The King's English

I was out in Makhaza yesterday, saw a woman walk down the road with a microwave perched on her head. Chilled.

In the afternoon, I sat in on a homework session run at the local library, and I got into conversation with a couple of the kids. Their set-work book this term is Othello.
"Ergh," I sighed, "I hated doing Shakespeare at school. Although Macbeth wasn't too bad."
Nods of agreement.

I think it's ridiculous that Shakespeare is part of the South African school curriculum. Even as someone who grew up speaking English I struggled making sense of the thee's and thou's. Although to be fair I wasn't the most attentive high school learner. I was about to start ranting about this to the group's tutor, when he preempted me and started:
"It can be difficult to understand; all those thee's and thou's."
"YES!" I almost shouted. "Right?"
"Mmm," he nodded in agreement and interrupted himself to offer another set of instructions to the learners in Xhosa.
"But it helps you know," he turns back to me, "to read the King James Bible."
"The what?" I give him a furrowed brow.
"The King James Bible." He waits for the look of recognition to cross my face but it doesn't so he explains. "It's also written in that English. You know, all the thee's and thou's."
"Aaah," I do know what he's talking about.
"At first yes, it's still difficult, but then you learn the stories and when you know the stories you can see what the thee's and thou's mean. And then when you see them in Shakespeare you know."
"Woah," I nod, mind-blown, "you're right!"

Accidental instrumental value of the Bible, who knew.