117) common consent Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74

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Common consent If English is to be learned, teachers and learners from different countries of different languages ​​come and try to find a way how one could acquire this world language the best. They sit down to share their ideas. A mutual agreement is slowly emerging on how best to teach and learn it. This exchange of ideas is missing for languages ​​that are less in the limelight. Very often, the native speakers of those cultures consider their communication to be something special and think that their language works very differently and is much more difficult than that of other countries. Here is a small example: There are three main types of sentences: 1) the statement: I play tennis. 2) the order: Do your homework! 3) the question: 3a) the yes/no question: Are you coming today? 3b) the W-question: When are you coming today? If these main clauses are incorporated into the indirect speech, the result is: 1) He told her that he played tennis. 2) He told her to do her homework. 3a) He asked her whether she was coming that day. 3b) He asked her when she was coming that day. Some would-be linguists now mention another type of main clause, the wish or desire clause: If only you were here! How should such a sentence be incorporated into indirect speech? You either shrug your shoulders and say that it is not possible, or you compare it to other languages: I wish you were here! Another example: Peter calls Mary and says that he misses Gerda. Mary calls Gerda and tells her that Peter wishes that she were with him. Thus, it is proven that the latter is not a main clause but a subordinate clause. Therefore, a thinking teacher would explain to the students that this is a subordinate clause, with the main clause being left out in colloquial situation because it is clear whom it is about. Other social sciences also benefit from this technique of comparison and mutual consent. In some countries, for example, history is a bit slower. They therefore lag behind the international standard. The Chinese learn at school that the first humans not only originated in Ethiopia, but that monkeys that came from India also developed in China. Or the Hungarians who simply refuse to accept the fact that there was no Hungary between the Battle of Mohács in 1526 and the Peace Treaty of Trianon in 1920. They were given a sovereign state, which the fascist Horthy immediately led into the Second World War on Hitler's side. It will probably take a long time before the Hungarians come to a mutual agreement with their neighbours and acknowledge their own complicity in the war and the Holocaust. Back to list!

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