Non-digital english resources are not enough in Madagascar
Moon's books
Each time we have new comers at the club, we don’t fail to ask them “How did they know about the club”. An important part of them answer “From the newspaper – English corner“. When we started this project with the daily Midi Madagasikara about 4 years ago our main goal was to give people something “English” to read. A challenge that we didn’t know how it would impact Midi’s audience. One must know that Midi Madagasikara is among the daily papers that has the highest number of readers.
The feedback has been pretty positive so far and that encourages us (the English Corner team led by Ariniaina) to keep it up. I remember, Andry already told me that another news paper was doing the same thing – having an entire page in English language. Sounds good I said. In the past 5 years, Malagasy people has showed interest in this language and that has triggered lots of good things like tv and radio shows, a leap in English courses attendance, boom of English institutes and so on.
So what is really goog about all this? Practice of course as we are dealing with “language”. The digital world and the evolution of ICT has opened new doors of opportunities to learn and practice English. Something that our fathers didn’t have. However, not everybody can enjoy the advantages of new technology that’s why the other supports have their part to play. Bookstores and schools should have books in English. There is sometimes a faire of English books in Tana (I don’t know how often) but it allows many young people to buy novels, vocabulary and grammar books. There are sold with audio tapes sometimes.
I know only two places (correct me if I’m wrong) where you can read English books. The one is at CNELA’s library and the other at the ACC. The last time I went to CNELA I didn’t have to be a student there to be able to rent a book. I hope it is still the case now. For the ACC, you’ll have to enroll at the ETP. Reading is important and one of the ICE projects is to have books for rent for the members. Some friends already proposed us something but our main problem is – so far – the place where we can put them. I hope we will find a place soon.
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Minosy
ICE Club
haingo
Havana
Tahina
I couldn’t agree more. Without reading, one cannot become fluent. You might want to look into the books that are supposed to be part of what’s called “The American Corner.” These books were in the main library at Ankatso, but they were always locked up. They were moved, I believe, to the Department of Anglophone Studies, where, I fear, they remain in boxes. “The American Corner” is a service of U.S. embassies across the world. The purpose is to have books in English available to interested readers. A great project for ICE could be to organize a place for those books. There are a lot of them, and I think people would find many of them very interesting. Good luck.
Thank you JoAnn for telling us about “The American Corner”. We will see what we can do about this and hope will be able to have the books out of the boxes (if they are)
Did you happen to teach English at Ankatso?
There is another place where you can rent and read English books… quite far but it worths it: Vision Valley School in Andranomena (right after FUTURA)
… The information I have is not updated so you better check it, before you needed a photo and 5,000 Ariary (fee per year) to register.
We have published an English newspaper for the last two years. It’s called Mada English Journal, and you can buy it in many places around Tana, like the Libriry de Madagascar or at the Carlton or at Jovenna in Ivandry. We also distribute it for free to over 1000 schools all over Madagascar. At our office at Ankorondrano (Immeuble SACM) we also sell cheap English novels and textbooks.
Visist us!
Annelie
Thanks Annelie for reminding us the Mada English Journal