Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fw]

Hello everyone.

The following passage is from an article of �THE GRAMEEN BANK.�

My question is why there is no article �the� before �Chittagong University campus,� while you see �the university campus,� and �the campus� in other lines. If it were �Chittagong University Campus� (�C� in the capital), I could understand it.

And by 1974, we had a terrible famine: a lot of people were dying on the streets. So I got
very frustrated with what I teach, the development economics and all those theories where everything sounds so good and it all works out. And when you walk out of the university campus, you see the real world is so different what you say in the classroom and what appears on the outside. So to me it appeared like it is a movie house: you go to
a movie, you see how everything is working, and you consider that the hero in the end will win and at the end he wins. You come out of the classroom as if you come out of the movie house: the real world is very suddenly different -- everybody gets beaten, nobody wins. I thought, what's the use teaching this economics if I don't have faith in it? How can I teach my students who are so credulous? When I'm disenchanted, how can I inspire my students? So I wanted to learn economics the way I feel it should be, the real world is and I wanted to know from the people around. Chittagong University campus is located among villages, it's out of town. So I had the advantage I could just walk out of the campus and these are real Bangladesh villages. And I chose to talk to the very poor people in the village because that's where the problem is: Why can't they change their life? Why can't they improve their living conditions? And I kept on talking not as an
economist, not as a teacher, not as a researcher -- just as a human being, as a neighbour.
(http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:8fvdqFxSQ-MJ:www.gdrc.org/icm/grameen-radiotalk.html+%22around+chittagong+university+campus%22&hl=ja&gl=jp&ct=clnk&cd=3)

Any comment would be appreciated.

Best regards,
Fw

[Chimoll]

I think you're right - it would be more grammatical to say either "The Chittagong University campus," "Chittagong University Campus," or "Chittagong University's campus."
I would choose the third option if I were writing or editing this sentence.

I noticed that the web address you cited contains the word "radiotalk" - it could be that this passage is a transcription of a speech or interview given on the radio. That would explain both the error you noticed and others. Many of these sentences would be awkward or even incorrect in formal written English. However, many grammatical rules are loosened when speaking as opposed to writing. Getting the hang of natural-sounding speech, of course, is one more challenge to the language learner.

At any rate, you're right. If you stick with the rule you learned you will be correct. In fact, it may just have been a typographical error of the transcriptionist.

Best,
Molly