The emergence of a standard dialect produces the phenomenon known as ‘accent’ which is quite different from dialect. In the process of learning a foreign language, it is normal to transfer the patterns of an indigenous language to those of a foreign language. With time, however, those of form and most of orthography and phonology gradually get eliminated. This is because these can easily be identified and corrected. They are easy to correct because they do not involve patterns of muscular movement. It is necessary to correct them because otherwise, they could seriously impair intelligibility.

With phonetic patterns, on the other hand, there is a great deal of intelligibility tolerance because muscular patterns are involved thus making correction difficult when observed. Besides, phonetic patterns do not impair intelligibility much. Hence the transference of phonetic habits from one language to another is both easier to tolerate and more difficult to avoid than transference at the lexico-grammatical level. It follows that a speaker who is learning a second dialect does so with an accent since the muscles of his speech organs would have crystallised in response to the phonetics of his native language which he learnt first. The speaker therefore speaks the second dialect with the phonetic features of his native dialect. The learning of a standard language is simply the learning of a second dialect- that which has been standardised.

Members of a language community control at least two dialects and use both dialects in different situations. In the rural areas, the native dialect is used in most situations since there is less movement. Therefore, rural dwellers tend to be parochial and maintain the homogeneity of their dialect. In the urban community, on the other hand, there is more demand on the standard dialect than on the rural one. This is because people from different regions converge here. In order to ensure mutual intelligibility resulting from the pressure of communication, a great deal of demand is made on the standard dialect which now becomes the lingua franca amongst them.

  If once in a lifetime, you see a blue moon, don’t think your eyes are playing tricks on you. It is caused by dust in our upper atmosphere; ice crystals are what make you see rings around the moon. .

  Over the centuries, magical powers have been attributed to the moon. it has been said to bring on lunacy, affect the growth of plants, eyes of cats, spots of panthers, functions of women and activities of ghosts France once had a law against cutting timber except during a waning moon. The moon and to a lesser degree the sun, does cause the ocean tides because of their gravitational pull. But a common mistake of primitive people is to think that everything timed in the same rhythm as the moon is caused by it.

  All the moon gazing, probing and measuring has never solved the big problem it’s origin One theory is that it began as a planet, got too near the more massive earth, was captured ‘and turned into a satellite. Another is that the moon is the result of a giant tidal bulge forming on our earth’s surface, separating, then spinning off into space. If the latter theory is true, scientists say, there would be two clues; the moon would consist of lighter material than the earth, and the earth would be left with a scar. As a matter of fact, the moon does weigh less. And the Pacific Ocean does have a scarlike bottom of basaltic rocks instead of the granite rocks instead of the granite rocks usually found near the earth’s surface.

  But the assumption that, if man can get to the moon, he’ll find the answer is unfounded. Man has been on the earth hundreds of thousands of yours without determining the earth’s origin. Scientist, of course, will never give up either quest.

  Indeed, ‘for thousands of years the moon has worked a spell of fascination over all the people on its near neighbour, the earth. The ancient worshipped this lamp in the sky and speculated about it endlessly. Modern astronomers continue to explore its mysteries almost every night of the year, and with reason.

  Age’s ego, before artificial light was known, it was known, it was important as illumination at night. As everyone knows, the moon has no light of its own; it shines with the cold reflection of the distant sun, but actually the moon is a poor mirror, reflecting only a fourteenth of the sunlight received. The earth reflects a third of its sunlight providing its satellite with ‘earth light ‘sixty times as bright as the best moonlight. That’s why we sometimes see the whole moon faintly when the sun is lighting up only a narrow crescent.

  The preparation which a study of the humanities can provide stems from three observations about education in our world of accelerating social and technological change. First, with the rate of change, we cannot hope to train our student for specific technologies. That kind of vocational education is obsolescent. By the time the specific training will have been completed, the world will have moved on.

  If our education consists of narrow training, we will not be prepared to change. Second and paradoxically, what our student desire from their education is preparation for specific careers – business, engineering, medicine, computer programming and the like, but we will not be able to train them for a life-long career. Their confronting the depressed job market gives our students a certain anxiety, but the solution they seek in vocational training is not sufficient. Third, we sense in our students a narrow materialism, with the good life defined in terms of material comforts. Education then means learning to do a job which will make money. I see in this definition a limiting sense of what education and thus life offer, a definition which excludes joy and meaning. Our narrow approach to the study of the humanities responds to these three related problems. In our changing, yet narrow world, the teaching of the humanities finds one powerful justification – it teaches student how to think.

  When I set out for London, little did I suspect that I was not on a journey to God’s own city where harmony reigned supreme. So used to the frenzied life of Lagos was I that I had come to associate that city with everything that was chaotic, and there was no doubt in my mind that Lagos was one giant symbol of our backwardness. As the plane taxied its way out of the tarmac of our national airport, of our national airport, I heaved a sigh of relief, not so much because I was leaving my own country as that I was being relieved of the tension that had possessed me during those tense hours in the untidy lounge. I had felt so uneasy, my thoughts racing from one uncertainty to another. But at least I was air-borne, moving away from the whole uncertainty, from the whole load of fear towards a place which I supposed would be El Dorado.

  Everything that happened in the plane passed through my eyes like pictures on the screen. The white air hostess who instructed me on how to use the safety belt was an angel, what with her beauty, her pretty blue dress, and her ever-smiling face. The same lady of the air served me snacks and supper. Another angel, whose queenly voice through an invisible public address system, dished out occasional information on the progress of our journey. I had never felt so relaxed, and my jolted heartbeats each time the plane took what appeared like a sudden brief descent, did not matter. When eventually we were set for landing, the anxiety that came over me was almost thrilling. What was the wonderland going to be like? So overwhelmed was I that I almost lost consciousness of what happened thereafter.

  But I would never forget the shock that greeted me when we arrived in the tube station and boarded a train to behold the sea of white faces and furtive glances from apparently indifferent co-passengers. I believe that the nostalgic feeling for Lagos which later became part of my life all my days in London began at a point.