Telling The Truth

Thank you so much to Susan and the ASSF team for inviting me to contribute to this panel. My story ‘Threadbare’ in the ‘Relatively True’ Anthology is told by an unreliable narrator. There’s a clue embedded in the story that tells us that the entire narrative she is constructing is an elaborate falsification. Can you find the clue? And how does that change what you believe about what she says?

I have been struck by the adversarial and combative nature of much human interaction over the past few years, intensified by the pandemic, enforced isolation and partisan politics. People develop versions of history, both public and private, usually self serving or self justifying ones, and aggressively promote them. We have come to expect that truth is fluid and negotiable, instead of being fixed and absolute. We award the prize of credibility to the best told story, as if to a gladiator in a jousting tournament.

In my story, the narrator expresses mounting indignation at a woman whom she judges to be profoundly fake: a charlatan. The story she tells encompasses a tragic arranged marriage which unravels over time. But we see very few glimpses of the narrator herself, until the end.

Here we see her as a lovely woman dutifully arranging the family altars and tables for a celebration of a major religious festival - Diwali, which just commenced a few days ago, in fact. She probably looks to the observer as demure, respectable, domestic and serene, with her measured movements. But there is rage in her heart. A righteous rage. Or is it?

Her dilemma is that she is not allowed to curse anyone. So how does she achieve the outcome she wants, and still remain within the God and Goddess’s manifest will for humanity? She asks that all impurities be burned out of the person she dislikes. And it’s not her fault if the person in question is riddled with impurities, and lacks redeeming qualities! Their suffering will be proportionate to the impurities that are being burned out. For the good of all! Right?

I have had the honour of seeing my work published in 3 of the 5 brilliant Indo-Australian Anthologies of short stories edited by Meenakshi Bharat and Sharon Rundle. The very first anthology, Fear Factor, explored Terrorism.

My narrator in the story ‘Packing Heat’ also had a fire in her heart.

Sharon and Meenakshi over the past 12 years have collected stories on 5 major topics of contemporary culture in these Anthologies: Terrorism in ‘Fear Factor’, Displacement and Exile in ‘Alien Shores’, Technology in ‘Only Connect’, Tolerance and Intolerance in ‘Glass Walls’, and now Truth and Falsity in ‘Relatively True’.

Thank you to them both for their patience, insight and excellence as Editors, and their encouragement of the short story form - perfect for the lower attention span we have today, and the time deficient lives we live!

‘From Walls to Bridges’: English Language and Literature studies as an instrument of youth upliftment in South Asia

• Why do Sri Lanka’s youth need upliftment?
• Is learning to speak and write well in English the key to their progress?
• Why is it so difficult to teach English in Sri Lanka?

 

1.       The Historical Context Of The Politicization Of English

English has a complex role as an instrument of colonialism in contemporary Sri Lanka. To understand why the teaching of English has foundered, why something so important is treated as non-essential, or at best only as a utility, the historical context must first be understood. It is difficult for Sri Lankan citizens to see English objectively as a mere link language, necessary for connecting to the wider world, because of its politicization in the country since 1956.

To vividly illustrate the complexities of colonization: The Sinhala Only Act was passed only a few years after the young Queen Elizabeth II made a highly publicized tour of Ceylon, shortly after her coronation.

The controversial status of English in post-colonial SL is expressed in a satirical cartoon by the famous artist Aubrey Collette: In this cartoon, we see the figures of two other politicians looming in the doorway, while SWRD is brandishing his blade.

These two individuals stirred up nationalism in the buildup to the passing of the Act, and led the charge to protest any attempts to modify it.

Many Sri Lankan people fear English. It is seen in local culture as a sword, used to cut them down to size, and diminish their status, and their pride in their own nationhood.

The sword in the hand of the PM in this image had a number of meanings. The national flag is a lion holding a sword. ‘The Double Edged Sword’ cut him down in the end, just two years after the Sinhala Only legislation was made into law.

Lilanka Botejue, in her article: points out that English speakers in modern SL are seen as ‘elite’. The dumbing down of the citizenry has fostered class division. And too many politicians in the past several decades have profited from this politicisation to wish to dismantle the power imbalances that are so easy to evoke and exploit.

 

1.       Developing A Way Of Teaching In A Galaxy Far, Far Away

I came into Sri Lanka as an educational entrepreneur: having taught English language and literature to A-level students since 1984, I have taught English Language and Literature in several Australian colleges, given lectures for A-Level students, created original course materials interpreting the English syllabus, and founded a college of my own in Sydney, Australia, in 2001. When I relocated to Sri Lanka after 2016,  my teaching became hybrid: both in delivery via technology (Skype, Audio and Video WhatsApp, Messenger, Zoom) in different time zones; and in terms of moving from printed and static mode, face to face, to more dynamic and interactive content.

For over thirty years, I have taught not only specific literature texts dictated by a particular syllabus (London, Cambridge, IB, NSW Australia), but also the vital universal skills critical analysis, literary interpretation, critical thinking, and the construction of coherent argument.

My students in Australia, no matter where they started from, in terms of knowledge, skill and confidence, were awarded marks which placed them in the top 1% of the State of NSW. And most rewarding of all to me, was the fact that the skills they learned stayed with them as they went on to build their diverse professional careers.

As an education entrepreneur, I wanted to deliver an outstanding service, which included the provision of excellent products: course materials created by me which were unique and watermarked to my institution. This made it challenging for any other college to offer me a standard employment contract, because my IP had to be valued separately. In short, what I did in that specific cultural context was valued very highly, both economically and in terms of recognition and professional respect.

 

1.       Challenge & Response: The Difficult Download

The challenge for me, since coming to Sri Lanka in 2016, has been to develop my skills to meet the specific needs of students here. In Australia, in the State of NSW, English is a compulsory subject, and what I offered through my teaching was a bonus to the students. In Sri Lanka, English is not compulsory, although it is a vital need.

Many Australians themselves are not aware that English is the only compulsory subject that a student must present at their HSC - the university entrance exam, which they sit at the end of Year 12. But in NSW, the stakes are higher, because not only must English be  studied, but at least two units of English must be included in the assessment of the 10 units on which a student’s final score is determined, out of 500. Each unit of a subject is worth 50 marks. This is true even if the student’s English results are lower than their results in other subjects.

This simple, legislated rule enforced by the Government’s Education policy has ensured that an excellent standard of English literacy must be reached by the best HSC candidates, regardless of their background or level of proficiency in English. This is of course a significant matter in multicultural Australia, where many students sitting their exams are the children of first generation immigrant families, and are often the first generation of their families to attend university.

These students were highly motivated. The scientifically and mathematically-minded amongst them calculated the minimum mark they would have to achieve in English to ensure that their overall results would not be disrupted. It was 93%.

The NSW Syllabus (created in 1999, by the Board Of Studies) was an excellent one. It comprised both Language and Literature. And it actively encouraged and prompted students to develop critical thinking and interpretational skills. Creating course materials to explore the parameters of that syllabus, and apply its concepts to the test of literary evaluation of both classic and modern texts, was a joy. It never became boring - because every student had a unique response to the texts. The Board of Studies NSW Syllabus 1999 was groundbreaking.

For 15 years, all was well.

Coming to Sri Lanka with a sincere wish to help and practise my profession was a real shock. It has been enormously frustrating to try to teach students who are so unmotivated, so passive in their learning, and so imprinted by rote learning, memorization, and the stagnancy and shallowness that engenders.

The students in Sri Lanka study English Language and Literature separately. And the subjects are not compulsory. The local Syllabus is undemanding and non rigorous, to say the least. So a student studying English locally would not be able to work at an international level without a bridging course. The education is free. But it could be said that you get what you pay for. If there is not a demand for English, many schools, even International Schools, do not offer it at A level. Most students who do study English, study Language and not Literature. And those in a school which does not offer English had to present to the London and Cambridge systems as Independent Candidates.

The Language students would say they did not want to study poetry, because it was not listed on their course. So in their opinion, it was irrelevant to them. To me, the situation was not only challenging - it was heartbreaking.

English is not just a language which conveys information. It is marvellously flexible, expressive, multi-dimensional, versatile and full of emotional range, tone, colour and drama. It is not just an instrument of colonization. It is a doorway to realms of gold - and I mean poetry, not just jobs which pay in international currency! Even in translation, words written in English have immense transformative possibility.

The good thing was, that the students who did come to my college were - again - highly motivated. But in this case randomly so, as a result of personal choice or family background. 

A Testimonial from a former student, speaks to this.

For the entire testimonial you may refer to recommendations on my LinkedIn

1.       Restriction On Imports! The Frustrations Of Trying To Translate The Teaching From Australia to SL. Adaptation & Innovation Required.

As you see, the teaching methods I developed worked! But only with a small number of students. And these were mostly the privileged who went to International Schools and were educated in English. The vast majority of students - 80 % plus of the student population who live outside the capital city Colombo and the larger towns, in regional areas, attending government schools, often in villages - could not access the teaching.

I was told at point of entry to SL that the students here would not be able to afford my teaching, and that I would end up doing it as a form of social work.

I choose to see that as a challenge, rather than a problem.

 

2.       Evolution Of A Solution

My solution to this is to attempt to develop course materials specifically for Sri Lankan students between O level and A level, which are rich in concept and layered in content, but simple to access and comprehend. I envision these materials as an interactive, open access resource, implemented via technology, so all students can benefit from them, beyond their contextual barriers.

The students who cannot speak and write in English in Sri Lanka are becoming an underclass. They miss out on feeling connected to their peers in the rest of the world on an equal level. And even though those with financial resources to emigrate are lining up to leave SL, their future lives will be more difficult, in the countries of their choice: Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Europe. Where English is the main language.

And within SL, their career trajectories are limited because they cannot interact with international English-educated clients. This situation is highlighted by the increased enrolment of students at tertiary level.

The main problem as I see it is that English is perceived subjectively, and not objectively, in contemporary Sri Lanka. A context-specific syllabus needs to be created, which can be flexible enough to be adapted to each student’s needs. The syllabus needs to be non-politicized, effective, clean cut and transformative. It cannot be generic. There is no one size fits all in Sri Lanka. The syllabus needs to serve people from a variety of sectors in society.

It needs to be modern, up to date and contemporary, not expecting the digital generation to have the patience to read massive 19thC, 3-volume novels. But also to treat all texts from all eras respectfully, as the product of their time and era. The curse of superficiality due to knowledge gaps of historical timelines can thus be remedied!

Such a course would give them a sense of historical perspective, and an ability to locate themselves and their own individual interests meaningfully, in a timeline and cultural context from 1500 to 2022 and beyond. They would see themselves as being the inheritors of a rich and diverse legacy.

Within that vision, Vocational English is an effective utilitarian approach. It would create bridges where there are currently walls.

Statistics cited in a recent Rotary report identify the numbers of students who need such bridging assistance. 

Case Study: The Students From The Plantation Sector

My Rotary Club, RC of Colombo, sponsor The Tea Leaf Vision Project in Maskeliya. This organisation created a Programme to teach the children of tea plantation workers, who are among the most socio-economically disadvantaged sector of the country. You will see in their recent IG post that English is top of the list of skills they offer to teach.

So SL has a problem with English. How do we solve it? We are treating something necessary to our survival as if it was non-essential. How do we change that?

We’ve been supposedly free of colonization since 1956. But are we? We made a mistake at that crucial time, in the name of post-colonial sovereignty, that India did not. We did not keep English as a link language. People educated in SL are not well educated in English. The high literacy rates in SL are commendable - but they measure literacy in Sinhala. Most SL citizens are cut off from English, and are not really comfortable with speaking it or writing in it. Unlike the writers, doctors, lawyers, communicators, business geniuses and whiz kids of India!

Generationally, as ignorance and superficial knowledge is passed down from teacher to student teacher, it has become a case of the blind leading the multi-handicapped. The opposite of evolution. It seemed to me just after I arrived to be a monumental tragedy.  Ground Zero: Pages 97-107.

Pretending we don’t have a problem, or even trying to parade our illiteracy in English as a source of nationalistic pride, is going to be fatal to us. Remember the kaduwa mentioned earlier in this presentation? If we don’t implement an effective solution to this problem right now, what will be next in the history of modern SL will be the death of a thousand cuts.

And it will be as terrible to witness as it is to endure.

We are an island, and it is not currently a paradise to live in, no matter what the Tourism Authorities say to attract international visitors. Do we want to be cut off from the rest of the world? Or do we want to take our place in the world, as citizens holding on to a bigger world view? Participating globally? Without imposed, inherited and self-created barriers?

This question is what the students of the day need to ask themselves. And then they need to act on the answer. To not act will lead to an unwanted conclusion.

In anyone’s language.