How did Franz’s feelings about M. Hamel and school change?

Read this sentence

M. Hamel had said that he would question us on participles.

In the sentence above, the verb form “had said” in the first part is used to indicate an “earlier past”. The whole story is narrated in the past. M. Hamel’s “saying” happened earlier than the events in this story. This form of the verb is called the past perfect.

Pick out five sentences from the story with this form of the verbs and say why this form has been used.

Find out about the following (You may go to the internet, interview people, consult reference books or visit a library.)

(a) Linguistic human rights

(b) Constitutional guarantees for linguistic minorities in India.

Given below is a survey form. Talk to at least five of your classmates and fill in the information you get in the form.

Have you ever changed your opinion about someone or something that you had earlier liked or disliked? Narrate what led you to change your mind.

“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?

Write a paragraph of about 100 words arguing for or against having to study three languages at school.

English is a language that contains words from many 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.

(a) “What a thunderclap these words were to me!”

The words were

(i) loud and clear.

(ii) startling and unexpected.

(iii) pleasant and welcome.

(b) “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

(i) do not lose their language.

(ii) are attached to their language.

(iii) quickly learn the conqueror’s language.

(c) Don’t go so fast, you will get to your school in plenty of time.

You will get to your school

(i) very late.

(ii) too early.

(iii) early enough.

(d) I never saw him look so tall.

M. Hamel

(a) had grown physically taller

(b) seemed very confident

(c) stood on the chair

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

Write a notice for your school bulletin board. Your notice could be an announcement of a forthcoming event, or a requirement to be fulfilled, or a rule to be followed.