yumi/mipela

[Mnmacd at aol.com]

Greetings to all on the Mihalic list.  In relation to the discussion of 
yumi/mipela I would like to raise the issue of the influence of expatriate 
teachers on the way that Tok Pisin has developed in some areas of PNG.

In the 1970s and 1980s in the Southern Highlands Province, especially in the 
Erave area, I head the yumi/mipela distinction applied just as Mihalic and 
David Counts describe it.  However, I have to say that in the mid-1970s 
working as an adult education teacher in the Katekis Trening Senta at Erave, 
with people who were just then learning Tok Pisin, I and other teachers, both 
expatriate and national, taught Tok Pisin according to the Mihalic and Wantok 
newspaper standard.  No doubt our instruction played some role in the way 
these Highlanders learned Tok Pisin.  I expect that there are a number of 
situations, particularly in church and government training centres, where 
teachers followed the standard set by Mihalic and the programmed courses from 
S.I.L. and A.N.U.

Mary

Mary N. MacDonald                       Religious Studies Department
611 Beattie Street                      Le Moyne College
Syracuse, NY  13224                 Syracuse, NY  13214
Tel 315 449-2107                        Tel 315 445-4364