Tillsonburg District High School - Tatler Yearbook (Tillsonburg, Ontario Canada)

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one readsthem pronouncing them accord- ing to the pronunciation of one's own dialect. In the western world we write the symbol 5. This symbol is like a Chinese character in that it does not represent a sound but an idea. Thus an Englishman sees it and pronounces it five , a French- man reads it cinq g a Spaniard cinco and a German feunf. But to all these people, regardless of the manner in which they pronounce it, the symbol 5 has the same meaning. Similarly a Chinese char- acter is pronounced quite diiferently in the various dialects and also in the lan- guages of Korea, Japan, and Annam but will always have the same meaning re- garless of pronunciation. The character which means five is read wu in north China, ng in Canton and Hong Kong, and go in Japan. The earliest characters were pictures and very simple. Thus one, two, and three are simply one, two and three, horizontal lines respectively. A small square forigin- ally a circlel represents mouth or opening ,' the same square with three short. hori- zontal lines above it representing the breath means words or the verb to talk C just hot air coming out of the mouthlb. The sign for person below a horizontal line repre- senting the horizon denotes any of the following: under, below, down, lower, to descend, inferior. Conversely the sign for person above a horizontal line denotes any of the following: on, upon, up, above, upper, to ascend, to mount, superior. You can easily see how fascinating the study of Chinese characters may become! It is small wonder that the study of Chinese is annually attracting more and more keen-minded students in our univer- sities. Ability to read the language in its literary form opens up the world's greatest and most comprehensive national litera- ture, while even being able to speak it in any of its dialects broadens one's horizons so that one can span the oceans and em- brace the continents. l.0.?. To George Gyulveszi Crack! . . went the gun: he ran with all his might: He sprinted very fast: there was no one else in sight. Imagine his surprise, as the finish-line he passed, To find he'd run the wrong way and come in last, G. Miller, Grade 12. 60 ACTIVITY IN SPANISH Talk about Latin being a dead language! It's not half as dead as Spanish around T.D.H.S. So moribund is this modern Romance language that we now have only one active senorita in our entire enrolment. There is, of course, the odd student here and there who is known to have at least some elementary training in Spanish: however, the only person who has per- severingly adhered to the language is Betty Williams of Grade XIII. Passing through the lower hall between 4:00 and 4:30, one may often observe this lone figure labouring over exercises or following in her text while Senorita Os- trander reads forth strange and guttural sounds, known only to these two. It is not surprising that this quiet- spoken miss has patiently continued her extra-curricular study of Spanish for three years when one realizes her eagerness to become adept at the language. An inter- view with her did not succeed in securing much definite information with regard to her aims, but it is understood that she hopes to undertake missionary work in South America. Whatever is Senorita Williams's objective, the language depart- ment hereby wishes her every success. ' The following is a fanciful Spanish poem with Betty's translation: Desgarrada la nube: el arco iris brillando ya en el cielo y en un fanal de lluvia, y sol el Campo envuelto. . . . iEl limonar florido, el cipresal del huerto, el prado verde, el sol, el agua, el iris . . .I j el agua en tus cabellos! . . . Y todo en la memoria se perdea como una pompa de jabon al viento. Torn is the cloud, the rainbow Shining in the sky, And in the rainiiow, The sun-wrapped meadows lie. The lemon trees in bloom and the evergreen The garden wall yon, The sun, the rain, the rainbow, the meadow green! The rain your hair on! And all was gone in my mind, Soap bubble Hitting in the wind. THE TATLER

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I- A A G E S Einrannv1a1cHA1e1JJoN15s,x11 Dedication To Miss Marjorie Howitt, HA., who for eighteen years faithfully served Tillsonburg High School in the capacity of teacher of modern languages until her resignation in 1949, the language section of the 1950 TAT- LER is respectfully dedicated. . ..l0 . WHY NOT STUDY CHINESE? By Gordon R. Taylor, M.A. When I overhear students complain of the complexities of Latin grammar or the difficulties of French spelling I always wish to suggest that they begin the study of Chinese. This language has neither gram- mar nor spelling! Its four hundred million speakers live not only in the Chinese Re- public but also in Siam, Malaya, Indonesia, Hawaii and America. Moreover it is the language of education and culture in Japan, Korea and Annam. No other litera- ture in the world has continued in the same written form from about 800 B.C. to the present day. That means that if you learn to read Chinese you can read the celebrated Chinese classics and the writings of Confucius and you can enjoy the lovely lyrics and rhythmic prose of the renowned T'ang dynasty 1618-907 A.D.J or the clever and witty dramas of the Yuan dynasty in the latter half of the XIII century just as readily as you can peruse yesterday's Chinese newspaper published in Toronto or New York. What other literature offers such a stimulating variety of appeal or presents such a range of material? Like every other language spoken in Asia, Chinese makes a considerable dis- tinction between its spoken and written forms, between the colloquial and the literary. It is as if one should always use dog in conversation but always write canine. The two forms of the language differ not only in vocabulary but also to some extent in sentence structure. The literary form demands short terse sen- tences with a well marked rhythm and abundant parallel structure. The colloquial permits longer sentences of a freer and more fluid structure. THE TATLER You have all heard Chinese being spoken and have been struck by the peculiar sing-song effect. This is due to the presence of tones in the language. The one word may be pronounced in several dif- ferent tones, such as the even, rising or the falling. Thus the Chinese word fan in one tone means return, fan in another tone means againstg in another tone may mean cooked rice and again may mean nncivilized or barbarian! The words for buy and sell are the same but are in different tones. Some Chinese wonder why the missionary may be saying trousers in the fields while the missionary may be praying our Father in heaven, ibut for the changes of Tonel. Four chunks and dead dogs sound the same but for the tone: caveat emptor! Being spoken by so many millions of people living over such a wide area, Chinese has many dialects. Look at the map of China and trace the coast-line south from Shanghai to Hong Kong. In the provinces along this part of the coast is spoken a great variety of dialects. Each large port has its own dialect-Canton, Swatow, Amoy, Foochow, Wenchow, Ning- po and Shanghai-and each dialect has a number of local variations. Our Chinese in Canada speak various forms of Can- tonese, the Chinese in Formosa iT'ai-wanl and most of those who live in Java and Singapore speak the Amoy dialect. Throughout the rest of China the people use one form or another of Kus-yii. The form spoken in Peiping CPekingJ. used to be called Manderin. The tones decrease in number from nine in Cantonese to four in the north, Amoy having seven and Foochow six. A word ending in K, P, or T in the south will drop this letter in the north. Six is Luk in Canton and ln in Pekingg eight is paat in Canton and pa in Peking. It will thus be seen that it is not possible for a person speaking one dialect to under- stand any other dialect. For this reason the written language is extremely impor- tant. As there is no Chinese alphabet the written words do not represent sounds or svllables. They are known as characters or ideographs and each represents an idea, not a word. But the characters are written the same wherever Chinese is written and

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TILLSONB uRG IDISTR 0 H IFQ Moro 19:0 fi .QE ic 5501, L ima if I,'f IQ pl JU' QQ' .1 1.9 H C503 Nfl .. Qyg , N' , CC 1 X9 X .- x 1 1490, 1 ,tl W' Q QQ ,T zulu-way l l ' 5 f A A A . 3 1 ' P ail U 5 1 1 If , 1 ' ag, 5s..,f:, 'Q I r l 4 ' 4 I ' g . X 1 It 9 x I si-5 ee ,X Y Q ' N, ff 'I . 'Z'-1' x ri ll I .A4 .UL ' l in ii? ' 'sa ' '- l J' 3 ' 4 , I -'- 7 'iffy' A fn X X J N - Q5 X -'-l ' 1 lx, 'F ,- M ' I I- Q so Q 63 M 1.2.33 an T K J 9-avposas ' ' 4... , l L ' f v I y f X .75 f? A f 43.76 Dopsv Dan s Daydream ll I TO HORACE IN THE ABSENCE OF MISS GRIEVE Ah, Horace, why didst thou contrive To write in verse for me to read, Misunderstand And throw my hand In gesture indicating need? Need? Yes need! to me 'tis clear- I need Miss Grieve to now be here! I've struggled, fought with verb and tense, Been spurned by purpose clause and such, My mind's a blank, I'll never thank You for disrupting me so much! When you preferred subjunctive's use, I fear a screw somewhere was loose! THE TATLER Marilyn Stilwell XIII. MUSIC Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory- Odours, when sweet violets sicken Live within the sense they quicken. Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heaped for the beloved's bedg And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love itself shall slumber on. Percy Bysshe Shelley LA MUSIQUE La chanson quand les voix molles meurent, Dans Fame fait tremblementg L'arome quand diminuent les fleurs Habite la joie en l'inventant. Le feuillage de rose quand la rose perit Fait la couche de celle qu'on aimeg Ainsi ton esprit quand tu n'es plus ici, Par amour dormira tout de meme. Translation: Richard Jones, XII. 61