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| From rsvlts.com |
There is a reason in life
for everything. I have been defending the idea of grammar and the need of its context everywhere I go. Furthermore, I have this “in-order-to-understand-the-sentence-you-need-its-context”
kind of thought.
Good teachers, in general, know
that language is context-sensitive. That is, in the absence of context, it is rather
difficult to understand the intended meaning of a single word, for instance.
Let me give you a very
practical example of that – it has happened to me quite recently.
I had been talking to a
fellow teacher (at the teachers lounge) about this lack of context and grammar
teaching kind of things when I suddenly said, “I’ll go to the restroom”. This teacher decided to go along with me,
so when we were about to go onto the boy’s restroom, we heard this male voice
saying something like “honey, I love you…”
Well, we stopped for a while, stared at each other, hesitated for a while and then, we eventually opened the door and realized that the man (Thank
God) had been talking on the phone. He was
alone at the room.
What do I mean by telling you this story? Well, just because we went all the way to the urinal, we were able
to understand the meaning of that “Honey, I love you…” Otherwise, we would probably
be judging that man.
Does that story provide
you with meaningful context?
Another story – short one.
Well, when it is only me and another person in the restroom, and I hear the
other person say, “Honey, I love you” while he drops his pants all the way down
to their ankles to take a leak at the urinal and he does not realize this is a
fairly awkward behavior, I get really nervous. That is definitely not a
place for conversation or this kind of attitude.
End of story two.
Cheers,
Bruno Coriolano.
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