Teachers, journalists must practise correct English

 WITH great respect to teachers, EMTV presenters and journalists, especially  in  the  newspaper  industry, I am compelled to bring this matter to the media. 

“Mario Barett will be in Port Moresby this coming Friday Jan 17”, writes a Post Courier journalist (Jan 15),  that “the event will be held this coming Saturday” as announced by an EMTV presenter and that “the Kairuku-Hiri by-election this Saturday” as reported in the Post Courier (Jan 16). 

It is disappointing, distasteful and shocking to hear and read of the word ‘this’ being grammatically misused, especially by news presenters and reporters who are supposedly graduates in journalism. 

It automatically puts a reader off when improper grammar is used. 

It  is  obvious  that their work was not checked by supervisors, thus, poor work has been transmitted. 

Are  the supervisors  assuming  that presenters and journalists are infallible or perfectionists? 

I specifically mention this occupational group because of their power with  the stroke of the pen that cover multitudes through the media. 

The quality and standard of English  has clearly deteriorated drastically to a level where ‘house’ is spelt ‘haus’, ‘this’ is used instead of ‘next’ and so on. 

With  school resuming, it is timely to advise teachers (and perhaps lecturers) and journalists of the two words  that  are  often incorrectly used; ‘this’ and ‘unless’. 

Firstly, ‘this’ is used to describe something  that  is  here (location) or an event that is taking place or about to take place now (time) today, not tomorrow or a week later. 

You   often  hear   “this  coming  Tuesday or Wednesday” for an event in the future, which is grammatically wrong. 

‘Next’  is  the proper  word  to  use for an event that will take place in the future, even tomorrow or in the next few days within the same week. 

For an activity which will take place after this week, it is proper to name the appropriate day followed by the word ‘week’; for example, “Tuesday or Wednesday week”.

Secondly, ‘unless’ is another word that is often incorrectly used to express positive outcomes.

For instance, “unless you study you will pass your exams”, which is wrong. 

When ‘unless’ is used, it must be expressed  with a negative outcome; for instance, “unless you study, you will not pass your exams” or “unless you charge your battery, your mobile phone will not work”. 

In this new year, I appeal to teachers,  lecturers, news  reporters  and  presenters  alike  to please  take  note of these two words that are often misused. 

You can make an enormous difference to the thousands, or even millions, of Papua New Guineans through your teaching profession or through the media towards improving English. 

Please also check for proper pronunciations in a dictionary. 

International schools are the only ones teaching proper English, but are expensive for ordinary Papua New Guineans  to  afford  sending  their children. 

Another option available – if the government is serious about raising the level of education – is to bring expatriate  teachers into our elementary, primary and secondary schools.

This would be an expensive exercise, but the contribution I make through this paper is free. 

The  ball is in your court, educationists and journalists, as I am only casting a pearl. 

Anthony Bauwai-Dagiz

Port Moresby