The dust of distance

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The Farmer And His Sons

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Taken from Headway's Intermediate Student's Book: The Farmer And His Sons There was once an old, dying farmer who had worked hard in his vineyard all his life.  Before he died he wanted to teach his three sons how to be good farmers.  So he called them to his bedside and said, 'My boys, I have an important secret to tell you: there is a great treasure buried in the vineyard.  Promise me that you will look for it when I am dead.' The sons gave their promise and as soon as their father had died they began looking for the treasure.  They worked very hard in the hot sun and while they were working they thought about what their father had said.  They pictured boxes of cold coins, diamond necklaces, and other such things.  Soon they had dug up every inch of the vineyard but they found not a single penny.  They were very upset because they felt that all their hard work had been for nothing.   However, a few months later the grapes started to appear on the vines.  Their grapes ...
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Speech technique No.2 - the Unifying Metaphor

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The Unifying Metaphor: As opposed to a simile which compares two objects using a specific linguistic form, eg. the man was as brave as a lion, a metaphor compares two objects by equating the one with the other, eg. he was a brave lion.   Literally the man was not a lion, but figuratively he was.   This figure of speech is used in literary works of all kinds, including poems and news articles. The Unifying Metaphor aims to unify people.   An example of an American metaphor is the Camel man.   He is healthy, strong and tanned, and he can survive in the wild bushveld with merely a pocketknife and a piece of string.   He drives a 4x4, and he works hard all day.   This is the image of the Camel man – please correct me if I’m wrong.   The logic and truth behind this image may elude us, but what unifies us is what Elgin (1980: p. 227) calls the consensus perception . As a unity, we have reached consensus about the perception of the Camel man.   The theory reminds of the Jung’s colle...
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South Africa's languages

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South Africa's 11 official languages: South Africa has eleven official languages. In alphabetical order they are: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho (now more commonly known as Pedi), Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and isiZulu.  There are two main groups of the Bantu languages, the Nguni group and the Sotho group. The Nguni languages include Xhosa, Zulu, Swazi and Ndebele. The Sotho group includes Sesotho, Northern Sotho (Pedi/Sepedi) and Tswana.  Here are some greetings in the different languages: (go to   www.travelground.com/blog/greetings-11-official-languages Afrikaans: Hoe gaan dit met jou? English: How are you? isiNdebele: Unjani? Sepedi: Le Kae? Sesotho: O Kae?  siSwati: Unjani? Xitsonga: Ku njhani? Setswana: O tsogile jang? Tshivenda: Vho vuwa hani?  isiXhosa: Unjani? isiZula: Unjani? In order for you to know where these languages are spoken in South Africa, here is firstly a map of the pro...
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