The ManicaPost
Morris Mtisi The Radio Teacher
Welcome to the last school holiday of the year 2018. Those who are eligible to vote, I appeal to you again, please vote in peace, not pieces.
This is an invitation for all of you teachers and students to meaningfully enjoy listening to important tips and guidelines to your teaching and learning. Remember as you enjoy the voting, the announcement of election results and the holiday whose joy is celebrated in a new dawn dispensation that the top ten common errors in English language are:
Use of ‘‘irregardless’’ instead of simply ‘‘regardless’’
Calling a person who cheats a ‘‘cheater’’ instead of simply ‘a cheat’.
Calling the oldest child in your family, the first-born, instead of ‘the first-born child’’ or simply ‘‘the eldest’’.
Calling the last to be born ‘‘the last-born’’ instead of simply ‘‘the youngest’’
Discussing about things instead of simply discussing them (not about them).
Saying people must ‘‘get away’’ instead of ‘‘go away’’.
Calling people who have retired ‘‘pensioneers . . . often pronounced penjeniyaz’’ instead of ‘‘pensioners’’ pronounced ‘‘penshnaz’’.
Applying for a vacancy instead of applying for a job to fill the vacancy.
Eating or buying grocery instead of ‘‘groceries.’’
Calling the deceased or dead ones ‘‘They are late eg. Mr Tirongo, the late . . . or is late’’ instead of ‘‘The late Mr Tirongo’’ with ‘‘The late’’ always coming first before the name.
We are all second, third or fourth-language learners. We will always make these errors. But please adopt the habit of free learning and stop feeling you are being insulted, despised or being laughed at whenever you are being corrected.
This includes teachers of English language. Learn with a smile on your face, not a frown. If you master these top 10 errors for this week, you will never regret you did for the rest of your life. Of course listen to Diamond FM Radio every Thursday to The Radio Teacher between 9:30 and 10pm for more scintillating examples of common errors and other English Language skills in speech and writing.
Some say 9:30pm is too late for students. This is the best time for you to wake up and quietly listen and learn…when Dad and Mom and the noisy siblings have gone to bed. Make sure you have a note book with you to take down anything and everything you find new and exciting.
Of course your radio teacher will also introduce to you fascinating Craftsmanship in Composition or Essay writing that many teachers find difficult to teach and for you valued learners, most boring or too tricky to learn.
For example, is there need for the traditional, habitual, customary, accepted Introduction and Conclusion when you are writing a Narrative type Composition? What are the notable qualities of a Narrative and Report that distinguish them as two distinct skills of presentation? Why do many students report when a question clearly requests them to narrate? Are classroom-practising examination markers a blessing to the learning process or an unfortunate cause of confusion?
And many more fascinating puzzles or acknowledged rules of grammar, some easy to explain others more difficult and yet others impossible to explicate. Enjoy the Radio Teacher every Thursday between 9:30 and 10pm.
Head-To-Head with MM is still on between 8 and 9pm. This one is an educational talk-show usually hosting a guest or more to discuss or debate interesting issues to do with education. Are these genuine but free extra lessons on radio??? Why not?
