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Memoir of an English Teacher of Calcutta
In April 1969 a month and a half after I had taken my M.A. examinations a friend of mine asked me to meet the Headmistress of a reputed English-medium school, in which there was a leave-vacancy. It was close by and one of the better-known Girls’ schools in Calcutta and so with a trepidating heart I went to meet the Headmistress. I had nothing to lose. I had only been called for an informal interview, I consoled myself.
The Headmistress exchanged a few words with me and took me straight to a classroom in the Middle School (that was how they were known there in those days – K.G., Junior, Middle and Senior Schools, each with its respective Sectional In-Charge), and asked me to take the class. A thunderbolt struck right through me, as it were. Thankfully, the Half-Yearly Exams were due in about ten day’s time and the children were supposed to do their revisions. The class consisted of Bengali students, one a Bengali Muslim. From them I came to know that they studied Bengali as their 1st Language while the medium of instruction was English, which was their 2nd Language. Not yet out of my trance, I dared only a smattering inter-action with them. But even during the few brief exchanges I noticed that quite a few of them spoke the language reasonably well. Additionally, as a joining gift I got two sets of Test-work to check, though I did not know one word of what I was supposed to correct in 3-4 days.
Thus I joined Gokhale Memorial Girls’ School as an Assistant Teacher in English. Little did I know that my real learning process had then actually begun. I got the first inkling of it when I took on the task of correcting the Test-work. Students were mostly of a higher-than-average calibre. I was struck by the language some of them used, a handful of them truly remarkable. I knew that I had a task in hand. I learnt that the system in school was that till class VI all subjects were taught in Bengali and VII upwards in English. Later, English was made the medium of instruction all through. In the higher classes, X & XI, there were many whose language was simply out-of-the-world. I neither then felt, nor now feel the least ashamed to admit that there were many who manipulated the language much better than this novice, young and inexperienced did, from whom they were supposed to learn its tricks. How very ironical!
For very many years it had been the same extremely satisfying experience of teaching English as a 2nd Language to students who were not only from Bengali but also non-Bengali homes who studied Bengali as their 1st Language and who did all others, including Needlework & Cookery, in English. Teaching them, tackling their problems, inter-acting with them on various matters, coping with divergent classroom situations, which were never the same every year, even on the same subject-matter --- all these have been for me a rich learning experience that has added so much worth to my life. In all fairness, I must admit that I learnt more than I was able to teach them. Amidst all this, what I found particularly admirable was their proficiency in both the languages. Year after year and round-the year our children participated in and won various competitions all over the city, in Bengali & English --- Debate, Essay-writing, Elocution, Recitation & Drama (even scripted by themselves). Academically also, their achievements were worthy of mention. I remember one of our students being the all-Bengal topper in Elective English. She was one who had read The Geeta in original when in VIII.
On hindsight, it occurred to me that the families from which the children came perhaps had a lot to do in it. Children came from families with a background of a traditional British education. I do not mean to suggest that their parents were all born or brought up or educated in England. But there was the unmistakable flavour of chaste British expression and standards, to which they had been exposed.
With the introduction of the 10+2 system, English, the 2nd Language, was of 1 paper (40 + 60 including Translation). The role of translation is often overlooked in the language-learning process, but we have always strongly felt that, in a pre-dominantly Bengalee atmosphere and for Bengali-speaking children from Bengalee backgrounds learning a foreign tongue, translation is a very effective method .They do think in Bengali, and, for this very reason, must be taught how to translate.
This shift in the importance of English was spreading its tentacles, slowly, silently but surely. We, however, retained the 2-paper subject upto IX, keeping in mind the needs of the students studying in the English-medium. But studies was receiving a sharp competitive edge. Examination-orientation, by now the be-all, was replacing beyond-the-syllabus interest and natural flair. There were notable exceptions, though, but with the passing years the numbers kept dwindling. And we too were forced to make them compromise on, if not sacrifice, those at the altar of examination. The home-atmosphere was fast changing, as was society. Now they were anglicised, more cosmopolitan. And so, naturally, the purity of the language was the loser, its finesse gone, with that the dignity and reserve, and the subtle nuances missed. Coarseness, ruggedness and an up-smartness replaced those. Welcome exceptions were few and far between. Almost all our children had been known to have considered English their most favourite subject, but much less now, in the last few years.
Inevitably, we old-timers have had to face the challenge of trying to wean them away from use of the distorted, mixed versions of what passed in the name of English. It is not the expressions from various other languages that modern dictionaries to-day accept, but the random and unchaste uses that children to-day find pleasure in making that did bother me in my last half a decade ……. and still does.
Ms. Chandrima Chanda’s first Contribution for Pentasect. Pentasect met this veteran teacher in the scheme of Internet connections and editor has been persistent to get this work from her. Finally the work came and a very unique kind of a work. Ms. Chanda can be reached at tutuchan1@yahoo.co.in