On Sundays I help a class 9 girl from a Hindi medium government school to study English. The level of her English texts are such that no Hindi medium student can ever understand it.Even those from the English stream would find it difficult, and would not be able to relate to it. When the girl came to me first, a few months ago, she did not even know the difference between she, he, and it, between now and then, between this and that –in fact she didn’t know the meanings of these words. Yet they have to study poems like the Isle of Inisfree, and complex short stories. Below are the first few paragraphs of what we studied today, from Chekhov’s , The Beggar.
Couldn’t there be a better choice? Wouldn’t something from Ruskin Bond or any local writer be better?
From Chekhov’s story in the class 9 text:
‘Kind Sir, have pity; turn your attention to a poor, hungry man! For three days I have had nothing to eat; I haven't five kopecks' for a lodging, I swear it before God.
For eight years I was a village schoolteacher and then I lost my place through intrigues. I fell a victim to calumny. It is a year now since I have had anything to do-"
The advocate looked at the ragged, fawn-colored overcoat of the suppliant, at his dull, drunken eyes, at the red spot on either cheek, and it seemed to him as if he had seen this man somewhere before.
"I have now had an offer of a position in the province of Kaluga," the mendicant went on, "but I haven't the money to get there. Help me kindly; I am ashamed to ask, but I am obliged to by circumstances."
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