The theam of the musical was a girl who spoke cockney. Her name was Eliza Dolittle. Eliza made a living on selling flowers. One day, she met a rich man out on the street. His name was Henry Higgins. Higgins was a specialist on English pronouncing and manners, and he said:"This girl talks awful English! I can make her a lady in six months!" Henry had a man with him who lived in his house, colonel Piccering. Piccering said:"Do you want to bet?" And Piccering bet against Higgins and said that he could not make it. So the wager was set. Higgins took Eliza home to his house to teach her to speak good English and to teach her good manners. After a lot of practice Eliza made some improval and Higgins was delighted. About three months later Higgins wanted to test Eliza. He took her to the Ascot horse race. For a while she managed to fool everybody, but when the horse she had bet on began to slow down, she cried out some nasty words. Home again Higgins continued to teach her. After six months she was ready to go to the embassy ball. Everybody at the ball thought she was a Hungarian princess and she did not blow it this time. Higgins had succeeded in making her a lady in six months. The musical has a happy ending (as allways!)

I think the author wanted to tell us that we should try to keep our language in the best of state. And not add a lot of strange words to it. Neither should we take words from other languages and put into our own language. Certainly there are times one has to do that, but one should not make it a rule! I also think the author, George B. Shaw, makes a good point when he made Higgins such a presumptuous man. I think many people can see themselves in Higgins (and maybe try to do something about themselves).

I think it is a good musical. It is educating, and on the same time it is warning us not to speak "cockney", neither in English nor our own language. Not that you have to speak R.P. all the time, but you have to try to speak so that people can understand you. It makes a great difference, if you want to get a job where you have to speak a lot of English.