“What is a participial phrase?” asked a teacher who was preparing for an interview because her school was being shut down by vested interests. “No clue,” I said. “Never heard of such a thing.” She wondered how I had mastered the art of lying so quickly. She refused to believe that I had not heard of such a thing as participial phrase. She opened the grammar book she had brought (a fraction of which is here in the picture) and showed me the phrase. It was a grammar textbook for grade 8. I flipped through the pages and realised how ineffective English language teaching is in our country. My memory went back to my childhood when they taught me things like Vocative Case and other Cases all of which disappeared without a trace from English grammar eventually. “See, dear,” I told the teacher, “I didn’t learn English by learning the grammar. Did you learn your mother tongue by learning its grammar?” She pondered a while and said, “No.” “If I ask you abou
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