Simply Smith

Malcolm Hoddy's editorial piece last week caught my eye. Not so much for the actual content but for what he left out. I understood and applauded the gist of what he was saying, it would indeed be a feather in the educational cap of Keighley for us to achieve the hat-trick of language college (Holy Family), sports college (Oakbank) and technology status (Greenhead).

What struck me as I was reading it was that although we, as a species, have developed multitudinous and multifarious ways of speaking to each other, how much are we listening to each other?

Simply reading the Letters to the editor last week highlighted the fact that so many people are talking that we cannot hear what they are saying.

There was a letter about smoking that ended with an accusation about car exhaust fumes. A second letter started about a concern about the council's reinstatement of a flower garden and finished with a broadside against a building contractor.

Communication is a two-way activity: if one party fails to participate communication has not taken place.

Too often when an individual expresses an opinion badly, either using the incorrectly chosen words or, even worse, including swear words, the person hearing the comment receives the wrong message.

The consequence has to be a lack of communication.

Listening is a skill that needs to be honed by practice. Too often we hear what people are saying and respond only to what we think they are saying.

We can all talk but how many of us really speak intelligibly?

I regret the demise of Latin as a subject in our schools. I realise that it was taught in a wholly inappropriate manner in our schools, but with the expertise of countless educators at our fingertips it could be a valuable communicational tool.

People would know the meaning of many of our Latin-based words and use them properly. How many of us realise the number of Latin words that are in everyday usage: for example, exit, versus, (Omni)bus, and many more that could be trawled from the dictionary.

I learned Latin at school (I have to say much of which I have now forgotten) and thought it the most boring lesson on God's earth. Going back to those bad old post-war days would not be a good idea.

However, I still maintain that the notion of Latin lessons is sound and should be encouraged.

If we are to delight in a rich and fulfilling life in this world we need to communicate effectively with those around us. Speaking to and not at our peers should be both an enjoyable social and an intellectual experience. Too often it consists of grunts that, surprisingly, both parties understand.

Malcolm Hoddy mentioned that, as a nation, we are lazy at learning foreign languages. Might I suggest that we are also tardy at learning own most beautiful language.

It is not for nothing (if you'll excuse the double negative) that so many other nations have our tongue either as a first or as a second language. Are we doing ourselves a service when we demean it in so perfunctory a manner?

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.