Living in Hope

Fighting Frustration studies in this way with whatever little help she could get in the vicinity and, after successfully passing the pre-­university examination, she did her B.A. (Hons) in English and then went on to do her M.A. Still, she did not feel satisfied with her prowess, for even though she had a university degree to her credit, she had somehow not really developed her skills in writing English to any high degree. It seemed impossible to do this without the help of an able teacher, but she remembered the saying: ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way!’ And she did not lose heart. The strong and unshaken belief that God helps those who help themselves did not fail her. In the course of her struggles, she chanced upon a book published in London, which seemed to solve the problem of not being able to have a teacher. The author, an Englishman, advised foreigners who were interested in learning English, to practice writing with the help of a good book, where no teacher was available. They were first to trans­late selected passages from the book into their own mother tongue. This book was not to be referred to again until these passages had been translated back into English by the students. Then a comparison was to be made with the original. Corrections made, and the correction committed to memory. Recognizing the value of this technique, she put it into practice over a period of two