Open and closed questions

In the early '80s, when I was in University, studying for a Marketing course, I had to design a questionnaire, for the Marketing Project that was part of the course. My Professor, Mr Tarun Gupta, encouraged us to use 'open' questions, not 'closed' ones. That is when I came upon this classification.

An 'open' question is one where the person answering is allowed to answer with no restrictions. 

e.g. Where did you spend your summer vacations?

       Which is your favourite actor?

A closed question is when the person answering is asked to choose from a list of choices

e.g. Do you like hockey or tennis?

The person answering may like neither and may yet feel forced to choose. Not an ideal situation for both the questioner and the respondent.

In life, you get a mix of these questions. When you are just getting to know a person or doing an exploratory survey, open-ended questions may be the best way to learn about a person/persons.

When you already have some degree of acquaintance with someone and you want to know which is his or her preference then you can use closed-ended questions.

  

The impact of English on Asian Cultures

The largest Asian cultures are the Chinese and Indian cultures and because the English did not rule China, the impact was largely on Indian culture. The British studied Indian culture and over a period  slowly gained power over larger areas, adopting many words from local languages as I have stated in a previous post.

But as they really could not  bring enough English people to stay in the colonies , they trained a class of Indian people to administer territories and collect taxes to run the same. These people were trained in English , and became exposed to many English ideas that affected their culture. 

It was from among these that the first Indian social reformers, like Raja Rammohan Roy and others were drawn. Ideas like Democracy, Equality were unheard of in India, long used to an unequal Caste based society. The British passed laws and implemented the abolition of Sati, a disgusting practice, where widows were burnt on the funeral pyre of their husbands.

Many of India's freedom fighters were lawyers who understood the import of British law and fought for freedoms  enshrined in it .

Saladin or Sala'uddin the Great and Richard the Lionheart

A beautiful pen-picture of a Historic meeting between the 2 monarchs, by Sir Walter Scott in his Historical Romance "The Talisman". Sorry, but some of the words are not politically correct , but they are not mine!

The riders were Georgian and Circassian slaves in the very prime of life. Their helmets and hauberks were formed of steel rings, so bright that they shone like silver; their vestures were of the gayest colours, and some of cloth of gold or silver; the sashes were twisted with silk and gold, their rich turbans were plumed and jewelled, and their sabres and poniards, of Damascene steel, were adorned with gold and gems on hilt and scabbard. This splendid array advanced to the sound of military music, and when they met the Christian body they opened their files to the right and left, and let them enter between their ranks. 

Richard now assumed the foremost place in his troop, aware that Saladin himself was approaching. Nor was it long when, in the centre of his bodyguard, surrounded by his domestic officers and those hideous negroes who guard the Eastern harem, and whose misshapen forms were rendered yet more frightful by the richness of their attire, came the Soldan, with the look and manners of one on whose brow Nature had written, "This is a King!" 

In his snow-white turban, vest, and wide Eastern trousers, wearing a sash of scarlet silk, without any other ornament, Saladin might have seemed the plainest dressed man in his own guard. But closer inspection discerned in his turban that inestimable gem which was called by the poets the Sea of Light; the diamond on which his signet was engraved, and which he wore in a ring, was probably worth all the jewels of the English crown; and a sapphire which terminated the hilt of his cangiar ( Khanjar= Dagger) was not of much inferior value. 

It should be added that to protect himself from the dust, which in the vicinity of the Dead Sea resembles the finest ashes, or, perhaps, out of Oriental pride, the Soldan wore a sort of veil attached to his turban, which partly obscured the view of his noble features. He rode a milk-white Arabian, which bore him as if conscious and proud of his noble burden.


Scott, Sir Walter. The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott (Kindle Locations 7664-7672). KaPonGZaYo. Kindle Edition. 

When borrowing makes you popular...!!!

Partly because of colonialism, and partly because of the British approach to their colonies, they were exposed to words from other languages. They incorporated these words into English, or from another point of view, English borrowed words from every language of the colonies and even from countries that they never ruled.
There are Indian words from all of the various languages of India, there are Chinese words, there are African words there are Native American words, Persian words and then words from French, Spanish, Italian, German, and even Russian all serendipitously borrowed, with nary a thought for parochial outrage! In fact, there would be a mere handful of countries from whose languages English did not borrow some words.
Here's a list that I can come up with from the top of my head

Hindi- Bangla -Bungalow
Malayalam- Kattumaram -Catamaran
Urdu - Paijamas - Pyjamas
Marwari - Jodhpuri - Jodhpurs
Chinese - Cha - Chai (This may have been borrowed from India)
Vietnam/Malaysia/Singapore - Sarong - Sarong
Tibet- Shangri-la - Shangrila 
African ( Swahili) - Safari - Safari
African (Afrikaans) - Apartheid- Apartheid
Arabic - Souk - Souk 
French - Abattoir - Abattoir 
Spanish - Cucaracha -cockroach
Native Australian- Wo-mur-rang -Boomerang

The list goes on! This is partly because many of the early settlers/explorers did not rule as soon as they arrived in the colonies, they were traders and evangelists.  They studied the local culture and today some books by British authors are the authority on local cultures. I know that some studies of the culture of Kerala were so thorough that today they are quoted as references of the culture of the day! I have read some of the books on Ethiopian culture which have not yet reached that status of being a reference but may do so some day! No wonder it has become the language of the world today, everybody can recognise part of their own language in English!

Quirky Idioms

Have you ever hear of Pigs flying? 
In English, the phrase 'when pigs fly' refers to something so impossible, that it is like pigs flying: e.g You will get my agreement  on this subject when pigs fly.

When do your hands turn red? When you are caught red handed! Which means you are caught in the process of doing something that is forbidden! 

Just suppose that you have been caught red handed  and are very embarrassed , and do not know what to say to the person who caught you, he/she could ask you "The cat got your tongue?"  which means " Are you unable to reply because a cat ate up your tongue?" 

Of course, like all idioms, this is not at all likely , in case your imagination is running riot with bizarre mental images.

Bye for now! 

Gerunds

What's a Gerund? Simply put, it is a present participle used as a noun. Some experts even call it a verbal noun. 
Like a noun, it can be used as a subject.

Smoking is bad for your health.

It can also be used as an object.

I love swimming.

It can be used as a complement after a linking verb.

Seeing is believing.

It can be used as an adjective.

This is the living room.

It can also be the object of a preposition.

Do not eat heavily before swimming.

Let's get this show on the road!

This sentence is a classic example of and 'Idiom'. Okay, so what is an "idiom'? In simple  English, it is a group of words that are used in a particular way, or an established usage, and it means something that everyone knows because it has been used so often.

In this case, it means, "let's get this project started!". When you say this to your friends, it means that you want to start up something now, that you have been planning for a while, say a picnic or a vacation, etc.