to the Canadian linguist, William F. Mackey (1992:52), 'A language which lacks a well-established written form cannot be empowered which in turn jeopardises the potential status of such a language'. This quote beyond reasonable doubt shows that the non-availability of the developed written forms of the mother tongue languages militates against the mother tongue being the medium of instruction in South African schools. Regardless of the fact that the mother tongue can be used effectively as communication media during conversations taking place between two people, during cultural practices, and other events of this level, its application in presentation of ideas in academic or scholarly context cannot be functional (Alex Foley. n.d). Therefore this fact renders the adoption of the mother tongue instruction impracticable, in so far as the available standard written forms of these mother tongues sometimes differ from the actual dialects spoken by the aborigines.

Consequently, the administration of the mother tongue as the medium of instruction would reduce the international relations in South African schools. Taking the case of a tertiary education institution e.g. a university into consideration, in this case such an institution with a vast population encompasses students from different countries needs to make use of a medium of instruction comprehensible by not only South African students but also the international students at large. If any medium of instruction contrary to this is applied, there will be little or no interactions between the lecturers and the international student or at large the number of international student enrolled in such a university will diminish as a result of lack of understanding.

In light of the arguments presented in the paragraphs above, the application of the mother tongue as the medium of instruction would have more detrimental effects than it would beneficial ones. Therefore, it is the logical thing to have the new ways on how to improve the current method used in teaching in South-African schools in the mainstream of the debate, rather than having lots of efforts and resources wasted on issue which would add no value to the quality of the South African education system.