qianjunb 的个人博客

    棋乃命運之藝。——幻庵因碩／藤澤秀行

    He was fated to be the One who was beaten by him.

    He is fated to be the One who beats him, isn't he?

I clear out a small old notebook which I thought there wrote an autograph of Ms 戴, one of my junior high school teachers. In the beginning that page seemed to have been missing, but in the end I find it out. The four Chinese characters, '奇动偶定'.

The following video was taken off the Sanya beach before I flew back to Chongqing on 30th March. On my flight home I was terribly terrified by the misleading information spoken in that weak English by a stewardess. Although the Chinese announcement firstly made was common, the English one misled me into thinking that the control of the plane had 'some problem'. And I thought the crash was inevitable. For the first time in my flesh I came to know the feeling of Dostoevsky and Kim Tae-jung when they were at the edge of death. I could only pray sincerely, with Bible under my hands.(The passenger next to me must feel strange seeing my behaviour.) The moment the plane landed 'safely', I could not help feeling like Dostoevsky when he was pardoned before the very moment he was to be shot dead. And that was the direct reason why on 5th April I went into the church for the first time in my life. By the way, today is 'Good Friday'.

Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washed it away:

Agayne I wrote it with a second hand,

But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray.

'Vayne man,' sayd she, 'that doest in vaine assay,

A mortal thing so to imortalise,

For I my selve shall lyke to this decay,

And eek my name bee wyped out lykewise.'

'Not so,' quod I, 'let baser things devise,

To dy in dust, but you shall live by fame:

My verse your vertues rare shall eternise,

And in the heavens wryte your glorious name.

Where whenas death shall all the world subdew,

Our love shall live, and later life renew.'

Can we as teachers really influence students' thought, or help them seek the way that is unique to themselves? I still believe teacher's role is essential but how to lead to the interaction is what I am concerned with for I advocate Socrates' way of teaching.

However, is it necessary to influence students?

Is it practical in Mainland China to teach English as a second language? Or learn it as a second language? I don't know how people of minorities acquired Chinese when they were young. Is their way or ways suitable for students to learn English?

Is it proper to apply English as the only classroom language to the whole course of English class in a senior middle school?

Some may say there may be some or many students whose English is not as good as expected, but can it be the reason for not doing so?

Why did their English not reach the level required by the National English Curriculum Standard after three years' learning in junior middle school?

Who are responsible for that or does there really exist a responsibility?

Some may say students won't get high score if taught in this way, but is it true? And I wonder whether teaching student English with Chinese mixed in can bring forth high score.

Some may say colleagues or officials of the school may not agree or allow this pedagogy, but is it worthwhile to work in a place without individual character?