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&nbsp;&nbsp;13 October 
Islamabad:The English Speaking Union (ESU), Islamabad Chapter, was established ten years ago by the late Begum Viqar-un-Nisa Noon and after a period of interesting activities related to its agenda, became more or less dormant. 
To inaugurate the current season (2010-2011) and revive the society &mdash; which brings together and empowers people of different languages and cultures &mdash; a dinner was hosted by its new patron, high commissioner of Britain, Adam Thomson and his wife, Fariba. The dinner was attended by members and prospective members &mdash; like-minded people, who made it an informative as well as enjoyable affair &mdash; not to say anything of the outdoor setting and pleasant weather adding to the ambience. 
Addressing the gathering ESU President General (r) Masud Akram said members were &lsquo;elated&rsquo; that the high commissioner had agreed to become the society&rsquo;s patron; welcomed the guests then went on to give brief resume of the envoys career to date as well as emphasising the fact of his distinguished ancestry &mdash; his father Sir John Thomson was high commissioner to India; then held a prestigious position in the UN. His grandfather Sir George Paget Thomson was master at Corpus Christi College and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, while his great granduncle, Sir JJ Thomson, a physicist, is credited for the discovery of the electron and of isotopes and the invention of the mass spectrometer. He was awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the electron and for his work on the conduction of electricity in gases. He concluded by paying a compliment to Mrs Thomson as a &lsquo;lady of great charm and to my delight, of Iranian origin.&rsquo; He then invited the host to say a few words. 
The high commissioner interspersed his talk with a few facts and figures and a bit of humour, beginning by welcoming his guests and hoping they would enjoy the evening. Giving a brief history of the ESU and its objectives and hoped the three branches in Pakistan would interact with each other to achieve them. Since &lsquo;brand&rsquo; is an important appendix to any consumer item, he categorized English as a &lsquo;fantastic brand&rsquo;, which had a worldwide geographic reach and quoting facts and figures, said by 2050 more than half the worlds population would be speaking the language. He admitted that this spread of the language was not all positive &mdash; for instance its negative impact on local languages &mdash; but added that English itself had absorbed many words from different languages, something regretted by Edmund Spenser, one of the greatest poets in the English language, as far back as the sixteenth century! He concluded by saying despite the odd differences between the spellings and pronunciation of many words it was a popular language of communication and had evolved into many different categories, for example the subcontinent variety; Australian; American and so on - and it was a means of instruction/interaction for everything that ruled our lives these days - including the internet! 
VP Parvin Malik thanked the hosts for hosting the event and serving a delicious dinner; hoped some of the invitees would join the society and promised a year of interesting programmes, inviting guests to give suggestions on the same. . The ESU was established in 1918 after WW1 with the aim of creating international understanding and friendship through the use of the English language. The idea spread rapidly and there are now branches in 50 countries. By building skills and confidence in communication, the ESU gives people the opportunity to realise their potential. Worldwide, the members and alumni of the ESU support these objectives.