Why Parliament does not need First Aid in English

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• Akua Mansa 10 years ago

  Your article smacks of a defeatist attitude.
  
  Maybe as an Nation we should not have any standards.
  
  Our desire and impetus to settle for mediocrity is the bane of our downfall.
  
  It is not by accident that as a Nation ...
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  Your article smacks of a defeatist attitude.
  
  Maybe as an Nation we should not have any standards.
  
  Our desire and impetus to settle for mediocrity is the bane of our downfall.
  
  It is not by accident that as a Nation we have chosen English as a medium of communication. That being said we expect standards.
  
  Maybe Education and Standards are not important so long as you are a human being you should be entrusted with any responsibility.
  
  We have expectations as a people and one of them is that our Parliamentarians i.e the people who represent us should be able to communicate and communicate well in the medium of the language we have chosen to accept which is English.
  
  We would be fighting as a people if we are to choose one Language in Ghana as our National Language.
  
  In the meantime I expect our Parliamentarians to speak good English since they all went to school. Or is the poor English a reflection of the failure of our schools.

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• ????? 10 years ago

  What a splendid rebuttal from an articulate lady.I thought he was hitting the right spot until he dropped the clanger, "lower" standards for medical students.English was not the "mother tongue" of the Irish,Welsh,and the Scot ...
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  What a splendid rebuttal from an articulate lady.I thought he was hitting the right spot until he dropped the clanger, "lower" standards for medical students.English was not the "mother tongue" of the Irish,Welsh,and the Scots yet they have produced enough brilliant poets,scientists etc that puts the "native" English to shame. From Bernard Shaw,Oscar Wilde,Graham Bell,Fleming,Logie Baird to Tony Blair.Now, look at Singapore, a melting pot of different nationalities who chose English as the medium of instruction in their schools. The result ... a resounding success amongst Tamils,Malays,Chinese etc.Try forcing "Twi" as the official language in Ghana and you will see a bloodbath.Let us strive a bit harder. I am still trying. I hope he hasn"t got a problem with the "foreign" Latin alphabet which was imposed on us to write Twi,Ga,Fante etc.

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• CITIZEN ONE 10 years ago

  I was about to get off on this insolent chaps bluff, till I recognized all the subtle arguments against his back-peddling defense of our highly intellectually bankrupt parliamentarians and society at large.
  
  By God so many ...
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  I was about to get off on this insolent chaps bluff, till I recognized all the subtle arguments against his back-peddling defense of our highly intellectually bankrupt parliamentarians and society at large.
  
  By God so many places to hit this chap at. Does any one of you ever had that nightmarish experience of meeting fellow Ghanaians abroad and they questioning your citizenship just because you cannot speak nor understand Twi? It is sickening and it happened to me a few months ago. Strikingly enough many if not all of our Twi-speaking citizens and even relatives do not want to recognize that Twi is as foreign to an Ewe, Ga or Hausa citizen as English could very well be to an Ivorian or Malian. Imagine our colonizers had by a stroke of a pen placed a border between all the regions of Ghana to create 10 distinct smaller countries. One thing I also thank God for was that Ghana was not colonized by some Akan sect, Chinese, Portuguese, Russia, France or who knows who (Martians?). God Bless the Queen, I'd say, and the heavens richly look after the Gas and Fantis for being warm and receptive to our invaders. There is nothing pleasant nor sophisticated about the Twi language that would insolently allow some one who has so well mastered and benefited from the English language, disciplines and culture want to defend an arrogant and not very bright institution. Please you don't have to know or speak a language to tell the intelligence quotient of the people speaking it. Even when some of our parliamentarians speak Twi, you can tell they lack commonsense or human intelligence. Please don't blame the English language for our backwardness and inability to act like advanced species. Look at the way we have bastardized the gospel and religion with our Twi language(don't tell me local languages), it is a code word for TWI ONLY!
  
  For Christ sake, I have always thrown the challenge that to many of you loud mouths to go ahead and experiment with the Ashanti Region. Let us abolish English, and all western cultures that people out there conveniently abhor, and institute Twi only for education, and Ghanaian attire only, and every other thing you can think about for self aggrandizement, and when you guess land a citizen on the moon or split an atom within 5 years trial, I swear I will pledge allegiance to the Ashanti Kingdom!!!

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• MINOR CASE 10 years ago

  Why bring in the Asantehene as an example , is he the yard stick more measuring values? Please leave him out of your mischief . You could have use one of your Togbes as an example.

  Why bring in the Asantehene as an example , is he the yard stick more measuring values? Please leave him out of your mischief . You could have use one of your Togbes as an example.

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• MINOR CASE 10 years ago

  Sorry, I meant to comment on Dr. Bokor's article.

  Sorry, I meant to comment on Dr. Bokor's article.

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• Atoapem Akwasi 10 years ago

  Some of our Parliamentarians cannot speak English well and some even resort to the easy way out-pidgin English.
  
  They hardly can spell simple English words correctly. Many cannot construct and write simple grammatically-c ...
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  Some of our Parliamentarians cannot speak English well and some even resort to the easy way out-pidgin English.
  
  They hardly can spell simple English words correctly. Many cannot construct and write simple grammatically-correct, plain words of good English. I always bow down my head in shame whenever some of our Parliamentarians are interviewed in the international media on TV or on air, and they stutter and fumble a lot with the way they express themselves in the English language, creating a sorry sight for themselves and a poor image for our country.
  
  We are not saying we we need our Parliamentarians to train in educational grammar or scholarship, but then for them to be functionally literate and employable or effective as entrepreneurs in the global village, they need to be well-rounded and well-grounded in basic literacy of reading and speaking English and communication skills, among other areas of epidemiological and demands.
  
  Ghana used to be a role model for other colonial African countries in terms of our high levels of education. But now we have lost it, and we are flung at the far bottom of the global ranking in education.
  
  Whether we like it or not, English has become the international or universal language and vehicle of communication and instruction in the world of commerce and industry, in the on-going process of globalization. Therefore mastering the English Language is a must for our Leaders.
  
  The Author parochially view mastering of the English Language as part of cultural imperialism. Need this be the case? What about the Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and others who have to learn English to drive their businesses in the global milieu?
  
  We cannot settle for MEDIOCRITY

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• back door director 10 years ago

  Mr Obour why not suggest that the constitution be written in poor English.
  It does not matter the quality of English the president speaks.
  All local languages have appropriate grammar.
  You need to be understood and not giv ...
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  Mr Obour why not suggest that the constitution be written in poor English.
  It does not matter the quality of English the president speaks.
  All local languages have appropriate grammar.
  You need to be understood and not give excuses.
  No wonder when told they were ignorant they took offence.
  Ghana deserves better.
  Mr Obour come again

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• A.RAZAK 10 years ago

  you're absolutely right !

  you're absolutely right !

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• CITIZEN ONE 10 years ago

  If not worse!!! Speech pattern distorted or nonexistent, no pause between sentences, nor are there any full stops in spoken Twi. You know Ghana was fine when we all silently enjoyed our native languages and boasted our intell ...
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  If not worse!!! Speech pattern distorted or nonexistent, no pause between sentences, nor are there any full stops in spoken Twi. You know Ghana was fine when we all silently enjoyed our native languages and boasted our intellect with the English language. Now that the devil has empowered some of our people to think that their co-equals are with the English language, we won't sleep. Over my dead body. You can indoctrinate your children to believe that they can dream in Twi and become rocket scientists or be awarded a Best Foreign Film out of Kumawood even in the next 1000 years. So long pal!

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• SAMITU ROSE 10 years ago

  STUPID MORONIC ATTAMILLS WAS A PLAIN THIEF WHO THOUGHT HE COULD USE NPP FAULTS IN NPP ERA AS EXCUSE TO EMBARK ON MASSIVE GARGANTUAN CREATE LOOT AND SHARE OF THE STATE COFFERS....THAT STUPID FOOOOOOOL SAT FOR BETTYMOULD AND BA ...
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  STUPID MORONIC ATTAMILLS WAS A PLAIN THIEF WHO THOUGHT HE COULD USE NPP FAULTS IN NPP ERA AS EXCUSE TO EMBARK ON MASSIVE GARGANTUAN CREATE LOOT AND SHARE OF THE STATE COFFERS....THAT STUPID FOOOOOOOL SAT FOR BETTYMOULD AND BARTON ODRO, KUMBUOR ETC ETC TO LOOT THE STATE AND WAS ALL ALONG SEEKING GOD'S FACE FOR HEALING, STUPID FOOOOOOOOLLLLL

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• Amidini Paul 10 years ago

  very good one its bad to degrade your own language.

  very good one its bad to degrade your own language.

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