I am really blessed to be able to work in a place as beautiful as Cape Town, with a people as diverse and sometimes complex as urbanised young people, urbanised Capetonians. I am a school teacher and have the privilege of looking out of my classroom window and seeing the magnificent vista of Table Mountain dominating the skyline.
In many respects on certain days that outlook is sanity and on many days the world within is so much richer than the view.
Teaching language in modern day South Africa is not without its challenges, foremost of which for me is relevance, hence the blog. Modern communication is fast moving away from lined books and cheap ball point pens. I suppose in many respects its also moving away from extended writing to curt business utterances which can be spellchecked and secretarised. Or so, many young people think.
And so we, the coal face linguists of the day attempt to generate an enthusiasm and a belief in what we do, and so keep on doing it.
Blogging is surprisingly easy, much to my technophobic relief, in that we are getting our learners to start blogging, challenging them to new experiences and comfort zones, and hopefully in some respects dispelling the discomfort, both mental and physical that comes with handwriting, and pens and pencils. They have after all grown up with the comfort of a keyboard and mouse and will no doubt return there after the initiation which we call school has passed.
Viva le blog - I am liking this already.
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