Central High School - Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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,mr-qi ,. -V.-5-Q-..v.0 . -1 . as if W .: if v 1 M Fw -fs r Q 3 fi Q T ... ai EQI, s Q, 3 The sTrange-sounding names seemed more remoTe, and more sTrange. Than ever. In 9B, in languages, we reached a criTical poinT. There were Two alTernaTives: know grammar, or Tail. Some of us knew grammar: oThers . . . We pause here To describe The oral reciTaTion, analogous To a vaccinaTion or oTher similar horror. The Teacher indicaTes a sTudenT-called The vicTim - by The hiT-or-miss-iab-The-' pencil-inTo-The-rolI-book meThod. and puTs a quesTion To him in his respecTive foreign language, wiTh machine gun rapidiT . The sTudenT - vicTim - blushes profusely, makes a Tew, barery audible. subhuman noises. and sinks inTo his seaT. This is The oral reciTaTion. Foreign language TesTs were alTogeTher enigimaTic. We were led To believe ThaT They were really psychological TesTs. designed To see how we could cope wiTh TrusTraTion. NeverThe- less. we sTudied. prayed. biT our nails, and did our besT. Those of us who reached The lOTh grade were pleased To learn ThaT The remainders of our respecTive courses consisTed mainly of reading. ATTer Two years, Foreign Language was no longer a re- quired subiecT. Accordingly. iT disappeared from a greaT many rosTers. Each class was whiTTled down To a hard core of dedi- caTed sTudenTs: Those who were proTicienT in foreign languages, and Those who could wriTe very small. We proceeded merrily. TranslaTing sTories, and spending weeks reading books ThaT could have been 'Finished in hours. had They been read in English. Only The LaTin sTudenTs sTruggled along, sTill Trying To comprehend The rudimenTs of Their scholarly Tongue. When we Tinally became sTaTely seniors, we were preTTy well adiusTed To our languages courses. There was a warm sTudenT-Teacher relaTionship, Tempered by The muTual agree- menT ThaT iusT abouT everyone would pass if he paid a reasonable amounT of aTTenTion and didn'T snore. For The mosT parT. we read The classics of our adopTed counTries. We sympaThized wiTh our Teachers when They sadly announced ThaT They were forced To give us TesTs. and we iTied Them Tor having To mark Them. raTher Than ourselves for having To Take Them. In The end, we were surprised To find ThaT we had goTTen Through The Tour-year course sTill a greaT disTance away from The desired goal of high proficiency in The language. 2l

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Dr. Kuohne FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT Everyfhing in 'rhis world is more or less remofely relafed fo everyfhing else. So if is also wifh The idea 'rhaf PEACE is fhe sun abouf which everyfhing else in fhe universe revolves. Depending on fhe degree of one's enfhusiasm and convicfion, a sfrong argumenf can be developed fo show fhaf a knowledge of foreign languages can be a sfrong deferrenf fo hosfilify befween fhe nafions. The more infensely you know your neigh- bors in fhis world and can communicafe wifh fhem in 'rheir own languages, fhe less inclined you would be fo enferfain fhoughfs of hosfilify and animosify 'foward fhem. This argumeni' is. however, noi' wifhouf flaws. Nowhere else in fhis froubled world are more languages sfudied by more people fo high roficiency fhan in Europe. Yef anyone who knows fhe froubled hisfory of fhaf confinenf can find no ofher comparable area where fhere has been more frequenf, longer. and bloodier wars. ln spife of fhis paradox, no one in America, which is now in- exfricably associafed for good or bad wifh all fhe nafions of fhe globe, would seriously challenge 'rhe claim fhaf a com- mand of one or fwo foreign languages has become a necessify for every fhinking cifizen in fhis ever-confracfing world. OSWALD R. KUEHNE Deparfmenf Head, Language Gee, a real, honesf-fo-goodness, imporfed foreign lan- guage! we exclaimed. And we reasoned fhusly: Everybody knows fhaf English is fhe hardesf language fo learn, and we learned if when we were only a couple of years old: so how hard can a foreign language be? How hard? indeed! Hah! Somefhing musf have happened in fhe fen-or-so years since we learned English. Buf whaf an opporfunify! When we were in France, we would be able fo speak French. When we were in Spain, we would be able fo speak Spanish. When we were in Germany. we would be able 'ro speak German. When we were in Rome. we would be able fo speak . . . well, if Julius Caesar . . . well . . . Anyway, we'd be af home in France, Spain and Germany. Hah, again! ' Sfarfing af fhe very beginning, we learned fhe respecfive alphabefs. So far, so good. Buf fhen we sfarfed learning grammar. lf English-Burnham-Grammar was difficult foreign language was a real freaf. Noi' only didn'+ we know parfs of speech, conisfrucfion. coniugafion, and word order: we didn'+ even know whaf fhe words meanf. Those far away places wifh zo'

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