Feb 5th

In the chapter, “English During Communism” Prendergast discusses the limitations of the English language and how English was being taught in Czechoslovakia during the time period of communism. As the country tried to become more and more “normalized” there was little presence of the English language. Because the usefulness of the English language was limited there was very little teaching of it and the schoolteachers lack proficiency. For this chapter Prendergast uses many real-life examples to portray how different families learned English during this time period. One of the examples that I found most interesting was the story of Jan. Jan’s parents were determined to teach their children English through any means possible. They would set up in their house “English Speaking Zones” where the children were only allowed to speak English. They would have Jan immersed in an environment where English was the only language spoken such as on a vacation with representatives from England and there Jan was to only speak and learn English. Because English was not being taught in school with adequate proficiency, Jan’s father took it upon himself to teach Jan. For example, “Rather than having Jan look up each word he didn’t know in the dictionary, he instructed him to keep reading until he figured out the word’s meaning in context” (30). This shows that Jan’s father was not only trying to teach Jan the English language by memorization but by critical thinking as well. Jan’s parents knew that Jan was not going to be able to travel, support himself or make a living without the knowledge of the English language and continued to push for his future success.

 I felt this chapter said a lot about how language can limit our opportunities. In most high schools you have the option to take another language. But for most students this is something that they do for college or because they need another class. I know in my experience I took Spanish through my junior year but wasn’t very good, didn’t practice outside of school and didn’t mind dropping it my senior year. However, I was not acknowledging the fact that learning a foreign language was something that was going to help my future success. It is interesting to think about this in a different light. If I would have learned Spanish and became proficient how would this have helped my college career? Could I have obtained another teaching license? Would I be using it? Would I be making more money? I think Jan’s experience learning English sheds light on just how much we rely on language for economic success.