Sunday 17 April 2016

EXPATRIATE IDIOTS SPOIL PNG EDUCATION

I have a story to tell as the only person involved with this country who is still alive. It is about the expatriate idiots of the PNG Linguistic Society who pushed half-baked ideas and massive self interest to bring vernacular language to elementary schools. 

I was an advocate of Tok Pisin as the friendly unofficial language of this country but never as the official language of PNG.

At the time I was the lecturer in charge of Tok Pisin training at the RAAF School of Languages at Point Cook near Melbourne. I was there for 14 years 1978-1992 and trained over 4000 soldiers, officers and personnel of Foreign Affairs. Our course was the place to be before posting to Papua New Guinea.  

The David Ulg Ketepa (DUK Tours)  blog below has turned our Tok Pisin Tree into a world class masterpiece. Thank you old friend . 

The Tok Pisin Tree was our contribution to this nation. So too our Bahasa Indonesia Tree. This is Mastery Learning of Language. Please click.

DUK Tours: Tok Pisin Tree (Pidgin English)

www.duktours.net/2010/05/tok-pisin-tree-pidgin-english.html

By Bruce CopelandTok Pisin Tree (64 patterns). I came to PNG to serve at Igam Barracks during 1976-1977. I had just completed a Bahasa Indonesia course at ...

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May 12, 2015 - Please click: learn bahasa indonesia (1) - family positive living - aids ... familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/.../learn

The PNG Linguistic Society was founded by Professor Tom Dutton who started his time in PNG as a primary school teacher. We used his book only in the early stages of the military Tok Pisin training but found it too stolid and unimaginative. 

The PNG Linguistic Society found membership in a gaggle of expatriate men from the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and Catholic Church who delighted in making complex statements about language. It was all very realus that was the in-word among the linguistic idiots.

The PNG members were mainly shy and let the white men do the talking. There was Head of the Department Dr Otto Nekitel, Dicks Thomas and Sam Piniau of the National Broadcasting Commission in Rabaul. All are dead now.

I attended the conference in 1989 as the representative of the RAAF School of Languages. Hmmph. Military? What next? Who invited him? The SIL should not have worried. Workers in that organization have come from the US military.

The big issue was that schools have to convert to vernacular language in the first two years. Mein Fuehrer Dutton led the push with stories of how students gained personal status and encouragement from using their village language. No data whatever. Anecdotal evidence only.

No one dared question the leap from vernacular to English. Well almost no one. 

No one talked of the massive problems of placing teachers in village schools with skill in the local language. What if there were none available? Did schools have to close? 

What if the teacher needed a posting out for personal reasons but there was no vernacular speaking replacement? The school would close. The expatriate linguistic idiots were oblivious to the problems at each vernacular primary school across the nation.


No mention was made of text books across the country in hundreds of vernacular languages. Of course that would keep the Summer Institute in business. 

They believed that the Second Coming will not come until the Bible was translated into all languages. School text books in languages not yet translated was the way to go. There have always been rumours about SIL and links to US intelligence.

The finale of the conference was a public meeting with Professor Dutton as the key note speaker. And there was Major Copeland sitting in the audience amid a sea of black faces with a group of white senior officers of the linguistic society sitting on the stage.

Any questions or comments on the fine speech of Dr Dutton? I stood and addressed the chair and the audience in Tok Pisin, the language Dutton wanted as the official language.

I told the meeting that students in PNG schools have massive problems with reading, writing, listening and speaking in English. Now Professor Dutton wants Tok Pisin as the official language.

I said that students leave primary school often with limited English and find difficulty in high school. Now the plan is to remove the first two years to thrust students into vernacular language. 

I said that this was academic nonsense. I asked Professor Dutton to respond in Tok Pisin. I was given a standing ovation from the PNG audience. He wrote books on Tok Pisin but could not actually speak it.

He spluttered and said a few words before reverting to English. All the other expatriate idiots on stage glared at me and would not speak to me at the end of the conference. I was quietly thanked by Dr Nekitel, Dicks Thomas and Sam Piniau. I was told I was a true friend of Papua New Guinea. Please click:

mastering tok pisin at pt cook - family positive living - aids ... 

familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/.../mastering-tok-pisin-at-pt-cook.html
Sep 23, 2011 - FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING - AIDS HOLISTICS: TOK PISIN TREE (1). 24 Aug 2011 ... Tree (64 patterns) I found that learning Tok Pisin by myself .

But the vernacular was pushed into Education and has spoiled PNG Education for over 20 years. All the expatriate idiots went home and left the mess for PNG to clean up.

Now the vernacular language approach has been discarded and replaced with Phonics !! Well done PNG. Why did you take so long?

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