By Nathan E. Sytsma

Guest writer

Slinging backpacks onto trains, visiting 1000-year-old sites and thrusting cassette recorders into locals' faces, ``The English Language by Rail'' class crisscrossed Britain this January studying dialects. Led by professors Judy VanderWoude and Peggy Goetz of the CAS Department, we spent nearly three weeks in the United Kingdom. We started with a week in London, punctuated by day trips to Oxford and Canterbury, then traveled to Cardiff, the bilingual capital of Wales. From Cardiff, a long train ride brought us to the historic northern city of York--called Eboracum by the Romans and Jorvik by the Vikings--followed by four days in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The interim class focused on four main British dialects: southern English, Welsh, Yorkshire and Scottish. We discussed the history of the English language and distinctive features of speech in each place we visited. Then we dispersed to soak up the local culture and to persuade people to read a paragraph and wordlist for our tape recorders. We transcribed the best samples into a phonetic alphabet and compared their features. I soon discovered that bored museum attendants made the most willing victims.

The advantage of this interim was that much of our time remained flexible. Often we simply needed to be out and about pursuing our interests while listening and looking for dialect features. Most of my highlights were thus of the sightseeing variety. I visited a number of beautiful churches and was especially moved by Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner, which houses the remains of, or memorials to, writers and artists including Chaucer, Handel and T.S. Eliot. The white inscription on Eliot's smooth black slab reads `the communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.' Britain certainly does play host to such communication, steeped as it is in history. Oxford's New College, for example, was founded in 1379. I was not prepared for the impact of watching the places I have often imagined slide into concrete reality.

I did find the Scottish landscape as beautiful as ``Braveheart'' might lead one to believe. The western islands, while climatically inhospitable in winter, do breathe a sort of magic. And even in the middle of Edinburgh, the summit of an extinct volcano now hosts a park with four or five impressive hills.

Unfortunately, those of us who took a trip into the highlands were not fast enough to immortalize a Nessie sighting on film. Someone did snap a memorable shot earlier, however, of Dave Boven, at 6'7'', attempting to `mind his head' on the 275 spiral stairs to the top of Yorkminster's central tower.

The gatehouses and curtain walls of castles were similarly memorable in a crueler sort of way. Standing in Caerphilly Castle, built by Norman lords in the 13th and 14th centuries to suppress the native Welsh, I was struck by the grim practicality of such stone piles. An elaborate system of lakes, moats, drawbridges and gates protected Caerphilly, while narrowed arrow slits and murder holes in the gatehouse ceilings allowed defenders to eliminate those who still were able to find their way through.

On a more life-giving note, our class attended a vibrant Baptist church on our last Sunday in Edinburgh. Though the U.K. is no longer a primarily ``Christian'' country and cathedrals struggle on with sparse attendance, Charlotte Baptist Chapel was packed full for a baptism service. Three new Christians--a professional skier, a chiropractor and a former Soviet professor--shared how they came to faith, a refreshing reminder of God's continued faithfulness in the midst of a land that had widely embraced Christianity in the seventh century.

A final highlight of my time overseas was the camaraderie that our group enjoyed. We survived pub food, watched London theatre and worshipped together. We spent quality time together trying to transcribe the difference between ``pit'' and ``pet.'' On a couple occasions, we even crammed into a bedroom for class. The professors led the class but also hung out with us and initiated their own share of interesting adventures.