Recently I was watching the sports news and students from high schools participating in a netball competition were speaking to a reporter.

Usually, I feel a sense of pride when kids win awards as they often spur them on to greater things but as each child spoke, I was disappointed at their inability to communicate simple thoughts. One girl added an 'h' to the top of every word that didn't need one; the other removed the 'h' from each word that should have carried one.

This is especially sad for me because they are still students and the last time I checked English is still one of those mandatory subjects. So while these girls are excelling in their sporting disciplines, they are failing miserably at communicating. It was not long ago that I wrote a blog about how some of our senior athletes sounded like imbeciles when they try to speak in public and that night the connection was there for all the world to see.

This is just one of the many things that need to be fixed if Jamaica is to make any kind of meaningful progress. It is also one of the most important things that need to be fixed. There are people who continue to find excuses to explain away the fact that we are failing our children who lack the ability to speak English in a world that is increasingly becoming more globalised. It is a world wherein English is the language of business and business is what Jamaica needs if we are to grow ourselves out of the squalor we find ourselves in.

It's perhaps why we also fail at leadership in this country. Among the attributes of an effective leader is the ability to communicate to the people he or she leads as well as people from outside this country's borders. To have command over the English language also means earning the respect of business leaders from other countries whose investors we are trying to lure here. But have you heard how many of our members of parliament speak? Save for most of the old-school MPs and some of the emerging leaders, some of our political representatives are as alien to the language as I am to Hebrew.

not interested

So what is it? Why are we so resistant to learning English? We don't read, yes. We are not interested in anything printed in a book or a magazine, and simple words baffle us. Just the other night I was watching Schools' Challenge Quiz and what to me was the simplest of questions was posed to a particular all-girls school. They were asked identify homophones - one which means the sound of bells and the other, to remove the skin from fruit. I sat and watched in awe as the young ladies struggled to come up with the words peal and peel.

I remember a time when the questions seemed much more challenging on Schools' Challenge Quiz, yet the scores were much higher. This doesn't seem to be the case these days.

There was also another episode where the team was asked to form an adjective from the word 'palace', incredulously they consulted and then came up with the word 'Palestine'. I couldn't believe my ears.

That being said, these are but the symptoms but what does it all mean? Have we all become so ignorant in this country the simplest of things that require little thought elude us? I remember hearing a protester from one of our inner-city communities on television saying that she doesn't want any English-speaking people around her. She suggested that those who had a command of the language were weak. Is this where we have descended to?

And if this is the case, is this from here that we intend to become a better country? I suppose it is a good place to start because as far as I am concerned, we are at rock bottom and when you are at rock bottom, I suppose the only place one can go is up.

Send comments to lfalevy@gmail.com.

This is just one of the many things that need to be fixed if Jamaica is to make any kind of meaningful progress. It is also one of the most important things that need to be fixed. There are people who continue to find excuses to explain away the fact that we are failing our children who lack the ability to speak English in a world that is increasingly becoming more globalised.