Language Teacher – LT
Teacher – T
French Teacher – FT
Language Teacher’s Ghost – LT ghost
First Lady
Second Lady
The person at the next desk
Dialogue 1.
A big classroom in a school building, lit with an artificial light. A door opens and a language teacher (LT) comes in. He sits at the desk like other people in the classroom and starts looking at the person standing near the blackboard, the teacher (T).
T. - Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I’m your children’s classroom teacher. I will be answering you questions today.
A lady from the audience. Do they have LOTE in grade three curriculum?
T. Yes, they do.
LT. (mumbling to himself). This is what they call it. LOTE. Languages other than English. LT wants to turn around and have a look at the lady who asked the question, but decides it will be inappropriate. Besides, he thinks, it may turn him, however absurd it seems, into a salt pillar. He sits quietly and listens.
Another lady from the audience. How many hours of LOTE do they have in a week?
T. Two to three hours a week, depending on what week it is.
First lady. What’s their LOTE this year?
T. This year year’s three LOTE will be Indonesian.
Second lady. Is our children’s Indonesian teacher a native speaker of Indonesian?
T. No, I assure you not. Fanny is a native speaker of Australian English.
LT. Where did she learn her Indonesian?
T. I beg you pardon? We must move on now. Our next topic is visual arts in year three curriculum.
First lady (speaking to LT.) You wouldn’t like their Indonesian teacher to be from Indonesia, would you?
LT. (trying to say something, but unable to find words, starts choking). I… I… I didn’t expect any…(can’t finish).
Dialogue 2.
LT is sitting in an armchair in a dimly lit room. His own LT, who is now a ghost, is sitting in an armchair opposite him.
LT. This was bizarre, wasn’t it? I mean, it doesn’t look like they like this LOTE subject at all. Why do they have it at all, I wonder, if they feel this way?
LT ghost. It’s a tradition. It may be hard to break a tradition.
LT. A tradition? Starting from when? And where?
LT ghost. I’m not sure, but I guess it’s got something to do with Rome. If you were a learned person in Rome, you’d have to speak Greek too. Everywhere else, you’d have to speak Greek and Latin.
LT. I see.
LT ghost. But the thing is it’s unlikely you’ll speak anything, if you don’t like it. Or don’t like something about it.
LT. So why did they pick up Indonesian as the grade’s three LOTE?
LT ghost. Because they like it. And it’s important in some partnerships. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.
Dialogue 3.
LT comes in a classroom, again, and sits at a desk. The LT ghost is hanging under the ceiling, perched on the lampshade. LT turns to the person at the desk which is next to him.
LT. Is the French class going to be here?
The next desk person. Yes.
A French teacher (FT) comes in.
FT. Bonjour messieurs et mesdames. Revenons ; nos moutons. Qu’est ce que ça veut dire: egalité, liberté, fraternité?
The next desk person. What does it mean, mate?
LT. Can’t you tell? Doesn’t it sound so much like English words?
The next desk person. No, not to me. Which words?
LT. Egalité means equality, liberté means … Can you guess it now?
The next desk person. It means liberty, doesn’t it? Like in ‘you take too much liberty here’?
LT. Yes, you are right. And fraternité, along the same lines, means …
The next desk person. Fraternity.
LT. Exactly.
FT. This famous slogan was first composed during the French Revolution.
The next desk person. Whe-en? Why?
LT. I think it was sans-culottes who first used it. Is this correct?
FT. Oui.
The next desk person. Who? Saint Cul? Or what did you say?
LT. Sans culottes means ‘no pants’. They were called this, I was told, because they were poor. So they wanted egalité. But it just occurred to me that this can be the reason why liberté has become liberty in English.
The next desk person. There is nothing wrong with liberty.
LT. No? I am happy to hear it.
The next desk person. There is the Statue of Liberty, you know.
LT. Yes, of course. I wonder if you can explain me something.
The next desk person. Yes? Is it about liberty, mate?
LT. Yes. What are all those spikes on the Statue’s head? Are they rays of light? Or thorns? Or maybe a crown? But it can’t be a crown, can it?
FT. It’s just the spikes on the Statue’s of Liberty’s head. Do they have to be something?
LT is trying to remember what he was recently told about visual arts curriculum in grade three, but can’t. So he says:
LT. I don’t know. Maybe not. Speaking of liberty, however…
The next desk person. What?