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| Sunday, 28 July 2002 |
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From Sri Lanka to Germany teaching English by Padma Edirisinghe A queer drama staged in the post-colonial period of our island is that the very sword that the third imperialist conquistadors brandished to drive a wedge between the masters and the subjugated race, thereby flaunting their own superiority, was grabbed by the more clever ones of the latter category who began to brandish it themselves. The gains of this feat were many: that included the entry to positions that the English considered exclusive to the English-educated. Of course, the climb up the social ladder that naturally followed that entry needs no waste of additional words. But even this far-sighted Anglo nation would not have foreseen a situation where those of the colony who mastered it with gusto would trail back to their own continent to teach English language to other Europeans. To this category belongs Professor D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke, back home after a stint of teaching English for two years at a German University of Tubingen as a Guest Professor. Attuned to stock opinions circulating in my country that the Germans are ultra conscious of the superiority of their own language and show an animosity to the spread of English opinions so as to insinuate that we Sri Lankans pay unnecessary pooja to English, I was rather surprised by the narrative of his experiences as a Professor of English in Germany. According to him, the Germans are very keen to grasp a knowledge of English, aware of its growing importance as a world language. This interest was exhibited not only within the university but also outside. Professor D.C.R.A. found the mode of teaching at Tubingen University quite different from that of Sri Lankan universities. Comparatively few lectures were offered. Most of the teaching was conducted via seminars which were more often than not on subjects not related to the topics of the lectures. Seminars in Germany were conducted differently from tutorial classes in Sri Lanka. The German students were more accustomed to independent work than Sri Lankan students and were also more articulate. Prof. Goonetilleke preferred to limit the membership of his seminars to about 25 students, for a larger number meant that the more vocal ones dominated the less vocal too much. Fewer numbers enabled almost everybody to contribute to the discussion at hand. German students were found to be extremely dedicated to their work and not politicised. During his student consultation hours, all came to him for guidance before preparing their presentations. It is clear that the Professor had gained immense popularity among the students who had very much regretted his departure. One of his objectives there had been to increase the interest of his students in the international dimensions of literature. He offered a wide range of courses from mainstream British Literature to colonial and post-colonial literature. These courses spanned all five continents and time-wise covered two centuries (from the nineteenth century to the present). These courses covered the main areas of literary interest today - colonialism, post-colonialism, modernism, post modernism, feminism and new historicism. It is interesting to note that one particular course that had to be repeated in his second year due to student demand was on Salman Rushdie. This was because Rushdie is a major post-modern as well as post-colonial writer as well as the world's most controversial writer at the present time. Actually it was not only to the academically inclined group in Tubingen nor in Germany alone that Prof. D.C.R.A. had provided his services during the past two years. He had delivered guest lectures at the universities of Munich, Hanover and Innsbruck. He had presented papers at Conferences in Germany as well as in Holland and Finland. He was struck by the humanness in the German people. Germany was one European country that never had colonial aspirations in Asia, but - its academic and intellectual ties with Sri Lanka through learned luminaries like William Geiger are quite well known. Activities of contemporaries like Professor Goonetilleke go a long way to cement further those age-old academic affiliations. |
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