Last Friday, after seven high school sophomores in a row had demonstrated
that they could not utilize the concepts "same" and "different", I noticed
that one of my Polish immigrant students was looking extremely depressed. I
asked her why and she came over to my desk and said,
"The kids in this school are stupid and this school is dumb."
She has been in the U.S.A. for three years. She told me that Polish schools
are far more rigorous.
I mentioned that Polish immigrants have been coming to our area in large
numbers for about twenty years and asked her if they had been writing to
Poland explaining that the students are stupid and the schools are dumb.
She said that such letters were sent to Poland regularly.
I asked her why Polish people kept coming here with their children. She
replied, "They never believe our letters."

Cheers,
Bob Reis
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carolyn Hartnett" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2001 10:08 PM
Subject: Re: Verb Tense


David Mulroy asked if a linguist would agree with his explanation:

>My explanation is the present perfect is used to characterize an action
that
is complete ("perfect") but was completed so recently that it is still
relevant to one's understanding of the present moment.  "The Chinese have
refused to return our spy plane," but not "Brutus has assassinated
Caesar."  <

I am a linguist (of the Hallidayan functional type) who has spent many
years
teaching college composition, including the grammar that such a course
entails,
and I have long used a similar explanation.  Present perfect refers to past

actions that still have an effect in the present.

Carolyn Hartnett
[log in to unmask]

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