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Allow me to clarify, “According to the “New Grammar of Spanish”, for Latin words ending in -m-, -s- is added to form the plural. Therefore, for the adaptation of pénsum, the plural pénsums is preferred to the Latin variant “pensa” which is widely used due to English influence. For this reason, for two years I have been using the term pensum marked with the letter -e-.
This clarification done, I return to the purpose of this article, which is to argue for the recovery of the communicative and binding power of words, as suggested by Dr. Salomón Lerner Febres in his inaugural lecture at Rafael Landívar University, Guatemala, in 2011.
At that conference, Dr. Salomon Lerner Febres, President Emeritus of the Catholic University of Peru, said: “Today we know that the greatest enemy of democracy and the health of public affairs is not corruption or inaction. It is the degradation of language. Therefore, if today’s universities have an unforgivable task to contribute to citizen construction, it is to maintain the communicative and binding force of the world. His speech was called University, language and citizenshipI found your advice extremely valuable and this will not be the first nor the last time I will quote this eloquent passage.
(frasepzp1)
To better demonstrate the warning of the president emeritus, one of the serious problems we face at the University of Central America is that many students who complete the multidisciplinary study cycle come to us with a reading ability of no more than one hundred words per minute. Experts in the study of reading speed and comprehension (and other disciplines related to this topic) say that to achieve adequate performance at the university level, a person should read an average of 230 to 250 words per minute. Some professions require more due to the large amount of theoretical content.
But, outside the academic sphere, for Dr. Lerner Febres, the implications for the health of democracy and public affairs are dire. It goes beyond corruption and inaction, and so it urges those of us working in universities to restore the communicative and binding power of language.
In Guatemala we can see the presence of this great enemy every day. Just reading the statements of many government officials and the private sector is enough to realize that it is real and undermines civic construction. I remember in a tragicomic way what happened to me in 2004, when, on the occasion of the Second Mariano Picon Salas International Essay Prize at the Center for Latin American Studies of Romulo Gallegos in Caracas, Venezuela, a public official called me and told me verbatim: “Look! doctorI just saw in the La Prensa that you won the essay award in Venezuela. As a good public servant, I would like to ask you how I can help you so that you can win not only in rehearsal, but also on the day.
That person told me what he thought and wanted. I never doubted his sincerity. So, as an act of reciprocity, I visited him personally and explained to him with great respect the difference between a verbal essay and a genre essay (as a prose text). Needless to say, I strongly requested him not to repeat such remarks to the local media.
For all these reasons, seeing the number of children who came to participate in the many cultural activities during the Guatemala International Book Fair – Filgua 2024 – meant for me a visualization of a hopeful horizon of citizenship construction. Originally from the Verapaz region, I learned that there were babies from Telemán, Cajaben, Prula and other municipalities in the north of the country. However, I am sure that they came from somewhere else. Thanks to their parents, teachers, mentors and donors who encouraged them to come into contact with the magical and tangible world of books.
When did we lose the ability to teach and learn reading and reading comprehension in Guatemala? Again, I have no idea. I am sure it was not free, and I would not be surprised if there was malicious intent behind it. All the more reason to respond to Dr. Lerner Febres’s advice to restore the communicative and binding power of words.
Until next week, God willing.
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