28 February 2017
22nd international conference of Nepal English Language Teacher Association (NELTA) was held on 24-26 February at Premier International school in Lalitpur. It was wonderful occasion and days were memorable to me and other participants too. I enjoyed the conference very much though I have some reservation about it. I don't know whether you agreed with me or not but I have to express it here. I couldn't be on time on the very first day of the conference though I tried to be there. Why? It's because it was the day of Shivaratri on which day most of the Hindus pay respect and visit Pashupatinath to offer cows' milk. To be on time I along with my spouse, brother in law and my eldest sister went to Pashupati at 2:15 am but we had to wait till 8 am to reach the temple. It was a long queue. The very disgusting matter I faced at Gaushala was that it was police force who dispersed the line. I could not tolerate it and argue with them and asked them who was leading the troop. Thier response was it was the command of IGP. The team could not manage but the shame was that they were unable, to tell the truth. Later after 3 hours long stay in the queue we were allowed to enter the gate. Anyway, it showed how irresponsible police team who were there. Hope in coming days they will improve and should be able to name who was leading the team. Every citizen has to know that police force is for maintaining law and order but not to create chaos in the society. If they try, the general public will defy them.
The second matter was the inaugural day of NELTA. I could not be on time. I went to Pashupatinath temple, one of our identities. Nepal is known as a nation of Mt Everest, Lord Buddha, the bravery of Gurkhas and the Pashupatinath, the holiest place of the Hindus of the world. In my opinion, we Nepali have to respect our culture and tradition. But why our English teachers' leader forget our identity. We teachers should be responsible for our duty and responsibility. We should teach what the culture and tradition are. But we forget them not paying attention to our culture. Is the English language superior to our culture? Hope the concerned authority will change the date in coming days.
Anyway, the conference was wonderful. The concurred session must be meaningful. The presenter should come with the solution rather than showing the prevailing problems in the profession. There are so many grammatical problems facing by the English teachers in Nepal. The performance of school students in English in Nepal is tested through grammatical items too. I faced a problem and asked the native speaker from USA and UK. But I got two different answers from them. My problem was about the tag question. What the tag question of " One should not boycott the session, should one? or should they?" The American English lecturer who is teaching English in Japan university said 'should one' but the British preferred to use 'should they?' So in the use of was or were with if I were or was but the native speakers said both if I was if I were can be used. There is not any wrong to use both but in Nepal students were used to be tested in the SLC exam. Such controversial issues should be settled in such an international conference. The conference should be able to give the solution of the English language problem.
