Haphazard studies in the English studies

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: Haphazard studies in the English studies
Language: English
Source: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume 9 (No. 6) June 1929
Year: 1929
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Fulltext: june, iy^y THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 21 scaffolding and begged to be let down to play; so Donata put her down at a wide safe place, while one of the old artists gave her a little pot of gold paint and showed her a place where she could put it or without spoiling the picture. This caused Donata to beg for some paint and a brush, so that she could help paint an actual sunset. Her wish was granted and the artist gave her a corner of the canvas just above the bay, telling her to paint a bright red line there. Carmen, not an artist, spent her time resting and watching the others work. High above she could see the master artists flecking the blue canvas of the sky with bright gold or tinting the pictured clouds with pale rose and mauve. Just above the picture of the gulf stood the new moon with a bright star near its tip. An expert artist was touching the sky canvas with a brush dipped in pale green which har monized perfectly with the pale blue of the sky. Donata, having finished the task assigned her, now stood in rapture before her work which glowed like a living color. “Oh, how I wish I could paint sunsets all the time,” she sighed, as she turned a happy face to the fairy. “Why do not the fairies paint sunsets like this every evening instead of only a few times in the year?” “Well, for one thing,” answered the fairy, “sunset pictures such as this, that cover the whole sky from horizon to horizon, require a great amount of paint and the mines would soon be exhausted. Also the work of painting a great picture is very exhausting for the artists and they can not produce one great picture after another as workmen make articles in a factory. Again, the plans for a great picture must be very carefully thought out in advance, and every one given detailed instructions, so there will be no hitch in the work. The sun requires that pictures painted at his setting be finished within a certain time. He withdraws his light at the end of that time, the artists can not see to paint in the dark, and all the bright colors rapidly fade away.” “Who decides when a great sunset scene is to be painted?” asked Donata. “The fairies of the inner circle,” answered her little guide, so solemnly that Donata felt somewhat in awe. “Whenever there is some great day, such as the birthday of the sun or the dog star, or the day when the moon and Venus stand near together in the sky, as they do to-day, then the inner circle orders a famous picture to be made in honor of the event.” Explanations were here suddenly interrupted by howls of anguish from Pati who was seen coming toward them with her dress all covered with dark red paint. She had fallen over a pot of it, splashing it all over the canvas, much to the disgust of the student artists occupied with that part of the picture. Fortunately the splash was evenly made, and, from the earth, looked as if it had been painted on purpose, so no great harm was done; though for awhile it was feared that the great picture INFORMATION FOR INVESTORS Expert, confidential reporte made on Philippine project a ENGINEERING, MINING, AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY, LUMBER, ETC. Hydroelectric projects OTHER COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES BRYAN, LANDON CO. Cebu, P. I. 5i , .... r;......... had been spoiled. An old artist who hurriedly brushed the paint here and there with swift expert strokes, saved the situation. The fairy felt that it might be well to move her party away from that spot, since there was much muttering and scowling among the student artists—who did not enjoy the idea of having their picture spoiled at the last moment by a toddler. It was near the end of the sunset anyway, so by the time the party reached the horizon line, toward which the fairy had waved them, the bright red colors had faded to old rose and deep red, the bright gold had faded to old gold and the ashes of roses had faded to pearl gray. Pink clouds had begun to turn blue gray underneath, only the highest tips in the east retaining their Haphazard Studies in the English Language The identity of the perpetrator of what this department is about to quotor is unimportant. What he says is. Interest attaches to the de linquency, not to the delinquent, so even the name of the paper in which the piece originally appeared, and made a point well taken, is omit ted. It is enough to say that it is a periodical in good repute, published in Manila. First the quotation, matter for comment italicized, then the comment: “The recent creation of a board of examiners to test the knowledge of English of all university and college graduates in the Philippines, who wish to continue their studies in the Ünited States, is a novelty. It is, in a way, a unique innovation, a tacit admission made the more patent by the complaint on the part of the Registrar's Association of the United States, that the teaching of English in our higher in stitutions of learning in accordance with the Filipinization policy of the government has not been entirely a success. “Whatever economic advantages the so-called Filipinization in our public schools may have had, it has one serious drawback and that is the teaching of English by those who have no thorough knowledge of it. We hold no brief against native teachers. Some of them are exceptionally bright and are as capable, along many lines of human endeavor, as any foreign instructor or professor. But, without wishing to appear unpatriotic,—the writer is Filipino— it seems to us that the teaching of English in the higher reaches or grades of education should be confined to American or English teachers alone. Like most foreign languages, the “genius” of the English language is elusive. It can be caught and mastered only by native born or those who have had opportunities of learning English at its source from early childhood. “Whether we like it or not, the Philippines is bound to adopt the English language. Would it not be the better part of wisdom, therefore, to study it to the best of our abilities, to learn it from those alone who are competent to teach it and who know it, as it were, by instinct? Only thus can we expect to make our speech intelligible, persuasive and compelling. Only thus can it represent “the golden harvest that folio we th the flowering of thought.” To encourage the use of what is commonly known as “bamboo” En glish either because through mistaken zeal or economic fallacy, the government refuses to hire real masters of English, is to choose deli berately a poor material when, at a little dif ference in cost, a good one could be had with far better results.” The words and phrases which for the purpose of comment have been italicized, may now be gone over: The recent. Understood, hence superfluous. The knowledge of English of. Cumbersome, the test is in English. Comma rule violated after Philippines: the adjective clause when not restrictive is set off by commas. This clause is restrictive, it confines the allusion to those alone who wish to continue their studies in the United States. In a way, a unique innovation. Superfluou and redundant, as comparison of the meaning of novelty, unique, and innovation will show. On the part. Superfluous, a manilaism. True, things are always being done here on the part of someo.ie other than the one doing them, pink color unchanged. Another wave of the fairy’s hand, after reach ing the earth, and the party moved in a flash from the horizon line, now only a dull gold, to the stubble field of Donata’s father near Cabu. Here the fairy vanished without a word just as the last bright rays of the sun were withdrawn from the west, leaving only a dark red glow low down on the horizon. The children ran home in the dusk of evening, in answer to the call of Donata’s mother, to whom th ey^chattered so much about sunsets and sunsei fairies that she soon gave them their supper and packed them off to bed. In their dreams they made the journey with the sunset fairy all over again, and it seemed just as wonderful as before. that is, they are frequently done by proxy; but that comes of the government’s being much in the news, and doing a great deal here. The ways of governments, especially of bureaucracies, are ever devious. Diction, however, should be direct—particularly when expository. Registrar's. This should probably be Regis trars', the plural possessive form. Filipinization. This is a coined word, but in good repute and essential to the filling of a void; but there seems no good reason to keep on capitalizing it. There is a tendency the other way, which makes transatlantic, transpacific and similar terms correct without either hyphen or capitalized initial letter. (The comma after United States seems superfluous). And that is. In apposition, should be set off with commas—or omitted. /. •<>'.) trii' : ■ - ...• someth’:Jig : no who¡fdoes n.-t • etchers mv j frmr. pchtithose in the good diction, n¡ay likeSome of them are exceptionally bright and are. The second are is superfluous. Along many lines of human expression, lines of human endec oi enjoy good repute, means, if any : analogous to career or profession does not wish to convey this, Lphrase is superfluous. The a intend to say that some Filipi proficient in other lines, and o teachers. Such expressions der cians (not to confine the term islands) and tend to intrude in i where they have no place. Tha rhey may like wise occur in decisions from t bejch is rm defense, since the bench also is <• mn bombas-ic. Foreign instructor or profess< ,. Pardooably the author has here avoided ¡/-peiitim?. bm fallen thereby into an inaccur mv Instructor and professor are not precise syn-.-uvms oí ¿cache r in the sense the word is employ ■ 1: they imply The Philippine Guaranty Company, Incorporated (Accepted by all the Bureaus of the Insular Government) Executes bonds of all kinds for Customs, Immigration and Internal Revenue. 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No language is like another; languages merely have points of sim ilarity, and it is their dissimilarities which dis tinguish them from one another. Correctly, the author is not comparing languages, but a characteristic common to them. This word like is often carelessly employed. One should avoid doing so. It is an introductory word for similes. Foreign (as an adjective modifying languages). Superfluous, hence should be omitted—a charac teristic genius pervades every language. “Genius”. Erroneously placed within quo tation marks, whereas the author uses it in a usual and correct sense. The English language. In this phrase the article and the noun language are superfluous, hence should be omitted. A facility of English is the ease with which nouns convert into ad jectives and verbs, adjectives into nouns, etc., and this exemplifies it. The genius of English is elusive. Native born. If used at all, this expression requires the definite article the preceding it. But some such expression as those to whom it is a mother tongue is preferable. Or those. The correct conjunction is and; and, better than those, others. And who. The best usage avoids and who, and which, and analogous expressions, which usually may be done by omitting the conjunction. Persuasive and compelling. As an expression apposite to the word intelligible as used in the context, this expression falls short; and as in telligible serves the full purpose of the author, it is only weakened in purport by adding any thing to it. Nothing should therefore be added. Or economic fallacy. The vagueness of this term rules it out. It is also repetitious, since the mistaken zeal alluded to is one of economizing expense: the author does not question the zeal of the government otherwise, and of course not the filipinization policy. A poor material. The article should be omitted. The same applies later in the same sentence to the expression a good one, of which only the word good should be retained. Purged in part of fault, the piece is, in the .opinion of the commentator, one of the most common sense statements he has read anywhere on the question of providing our higher schools with competent teachers of English. It now reads: “Creation of a board of examiners to test in English all university and college graduates in the Philippines who wish to continue their studies in the United States is a novelty. It is a tacit admission made the more patent by the com plaint of the Registrars’ Association of the United States that the teaching of English in our higher institutions of learning in accordance with the filipinization policy of the government has not been entirely a success. 4 “Whatever economic advantages the socalled filipinization in our public schools may have had, it has one serious drawback, and that is, the teaching of English by those who have no thorough knowledge of it. We hold no brief against native teachers. Some of them are exceptionally bright and as a capable as their Something About The Asuang Frank Lewis Minton The writer accepts no responsibility for the authenticity of this article, as it is compiled from a number of more or less garbled accounts of the Bisayan storytellers.—M. and priests. This is a widespread primitive; it was not limited to the Philippines. Noting the relish with which the heads of church and state devoured these human giblits, the people became envious and demanded that they, too, be allowed to share in the sacrificial feasts. Their demands were promptly and emphatically denied on the ground that only semideities and those endowed by the sun god with superhuman powers could be allowed to eat sacrqd foods. The leaders of the malcontents were suitably punished, and the incident was considered closed. But the curiosity of the people had been aroused, and they soon began killing children and practicing the cannibalistic religious rites secretly. Finding the flavor of human flesh much to their liking, they revolted and began destroying their offspring openly, in defiance of priest and chieftain. Later, deciding that it was wasteful to burn the sacrificial victims, they began the practice of eating the bodies entire. That famine had more to do with the in stitution of cannibalism than these folk tales indicate, is extremely probable. The fact that protracted periods of extreme hunger will cause cannibalism and mob insanity has been demon strated too often to admit of dispute, notably during the past year in China. And that these early settlers, impoverished, improvident and restless, with very limited knowledge of agri culture, suffered severe food shortages, is prac tically certain. To the ignorant sun worshippers it seemed that they had discovered a novel method of replen ishing their larders. Children and youths were plentiful. The body of an adult, or a slain enemy occasionally augmented the meat supply. But as the generation grew older the number of children decreased rapidly, and there were no more young men and maidens suitable for the sacrifice; so they began harrassing neighboring tribes in search of the gruesome game which their perverted appetites, by that time, de manded. The raids on the nearby settlements were conducted with great stealth, and at first the unsuspecting good people believed that the youths and children who so frequently disap peared, never to return, were victims of croco diles; but eventuallv the atrocities of the sun origin of the asuang, by The evolution of the asuang apparently began among the sun worshippers who settled long ago on Panay and other southern islands, among whom the custom of human sacrifice was com mon. These are frequently mentioned among Bisayan raconteurs as the bad people, to distin guish them from the good people, who worship ped Bathala, the god of goodness. When the sun was angry, that is, when severe storms buf fered the country, or when epidemics scourged the settlements, priest and chieftain would select a young man and maiden, or young chil dren to be sacrificed on the altar of their god; but first the livers and hearts of the victims were removed, roasted and eaten by chieftains colleagues from abroad. But, without wishing to appear unpatriotic—the writer is a Filipino—• it seejp# to us that the teaching of English in our higher schools should be confided to Amer ican and English teachers alone. As with most languages, the genius of English is elusive. It can be caught and mastered only by those to whom it is a mother tongue, and others who have had opportunities of learning it at its source from early childhood. “Whether we like it or not, the Philippines is bound to adopt the English language. Would it not be the better part of wisdom, therefore, to learn it from those alone who are competent to teach it, who know it, as it were, by instinct? Only thus can we expect to make our speech intelligible. Only thus can it represent “the golden harvest that followeth the flowering of thought.” To encourage the use of what is commonly known as bamboo English, because the goverment, through mistaken zeal in econo mizing expense, refuses to hire real masters of English, is deliberately to choose poor material when, at a little difference in cost, good could be had with far better results.” Brilliantshine Metal Polish For cleaning and polishing brass, nickel, aluminum, and other metals, fixtures, chandeliers, bath trimmings, musical instruments, auto mobiles, etc. Used extensively not only in homes and factories, but in large quantities by steamship and railroad companies. Brilliantshine acts instantly when merely rubbed with a dry cloth, and leaves a luster that is silver-bright and lasting. Exclusive A¿ents WHOLESALE DEPARTMENT Philippine Education Company, Inc. 101-103 Escolta Second Floor Manila, P. I. 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