This song belongs to the musical "My Fair Lady". Listen to it or read the lyrics and answer:
* What is Higgings trying to say about the English language? (Sam & Daniela)
Higgins:
Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter,
Condemned by every syllable she utters.
By right she should be taken out and hung,
For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue.
Eliza:
Aaoooww!
Higgins:
Aaoooww!
Heavens, what a noise!
This is what the British population,
Calls an elementary education.
Pickering:
Come, sir, I think you picked a poor example.
Higgins:
Did I?
Hear them down in Soho square,
Dropping "h's" everywhere.
Speaking English anyway they like.
You sir, did you go to school?
Man:
Wadaya tike me for, a fool?
Higgins:
No one taught him 'take' instead of 'tike'!
Hear a Yorkshireman, or worse,
Hear a Cornishman converse,
I'd rather hear a choir singing flat.
Chickens cackling in a barn,
Just like this one here.
Eliza:
Garn!
Higgins:
I ask you, sir, what sort of word is that?
It's "Aaoooww" and "Garn" that keep her in her place.
Not her wretched clothes and dirty face.
Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?
This verbal class distinction, by now,
Should be antique.
If you spoke as she does, sir,
Instead of the way you do,
Why, you might be selling flowers, too!
Pickering:
I beg your pardon!
Higgins: An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him.
The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him.
One common language I'm afraid we'll never get,
Oh, why can't the English learn to
set a good example to people whose
English is painful to your ears?
The Scots and the Irish leave you close to tears.
There even are places where English completely disappears.
In America, they haven't used it for years!
Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?
Norwegians learn Norwegian,
the Greeks are taught their Greek.
In France every Frenchman knows his language from "A" to "Zed"
The French never care what they do, actually, as long as they pronounce it properly.
Arabians learn Arabian with the speed of summer lightning,
The Hebrews learn it backwards,
which is absolutely frightening.
But use proper English and you're regarded as a freak.
Why can't the English,
Why can't the English,
Learn To Speak?
I think he is referring to how the poor classes do not have a proper education and no one in england seems to care about it. Higgins says that it is not important if someone is dirty or dresses with dirty clothes,the problem is that they can not access to a proper education. You can easily know the social class of a person by paying attention to the way they speak. I can relate this thought to the feelings of poor people, who did not have any kind of expectations for the future, no goals to succeed in life, no feelings of imprvement. It did not matter how hard you work to change, there was nothing to be changed. It is through education that these feelings and sensations change.
ResponderEliminarI think he is referring to how the poor classes do not have a proper education and no one in england seems to care about it. Higgins says that it is not important if someone is dirty or dresses with dirty clothes,the problem is that they can not access to a proper education. You can easily know the social class of a person by paying attention to the way they speak. I can relate this thought to the feelings of poor people, who did not have any kind of expectations for the future, no goals to succeed in life, no feelings of imprvement. It did not matter how hard you work to change, there was nothing to be changed. It is through education that these feelings and sensations change.
ResponderEliminar