The year was 1995 and I was in second year of high school. I remember it like it was just yesterday. Our English teacher, Mr. Mubiru, had written some grammar questions on the blackboard and allowed us to work on the assignment. “Are you done?”, he asked us after some time, to which we answered in the affirmative. “So you think this is English?”, he went on. We in the class answered yes!
That was English that he just assigned us, wasn’t it? What else could it be? With a smile on his face that complemented his confident, scholarly demeanour, he walked out of the class only to return back a few minutes before the end of the class period with helpers carrying piles of English literature books behind him as he walked charismatically back into the class. Having had the books all piled up on the teacher’s table in the classroom, he remarked, “Now this is English!” referring to the literature books in front of us all. “I want you to chew ten of these a day!”, he exclaimed in his booming voice.
That was it for me. Thus began my love for all things – literature and the English classics. I recall reading Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. Even though it was an abridged version of the original, the book transported me to another world and another time. I got to meet various characters with various roles in the plot of the story. After reading Great Expectations, I went on to read various other works of Dickens such as David Copperfield and Oliver Twist. I also read several other great authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte to name a few. I had discovered a universe rich in depth and meaning, not to mention beauty and truth. What I did not realise then was while I was enjoying the great classics, I was also very much improving my English.
When you read good literature, you implicitly absorb a lot about the language, from how sentences are structured to the usage of vocabulary, all the while being immersed in the narration of the story. If you’re a student who wishes to improve their English, one of the best things you can do is pick up and read a work of classic English literature. As you develop the habit of reading the books, you’ll discover as I did that Mr Mubiru was so very right. There is no better way to improve your English than by reading the likes of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. May God bless that wise and charismatic English teacher of mine from many moons ago, wherever he may be.
