Evening star., 1941-03-30
By MANUEL VEGA.

lie lllllucIlCc VI lOI clSll IOnSu
on the life OF people is phenom-
enon worthy OF careful study, par
ticularly In the republics to the
south, where We have always sought
our future intellectual bearings be-
yond our shores. For years French
has been, in many South American
countries, the preferred tongue Of
the studious and obligatory in the
intermediate classical schools. 1t
was the universal idiom of cul-
ture. All spiritual currents passed
through Paris before commencing
their world conquest. But in the
present century the development of
great industrial enterprises, the eX-
tension of international commerce
has placed English in a situation
similar, and at times superior to,
the idiom in which Racine wrote.
This tendency is being accentuated
notably and is also justifying itself
for multitudinous reasons.
In Chile the study OF foreign
tongues, of Germanic or Latin orig
in, has had diverse steps or periods
In this respect the study plans have
been reformed, perhaps, excessively.
In my undergraduate days in the
National Institute Of Santiago, be-
tween 1910 and 1916, French was
the only obligatory language. Its
study embraced six years of the So
called "humanitieS. French also
was among the subjects which, on
completion Of the secondary studies,
figured in obtaining a bachelor in
humanities degree in the univer-
sity. I remember this perfectly.
because luck was with me in this
case. In those days English and
German were optional languages.
whose study covered only three
year period. 1t was obligatory. in
deed, to elect one of these languages
after the third year. The great
majority Of the students chose. nat
urslly, English. I studied it at that
time: and now have come to prac-
tice 1t with pleasure and advantage
In the United States.
BY the reform Of the study plan
Of January 9. 1929, English began
to occupy the position in Chile Of
French. From 1929 to 1887, 1t was
the only obligatory language in the
institutes and intermediate classical
schools, in the six-yar course Of
study. On that date, 1887, there
was q return to obligatory bilingual-
ism English and FrenchD by reason
Of a strong campaign carried out.
with this object In view, by the
professors in these subjects. English
preserves, nevertheless, some not
able advantages: it is obligatory
during the six years, while French
Is only obligatory from the second
year: a total of five years And
the weekly class hours are divided as
follows: "a hours for tongues Of
Germanic origin; Is for those Of
Latin origin. On the other hand,
German and italian, recently intro
duced in our colleges, continue to be
optional languages The tongue Of
Goethe predominates in some inter-
mediate schools to the south, where
there are German populations, and
the tongue of Dante finds partisans
in some establishments in Santiago
English professors have formed an
association in Santiago called "The
American Club Society," and they
all, for the last 10 years, have been
coming to the United States to per-
feet their studies.
Relations of English with Chilean
culture are, fortunately, quite old.
In 1885, the first professors of this
language appeared in Chile, whose
names are preserved In history.
They are: Juan Bautista Garcia,
Francisco Javier Lombard and Jose
Luis Borgono. They were professors
| on their own, that gave private
classes, as the tongue Of Shakespeare
did not yet figure on the study
programs. It's incorporation was
| realized later, through the reform
| of 1879. Since that date English
has been studied officially in my
country.
This seems to me a good place to
make a pleasing observation
Chilean letters, at the beginning Of
this century, received the beneficial
influence of the North American
short story writer, Bret Harte, the
celebrated author of Californian
tales. This influence, which had its
effect on a whole generation of
young novelists, the most brilliant
of this century in Chile, constituted
reaction against the French ro-
mantle school, which at that time
predominated the literary ambient
1t is fair to say that the realism
| of Bret Harte marks in Chilean
letters its true and future road.
From 1t was born the "Creoleism'
q ex days, the passion ef the