English is taught in schools. It is more advanced when it is taught as the first language and less so when it is second. The importance of the language is not emphasized then because one does not know where the student is headed for higher education. Professional courses do not have English as a subject in the curriculum. So whatever English the student has learned in school and has retained will be used by him/her whenever there is need for it.
When the person starts working in clerical capacity in an organization, like ours, he/she may have to compose letters for the Boss, who signs those letters and then those letters reach whoever they are meant for. Often the Boss just signs them after scanning them briefly. A few Bosses read the letters and correct the grammar before sending it. Most of them don't. One such letter reached me asking me to attend a meeting.
"The meeting is scheduled at 12:00 P.M." it read. I was perplexed for a few seconds. Knowing what I have described in the early part of this post, I realized what it meant.
"For a moment I thought the meeting was at midnight" I said to our clerk. "The term 'A.M.' stands for the Latin phrase 'Ante Meridiem' —which means 'before noon'—and 'P.M.' stands for 'Post M': —which means 'after noon.' 12:00 A.M. and 12:00 is wrong usage of the language. If at all, 12:00 P.M. would mean midnight. However some people do not understand that very clearly, and write 12:00 P.M. when they mean 'noon'. I was not confused in this case because generally no one schedules meetings at midnight. There was a Boss in this institute some years ago, who used to keep meetings at midnight or in the wee hours. Luckily there has not been another one like that subsequently. This sort of confusion is best avoided, and it is easy to avoid it - one should write 12:00 noon and 12:00 midnight or use 24 hour clock in which midnight is 00 hours and noon is 1200 hours."
Now I am certain that at least one clerk will not create this confusion in the civic offices.
When the person starts working in clerical capacity in an organization, like ours, he/she may have to compose letters for the Boss, who signs those letters and then those letters reach whoever they are meant for. Often the Boss just signs them after scanning them briefly. A few Bosses read the letters and correct the grammar before sending it. Most of them don't. One such letter reached me asking me to attend a meeting.
"The meeting is scheduled at 12:00 P.M." it read. I was perplexed for a few seconds. Knowing what I have described in the early part of this post, I realized what it meant.
"For a moment I thought the meeting was at midnight" I said to our clerk. "The term 'A.M.' stands for the Latin phrase 'Ante Meridiem' —which means 'before noon'—and 'P.M.' stands for 'Post M': —which means 'after noon.' 12:00 A.M. and 12:00 is wrong usage of the language. If at all, 12:00 P.M. would mean midnight. However some people do not understand that very clearly, and write 12:00 P.M. when they mean 'noon'. I was not confused in this case because generally no one schedules meetings at midnight. There was a Boss in this institute some years ago, who used to keep meetings at midnight or in the wee hours. Luckily there has not been another one like that subsequently. This sort of confusion is best avoided, and it is easy to avoid it - one should write 12:00 noon and 12:00 midnight or use 24 hour clock in which midnight is 00 hours and noon is 1200 hours."
Now I am certain that at least one clerk will not create this confusion in the civic offices.
