Italian university switches to English

[Lazie]

"The university has announced that from 2014 most of its degree courses - including all its graduate courses - will be taught and assessed entirely in English rather than Italian.
The waters of globalisation are rising around higher education - and the university believes that if it remains Italian-speaking it risks isolation and will be unable to compete as an international institution"

More at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17958520

Meanwhile in the island of Jamaica there are those advocating that subjects be taught in patios.

[Mosiah]

You don't understand a thing what we are saying. Better yuh kip quiat!

[Bricktop]

"The university has announced that from 2014 most of its degree courses - including all its graduate courses - will be taught and assessed entirely in English rather than Italian.
The waters of globalisation are rising around higher education - and the university believes that if it remains Italian-speaking it risks isolation and will be unable to compete as an international institution"

More at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17958520

Meanwhile in the island of Jamaica there are those advocating that subjects be taught in patios.

I am need need of employees in Jamaica...I have conducted over 45 interviews...I can't hire any of them because none of them speak English well enough to interface with my clients...they can barely fill out a job application...it's not funny...

[Lazie]

You don't understand a thing what we are saying. Better yuh kip quiat!

Maybe if unuh post it in english. Half the time you clowns don't understand each other. How many times unuh complain about Karl's patios posts?

[Lazie]

I am need need of employees in Jamaica...I have conducted over 45 interviews...I can't hire any of them because none of them speak English well enough to interface with my clients...they can barely fill out a job application...it's not funny...

Tell the forum clown name Mosiah.

[Bricktop]

These are HEART graduates might I add...

[Reggaedoc]

I feel your pain Brickie. The world is moving towards English, and Jamaica is rapidly running away from it.

When it really hit me that things were bad in Jamaica was after the earthquake in Haiti and I watched some Man-in-the-street interviews of people in Haiti and people in Jamaica. Invariably the average Haitian spoke better English, and was more eloquent than the Jamaican. From that time I realize we are in deep trouble.

[Historian]

Not Funny At All!

I am need need of employees in Jamaica...I have conducted over 45 interviews...I can't hire any of them because none of them speak English well enough to interface with my clients...they can barely fill out a job application...it's not funny...

Bricktop, all I’ll say at this point is that you are 100 percent correct: it is certainly NOT funny! I could add anecdotes in support of your post, but I just can’t be bothered anymore. Trust me, much of Jamaica’s problems, as I’ve said in the past, are the creations of Jamaicans themselves (that is, ourselves).

It’s certainly paradoxical that in an era of rapidly increasing globalization -- where the world is becoming more and more a global village -- so many of Jamaica’s intellectuals have decided to take a condescending stance towards the global English language.

No one who knows me, of course, will be surprised that I fully endorse this thread-starter by Lazie.

[Historian]

Really Deep Trouble

I feel your pain Brickie. The world is moving towards English, and Jamaica is rapidly running away from it.

When it really hit me that things were bad in Jamaica was after the earthquake in Haiti and I watched some Man-in-the-street interviews of people in Haiti and people in Jamaica. Invariably the average Haitian spoke better English, and was more eloquent than the Jamaican. From that time I realize we are in deep trouble.

Reggaedoc, you need to hear some of the young Jamaican interviewees at the annual Carifta Games, where they are suddenly thrust in the limelight and confronted with the challenge of answering questions in a way that a regional/international audience (that is, an audience outside of the borders of Jamaica) will have no difficulty understanding.

The result is often embarrassing.

[Exile]

..and yet, I heard some young athletes on a Sportsmax series on a run up to Champs..still doing re-runs..they were very articulate, very positive and expressed themselves clearly - in English. These were schoolers. I don't if it was a random sample..

[Peter R]

"The university has announced that from 2014 most of its degree courses - including all its graduate courses - will be taught and assessed entirely in English rather than Italian.
The waters of globalisation are rising around higher education - and the university believes that if it remains Italian-speaking it risks isolation and will be unable to compete as an international institution"

More at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17958520

Meanwhile in the island of Jamaica there are those advocating that subjects be taught in patios.

I think if subjects were taught in "patios" it would be more relaxing for the students... they could drink a beer or sip tea while the lecturer did his/her thing... ... now it would be even better if they were taught in bedrooms... wouldn't have to get out of bed ..

But on the serious side I agree with you... patois can be part of the curriculum under the umbrella of literature within English studies... let's say half a unit (one tenth) of the (annual) English programme.

[Hortical]

Agree, in light of our severe problems communicating in standard English, patios should be relegated to a literature course.

[Muadib]

What are you saying ?

There are articulate young athletes in Jamaica ??

I would agree.. all the athletes at the schools mi did guh were very articulate..

[Exile]

You had athletes or athlete foot?

[Muadib]

based on our thumping of a certain school Sunlight team (all a bruk record).. Athletes extraordinaire..