Boss speaking to his staff, so-and-so? No! He’s speaking to a member of his staff

On Page 13 of the Friday, May 3 edition of the tabloid associated with this columnist, there’s an advert penned thus: ‘Dar es salaam (sic!) SHOWS love to Serengeti and Diamond LAST WEEKEND.’

The advertiser must have overrated himself and disregarded the role of proofreaders, and I bet that’s why we’ve in the headline a lower cased “s” instead a capped one in “Salaam”—Dar es Salaam.

And then, despite the usually tolerated headline writer’s poetic licence, saying, “…shows love…last weekend,” is going too far! With a proofreader’s intervention, this headline, we aver, should’ve been redone to read, ‘Dar es Salaam SHOWS love to Serengeti and Diamond OVER THE WEEKEND.’

In the text, the scriptwriter penned, “The two DAYS concert dubbed Serengeti Bite vibes captured the attention of city residents…” instead of penning, “The two-DAY concert…”

Come Saturday, May 4, and Bongo’s senior-most broadsheet ran a full page assortment of pictures. In one of the pictures, the caption reads: “Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa hands over a certificate of appreciation to KCB Bank Head of Marketing and Corporate Affairs Ms Chiristina Manyenye in Dar es Salaam recently ‘AFTER participating THE’ Run4Autism Marathon aimed at raising awareness about autism…”

Hello! You don’t participate something; rather, you participate IN something. Furthermore, the expression “after participating” gives the wrong impression that it’s the PM who took part in the marathon!

We’ll redeem the text this way: “Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa hands over a certificate of appreciation to KCB Bank Head of Marketing and Corporate Affairs Ms Christina Manyenye WHO participated/after SHE participated in the Run4Autism Marathon…”

Then, there’s another picture whose caption is thus written: “Ruvuma Tanroads Engineer Salehe Juma feeds a cake to his STAFF Pascal Paswedo AFTER emerging the best Tanroads worker of the year 2024, during the May Day celebration at CCM grounds in Tunduru…”

A “staff” known as Pascal Paswedo? No, siree! Why, the noun “staff,” as we’ve said it a zillion times before in this space, refers to ALL people employed by a particular organisation. Which is to say, it’s nonsensical to refer to an individual as “staff.” A member of staff, yes! Or just say an employee, a worker…

That’s why we talk of, for instance, a staff of 300 employees. Indeed, synonyms for staff are, among others, workforce, personnel, in reference to a labour force in its totality.

And now, a look at Bongo’s huge and colourful broadsheet of Monday, May 6, whose Page 1 has a story entitled ‘ATCL to train Nigerian firm for starting Airbus A220 operations’

The story is about an arrangement in which two senior Air Tanzania Company Limited pilots will train pilots of a Nigerian air travel firm, Ibom Air. The scribbler reports the ATCL authorities as saying the two Tanzanian pilots in Nigeria “will be responsible for training the pilots and pilot TEACHERS of Ibom Air.”

There’s a dubitable suggestion here that anyone who teaches something is a teacher. Maybe, but if we’re to go by generally acceptable usage, we need to confine the title “teacher” to a person who offers teaching in a school. Those who offer training to professionals to-be are instructors or tutors.

At university we’ve lecturers; at midlevel post-secondary training institutions we’ve tutors. In Kiswahili, however, anyone who imparts knowledge to others is invariably called mwalimu, which is literally, a teacher.

Those who offer practical skills like driving, flying, warfare are TRAINERS, and that’s what we’d preferably call the two ATCL flying gurus who’ve been tasked to teach Nigerians how to handle Airbus A220 belonging to Ibom Air.

Furthermore, Page 4 of the broadsheet has this story, ‘SUA embarks on climate change mitigation study,’ in which the scribbler says in Para 2:

“Speaking during the launch EVENT at the university’s premises…Professor Japhet Kashaigili…praised the project coordinators…” Why qualify “launch” with “event?” Drop “event,” and the message would remain exactly the same!

Ah, this treacherous language called English!