Dear all,
I just uploaded some materials (which I often used as handouts) to be talked about in tomorrow's class. Please make them easier to open when they are referred to.
Thank you!
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Things to do on 9/29
Dear all,
For this week, we'll begin a sharing session as I did last week. I'll do the sharing one more time, then it'll be your turn starting next Wed.
Second, please show me the first book that you are reading. Note that it must be books that you haven't read before. Please be brave to venture into new stories, new genres, new ideas. Reading is the source of your imagination and inspiration for any kind of assignments or projects you'll do in different courses. Then I'll tell you how to select books that suit your level besides your interest. For you to enjoy a book, you must be able to understand at least 95% of the words in the text. There will be two ways to help you select the right books.
Third, I'll explain the evaluation rubrics of your blog posts, using your seniors' examples.
The last hour will be the time for me to talk about outlining for an essay and you will brainstorm and prepare what you are going to describe, a person, a thing, a location?
I'll suggest that when you are reading the book of your own choice, note how the author describes things in the text.
See you!
Ps. I am sorry to tell you that we'll begin the physical class starting next Wed. In other words, we'll see each other in person!
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
log 1
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| 2021/1/1 my first time watching Taipei 101 fireworks display |
For my parents’ emphasis on English ability,
I’ve been exposed to English since I was in kindergarten. When it comes to my reading
and writing history, I started them in elementary school like most Taiwanese
students do. Despite my passion for learning English, I’m not into regulated
reading and writing tasks. In other words, I don’t find reading “books” or
writing “articles with assigned topics" fascinating. Yet, if reading can be
explained in a broad sense, I do love to immerse myself in reading lyrics,
dramas, and movies. (By the way, Love Story by Taylor Swift was the first song
that led me to the world of reading lyrics!) In addition, I also jot down my feelings whenever I think the moods or moments are worth recording.
Even though I’ve started reading and
writing for years, I suppose that I’m still not a qualified reader or writer. First,
like I mentioned before, I find passively reading books, novels, essays sort of
tedious. Moreover, my writing skills aren’t mature enough to complete a thorough
essay smoothly without making mistakes or confronting obstacles in the process.
Hence, cultivating my reading habits and passing on skills to writing in-depth essays
can be quite helpful to me. Apart from what the professor can support, as a
language learner, I also expect myself to make reading and writing an indispensable
part of my life, enabling me to become a genuine reader/writer!
log 1
Hi! My name is Gina.
I am a swimmer.
My interests are quite wide, like all kinds of sports, climbing and camping, like to go to the beach with family when not training.
When I was young, I used to listen to my parents reading stories while sleeping. I have always liked to listen to fairy tales, because fairy tales are always beautiful and dreamy in my impression. I always thinking that if will happen in reality, but this kind of fantasy only stops in elementary school.
I think reading is a very good habit, which can make people calm down and concentrate on the content of the book, and understand the content of the story and what the author wants to express from it.The writing has only been written a few times, and only the homework or test required by the school will be written.
In this class, I hope to learn more words from reading and enhance my expression and writing skills.
Xenia, log 1
Hi, this is Xenia.
I have attended an English cram school before; however, the experience didn’t let me have much interest about language. My passion to language is aroused when I was in senior high school, where I met many good teachers.
In my free time, I enjoy watching movies, dramas, and listening to musics ( especially rap and R&B music); on the other hand, I also enjoy outdoor activities a lot, for example, hiking, having picnics, shopping, and so on.
I consider myself a reader although I also enjoy writing. As an reader, I think the most important thing is to learn and show respect. If you didn’t show respect to others, they will also show nothing to you. Therefore, I think I could consider whether I was a writer after I was a good reader.
I’m used to expressing my opinions in Chinese because I think I could convey the ideas more clearly by doing so. However, I always know that as an student majoring in English should have the ability of expressing thoughts in English. After attending the first class, I think I might have a lot of chance to practice the speaking ability.
The other thing is that I don’t have the hobby of reading because the technology is too convenient to search knowledge. I’m used to search or learn things by the internet; however, the actions have evolved into an hobby. The connection between me and books has been weaker and weaker, which I consider an bad condition. Therefore, by attending this class, I think I would have lots of chances to pick up and read the books I am interested in.
Last but not least, I look forward to the rest classes a lot!
Log 1
Hello! I'm Lin, and I'm from Japan. I can speak Chinese, but I'm not good at reading and writing Chinese characters.
I became interested in English when I was in junior high school. One day, I went to see a movie that was Mission Impossible. Until then, I was dubbing the movie, but I wanted to hear the true voice of the actor, so I watched the movie with subtitles for the first time. It was difficult to watch a movie while watching subtitles, and sometimes I missed the video. I didn't want miss any scene, and I started to want to understand English and enjoy movies without subtitles. From that day, I started studying English desperately.
However, there is a problem here, I don't like reading books, since I was little. I hate to read any books, even if comic books, because I always feel boring and unbearable to read letters. Even if I start reading a book which was looked like interesting first, I gradually got bored and stopped reading. It's even more unbearable to read English sentences, a language that I can't completely understand.
That's why this class is definitely difficult for me, but I really want to improve my vocabulary and reading comprehension, so I will do my best.
Log 1
Hello! My name is Tina, 邱梓庭. I used to learn
English in two cram schools, and these experiences influenced me a lot. One is
for saving my English grades when I was in the elementary school. During that period,
my English ability is awful, so my parents sent me to the cram school and hoped
that could help pass the tests. It did work. My grades got higher than before;
however, I learned passively since I just learned to pass the tests. The other one
is for improving my skills when I was at the Department of Applied English in high
school. At that time, I found that I should learn for myself and for my future.
Learning is not an easy thing to me so far,
but I’m trying to do my best. Recently, I enjoy watching videos which were made
by native speakers to record their daily lives on YouTube. It is the way for me
to relax and keep in touch with the language at the same time.
My imagination to this course is similar to
the course, Critical Literacy, we took last semester. We may use different
aspects to see the issues, and the difference may be the way of study and performance.
I expect that I can improve my ability during the process. To fulfill it, I will
try on the means professor told us during the introduction of the course.
Also, I don’t see myself as a reader/writer because I don’t read or write so often. So, I expect this course to encourage me moving on as timely help!
Log 1
Hello, my name is Judy.
When it comes to English learning history, I think I have been learning for over nine years or so. In terms of four aspects of English abilities, involving listening, speaking, reading and writing, I personally prefer the reading aspect. I read some articles on the Internet once in a while. Nevertheless, developing a reading habit is not easy for me at all. I have been endeavoring to read as much as possible since I was a senior high school student. I know how reading will help me. But sometimes I am still too lazy to read because of tiredness, excuses, and procrastination. As for the writing aspect, I realize that if I want to write well, I should practice time after time. But in fact, I seldom write English essays voluntarily. I usually write essays based on professors’ instructions. Thus, it might be one of the disadvantages that I should get rid of.
Traveling and tasting delicious food are the happiest things for me. I regard travel as a useful method to relax myself. If there is no outbreak of pandemic, I prefer traveling with my friends or family to staying at home. I think it can be one of my hobbies and interests. For indoor activities, I like watching English or American dramas and movies. On the one hand, I consider it suitable for me to learn English and understand exotic culture simultaneously. On the other hand, it sometimes not only makes me laugh but also helps me think deeply.
As for imagination of this course, I think I might read a lot of English novels and materials in this course. Ideally, I could truly make a habit of reading. In addition, I believe that this course can make me think more deeply by using different materials. Besides, during the sharing session, I can not only discuss various perspectives with classmates but practice my English speaking. I expect that I can know more thought-provoking English novels from peers’ sharing and professor’s suggestions because what I know currently is quite limited. Additionally, after this course, I hope I can perfectly and logically express my viewpoints in both writing and speaking.
Log 1
This is me performing on stage last summer
I'm Quinn! College experiences had me so stressed and anxious. everything is so unfamiliar and so new to me. With tight schedule, lots of different assignments, I just started to forget what was I interested in. Although the things here consume me hard, I've never said that I would give it up.
I was fond of creating in any form when I was still "young", like drawing, filming, and also writing. All the ideas for my works just popped up so easily. I guess it was in my blood. I've created lots of film works, some undeveloped novels, and doodled a lot. I want to make my novel novel. That is what I was all about- Creativity.
But I'm not much of a reader. I pursuit to do everything creative, but reading seems to be nothing like it. I expect that this course would include a huge amount of reading materials, which I do not prefer. However, our new ideas and concept can't not jump out from nowhere ,right? I've tried so hard to learn this fact. So reading books or essays is just not as tough as it used to be for me now. So I hope that I can keep up with all of you by reading, and eat up all the juicy parts in texts that I should have known a couple years ago.
log 1
As for writing, I enjoy writing but only the ones with topics that I am interested in. In fact, I took Ethics as one of my majors during high school and wrote tons and tons of short essays regarding controversial topics like abortion and prostitution. I also enjoy using words to express my viewpoints towards many issues since I believe it is one of the most efficient way for communication until telepathy is invented. And as you can see, I am a rather chatty person myself so writing is a fantastic way for me to dissolve the loneliness when there's no one to chat with.
Apart from reading and writing, I have also developed hobbies such as drawing, tennis, cat-petting and dog-petting. The first two were developed during my days in elementary school while the others were developed by my pets MuiMui(cat) and FaFa(dog).
In this course, I would like to learn more about the concept of multiliteracy and its applications in daily life. I also expect myself to learn more vocabulary through reading and sharing as well as enhance my writing skills through reading my classmates' works. In order to do so, I shall participate actively in this course and try to have more communication with my classmates.
Lastly, although I have had reading and writing experience for many years, I do not consider myself as a reader nor a writer. This is because I believe I still have much more to learn and is still far from meeting my own standards. It is similar to the fact that people do not claim the title of "a tennis player" when you've only played for a day in your entire life. It takes years or even decades of hard and dedicated work before one is qualified to claim the title of "a tennis player". Hence, I wish not to recklessly contaminate the titles of "reader" and "writer" with my own ignorance. Of course, I hope to meet my standards one day and proudly claim myself to be a reader and a writer, but there is still a long way to go. If possible, some recommendations for a good book would be desirable for me to enhance my abilities and I would very much appreciate it.
Log1
Hello, I’m Zoe. In fact, I’m not really sure whether the department of Applied Foreign Languages is a good choice for me or not. Since that I don’t really good at anything and even don’t know what I want to become in the future. Therefore, I chose this department which can give me an advantage over others. Honestly speaking, I’m afraid of studying English when I was in the first grade in high school, it always made me stressful. When I enter college, I had tried hard to make myself get more and more fond of this department and tried to find out my hobbies.
I read novels almost every day when I was in
elementary school. Books are sometimes charming；however, when
I grow up, I read less and less. Now I try hard to make myself keep a habit of
reading every week. I hope my English writing and reading abilities can improve
during my life in college.
Log 1
Hi, welcome to my first post, this is Cody. Let's have a short introduction about my English learning experiences. Retrospectively, I've "known" English for nearly ten years, while the time I truly made it my friend is about four years ago. It's the time I came to realize that English could open the gate of this big-wide world and have my salary raised. Therefore, I made up my mind to schedule my English learning process and follow the classes in high school. Enhancing the abilities to read fast, listen more accurately, accumulating vocabulary from hundreds to thousands, I devoted most of the time into the subject I wasn't good at before. Also, I tend to imitate some beautiful sentences by memorizing the lyrics of my favorite songs. Playing them with my guitar is another interest of mine.
The expectation of this course is to have a better insight into English, both from reading, writing and speaking. To have more confidence in speaking the second language and read the English articles without many difficulties are two resolutions I expect from this course. Well goes the saying "God helps those who help themselves". To successfully achieve my goal is to be more brave, courageous to speak and join the class activities more actively. Plus, I don't see myself as neither a good reader nor a good writer. But yet, making reading and writing a habit is something I would like to manage to in this semester. Hopefully, I could find it proud to call myself a excellent English learner in the near future.
Log 1
Hi there! My name is Leo.
Unlike my superb classmates, my interest in English was developed during junior high school, which was quite a late period for language learning. Since then, I've been studying hard through all kinds of resources, text books, extracurricular activities, games...etc. I found out that blending my hobbies into learning is the most effective way of picking up English for me, although I've read quite a few books, they never brought as much joy as movies or games do.
To be frank, I had no idea about what the course is about until I took the first class of this semester. After reading the schedule and acknowledged how experienced our professor is in field of reading, I hope this time I can find ways to enjoy reading more than ever before. It would be magnificent if I can elevate reading from something not so pleasurable to a daily routine, or even better, a hobby.
During my study, I hope that professor could focus more on how to have fun during the process of reading/writing because it'll make a huge difference for me in maintaining the passion for them.
Log 1
Hello, my name is Connie. When it comes to my hobbies, I enjoy playing the guitar in my leisure time. In addition, I'm fascinated with mobile game, which is League of Legends. By keeping practicing and practicing, I finally reach the platinum division and it breaks my own record!
Being a kid, l really loved to read children's books and comic books for they contain beautiful illustration and interesting plots. As I grew older, I started to read novels instead of comic books because I like to imagine the scenes that described in the lines. To me, reading is a way to relieve pressure. However, the purpose of writing, I think, is to meet the requirement to get high scores in exams. Since I have difficulty organizing my ideas to form an article, I seldom acquire good grades...QQ
In conclusion, I believe that I'm able to read more great English books in this class to sharpen my reading ability. Besides, I expect to improve my writing proficiency to the next level by following in the professor's footsteps.
Log 1
Hello, I'm Jan. To trace back to the time that I truly started learning English, I would say I was in my junior high school. So luckily to meet a not only nice also very patient homeroom teacher, also my English teacher, I reconstructed the basis about English with her help and learned this language step by step. After the whole high school life, I decided to major in Applied Foreign Language.
I am a person that really love reading novels, mostly Chinese books, and I will do every effort to make reading English a habit. However, I need to say that I'm a failed writer, no matter in English or Chinese, it is quite hard for me to form the words into a compete writing that are precise enough to express my idea. Catching the emotions that are showed in the novel is one of the most important reason that attract me to read, but when it takes turns to me to share all of my thinking and feelings sometimes makes me feel embarrassing, and that why writing is always a great difficulty to me.
As the expectation to this class, I hope I could find the way to learn the logical method to express the point in writing and as well as the tips about getting the key points while reading. Besides, I really look forward to know some brand-new knowledge form the book and expect to ponder when there are some opinion from different perspectives.
Log 1
Hello, my name is Mia, I don't do writing except when I needed to, I don't like to read either, however, I want to become one of the people who enjoys reading. Like I just said, I seldom read, but there were one book, that made me read for three times. It was a book about two teenagers, and it told the story by two different aspects from the two main characters. Reading through the half of the book, I started to see the other side of the story, and realized that knowing the different site can really change the whole viewing imagination of the story. I think I might be interesting to know the different stories between the characters in the stories, so that the relationships between them can become clearer. Same as people in real life, I'm always curious about how people are thinking, that might be the reason why I like to read this kind of books.
I hope I can develop my writing skill during the course, since writing is my worst of the English ability. "No writers can become a writer without reading", therefore, I want to read more books, and push myself to take time and read, that might help me a lot on my English developing. I don't consider myself as a reader, nor a writer. Becoming a reader is more important to me in the current stage, however, becoming a writer might be cool, and can help me dig deeper inside the books. I'm really looking forward to develop my skills through the practice you give to us, and do my best to finish them. I expect the course to help me get used to reading, and learn how to write by reading different kinds of books.
Log 1
I love reading Chinese novels, mostly romance. I love listening to music, you can say I listen to music all the time. Because I barely exercise, now I plan to cultivate swimming as my hobby, People said you'll never know if you'll like it unless you try it! So, I will try one after another and keep looking for what my interests are.
Since I am pretty bad at reading, I truly hope this course can help me with that. I hope Professor can help me find a book that is for my level and help me with reading and writing skills. My vocabulary is really needed to be improved, I believe I can have that in this course. Not only that, I think during reading the books from this class I might find something new and interesting. Maybe I can turn someone who doesn't love reading into a bookworm. You can never tell!
Log 1
Hi, I'm Nadine Christian from Jakarta, Indonesia. Derived from a Chinese background, I also have a Chinese name, 李美薇。 I came to Taiwan in 2018 and studied Mandarin in NTNU for two years before applying for the university. With an interest in translation, needless to say, I applied for NTUST AFL Department. Although at first, I’m very much interested in translation, these days I can say that business intrigues me as well.
Growing up, I enjoyed watching Indonesian and American cartoons and TV shows. Disney, Discovery, NatGeo, you name it. From 10 to 15 years old, I loved reading fiction novels from romance, mystery to fantasy. In recent years, I’m gradually becoming a viewer more than a reader. I watched dramas, movies, talk shows, TV series, and more from platform such as, YouTube and Netflix.
I think this course will provide me with a long list of great books to read that I can add to my Wishlist. As well as dramas and movies! I hope through this course I can find joy and excitement in reading while also improving as a writer. I’m eager to start the course as I can further explore the world of literacy.
Log 1
I transferred into AFL department this semester.
I studied electronic in high school. I enter Computer Science department in NTUST as a freshman.
The passion for studying English started from middle school, I have watched several TV shows since then, because I want to be a good communicator with more people those are not only speaking Chinese but foreigners. Gradually, the idea of transferring gets bigger. After thinking deeply, I switched my channel to seek for what I always love.
My English input is basically from TV shows, YouTube, TED. I seldom read books, I know this class is going to read more books, although the beginning will be challenging I will still do my best to elevate my reading.
My goal in this class is to gain much information and diverse thoughts learning from books, teacher, and classmates, and have more courage to use English to express my ideas fluently. Mostly, I try to use my input through speaking but less writing. Therefore, I will pay much attention to construct basis of my writing, use words and express perspectives wisely.
Log 1
Hello! I am Nature. I started to read my first novel when I was 12. I really enjoy reading lifeless words and transfer them into vivid images in my brain. However, before I major in English, I have never read a English novel. As a result, it was quite difficult for me to read my first English novel. I felt frustrated when I was reading because I needed to look up words very often. I consider myself as a reader not a writer because I don't good at writing. I guess I can gain a lot of reading and writing from this course. I also expect myself can try my best to handle all the assignments and learn the writing abilities.
Log 1
I am Jade Chiang and I am the one in the
middle of the photo above. It was taken in the Christmasland of New Taipei City
last year by the way.
To trace back the history of reading in my life so far, my parents affect it a lot. As they know how important the habit of reading is, they always took me and my siblings to book rental stores since we were little. Sometimes we even stayed there for a whole afternoon. However, when I was that little, all I want to do is sleep and play around. I have no interest in sitting down still and picking up a book to read at all. So, basically, I was always sleeping, feeling bored and asking my mother when to go home at that time. Yet, somehow, one day I didn’t want to sleep and I was so bored that I decided to choose one comic book to read. It was that moment when I finally sat down and started reading. Now I read not only comic books but novels, magazines and news paper as well. What’s more, I also started writing since junior high school. All credit to my parents’ effort, they are the ones who led me to know the world of reading.
I have been a reader and writer for a long
time. Nevertheless, I still feel that there are spaces for me to improve both
in reading and writing. Therefore, I want to sharpen my abilities and have them
to the next level. Aside from that, I would also like to get to know more about
the issues that I haven’t noticed through this class. To sum up, I expect
everyone in the class including the professor and all the classmates to help
each other and share the knowledge, information and experience of reading and
writing. 😊
Log 1
I’ve been majoring in English since I was a senior high school student, but in retrospect, my English learning materials in senior high school (for both reading and writing) were nearly all textbook-oriented, which means I didn’t actually read a novel and I seldom write essays/articles without academic purposes. After I got into college, I realized that I should redirect my English learning purpose (no longer just for high grades) so I started to read English news and novels and try to write things in English from short ones as to-do lists to longer ones as a diary. I have also established a hobby, which is watching one to two episodes of American TV series every day to improve both my listening and reading abilities.
As for my imagination of this course, I think we’ll have the chance to learn this language through a variety of different materials, and undoubtedly, we’ll do a lot of reading and writing and present our learning outcome in all kinds of ways. Additionally, as the professor has mentioned, we’ll discuss a lot of social issues and share ideas, which is the most challenging part for me because I’m not good at discussing social issues nor expressing my ideas, but I understand that these two abilities are a must, therefore I’ll read as much English news as possible to immerse myself in it and learn to express myself.
For the time being, I consider myself as a reader more than a writer because I do more reading than writing. However, after this semester, I hope that I will become a better reader and a better writer. To fulfill this goal, I’ll follow the professor’s schedule properly and try my best!
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Log 1
Same as most people in Taiwan, I have learned English since elementary school, and followed the teacher of the school from elementary school to senior high school. I never go to cram school or learn by myself. To be honest, I don’t like English very much, instead, I have a good ability and sense in Japanese because I am very interested in Japanese culture, animation, drama and music.
I start reading early when I was little, I remember that the first novels to me was Harry Potter, and it also let me became a person who love reading. After that, I still reading novels and comics such as Percy Jackson or Higashino Keigo(東野圭吾)’s works. By the way, I’m reading Sherlock Holmes series now, it’s pretty interesting.
I hope through this class, I can improve all
the ability of English, especially speaking, and become more liking English. Now
I’m trying to watch some English-pronounced movies and dramas with English subtitle,
and talking to my foreigner friend. Hope one day I can achieve my dream that to travel around the world and be an expert of this
useful and international language.
Log 1
Hello! I’m James, and I’m now a sophomore
in NTUST. Actually, I don’t really know what exactly my hobbies are because I have
been lost in myself for a couple years, trying to find what I like to do as well
as where my future is. Yet, besides academic aspects, which is not very clear
for me, I’m a crazy basketball lover, fascinated by anything regarding to
basketball, NBA, sneakers, and those renowned players. Furthermore, I also enjoy
challenging difficult things such as Calculus, achieving what others cannot succeed
and choosing the road not taken can give me sense of accomplishment.
I don’t feel any aversion to reading, when I
was in high school, I read roughly one novel per week because they were all Chinese
novel which I can easily and quickly scan and figure out what they tell. But English
novels are not that friendly to me, so I read them just few times for class
requirements, it haven’t yet been a hobby for me, not to mention English writing,
both are new huge challenge but I will give it a shot.
Hopefully, I can make reading a hobby, enhancing
my literary experiences, I can also acquire cherish knowledge from reading books.
Further, I can start to write some essays or articles, sharing thoughts with
others.
It’s my first blogger, thank you all.
Log 1
This is Maxine.
I have learned English since I was in elementary school. I went to a personal cram school to enhance my English abilities in writing, reading and listening. After finishing the courses in cram school, I started to learn this language by myself through textbooks as well as music, especially R & B songs!
For the expectations in this course, I hope to acquire more literacies in different aspects and have more courage to speak out my own opinions. Also, I wish myself to either gain innovative ideas or combine literacies with my daily life. To reach such fulfillment, I plan to write down a "to-do list " every week so that I can finish each work indeed. The other way that I think of is to watch lots of movies that I am interested in to make me come up with the connections between this course and the surroundings more easily.
Log 1
Felix, 20
I can confidently say that I've been reading and writing since I became literate, so I would see myself as an experienced reader but not a writer. I always like to read novels in class when I was in high school because it's easier to immerse myself into the plot when I'm in the classroom, it's definitely my guilty pleasure. Though I may be interested and experienced in reading, my writing skills is just....bad. I don't really know how to properly write an essay in English, because I'm that kind of person who write what they come up in mind right away. So I'll describe my writing style messy and unorganized.
So I'm very looking forward to improving my writing skills in this class and also expand my library in mind since we're going to read a bunch of great books. I'll try my best to input the information and knowledge in the books and digest them well to expand my vision. To achieve that, I'll make myself read a lot of books that I found interesting. Like I said before, I see myself as a reader since my writing skills are weak. So I expect the teacher can help me with improving my writing skills by telling what exactly is my mistakes and how to improve that. I'll try my best to deliver great essays during this semester also read books!
One of the Greatest Speeches Ever | Steve Jobs
Even most of you may have heard speeches from Steve Job, this is still a good one. This talk, at Standford University, 2005, has been edited and condensed into 10 mins with additional image design. Compared to the original one, what differences can you find? More appealing, easier to understand?
Things to do on week 1
Dear all,
For the first week, we need to reach some mutual understandings, so I'll explain the syllabus, the blog, the reading lab, my course requirements, and several resources that you may find useful and helpful during the semester. That sounds a lot, but you'll just need to carefully follow my plan and schedule, you will be able to get everything done without too much trouble. If you still do, just contact me, and let's figure out how to help you through.
Second, a vocabulary test will be given to you. The purpose is for you and me to have an idea about your current vocabulary level. I will not use this test result to grade you; I will only use it to know you better in terms of your language ability (though it's only one of the many aspects of so-called language ability) and to help you select reading materials that suit your proficiency more appropriately.
Third, our assistants, Erin and Melody, will explain to you how to join this blog and test immediately if you can access this blog right after being invited.
Thank you all. I hope you and I will have a fruitful and joyful semester together!
《小王子》全集 (上) (英文版)
This is another good way to do reading~ by listening!
There are also excellent resources for you to read and view so that all four skills of the English language can be strengthened, e.g., TED, Learning English through Stories on YouTube, like this one. Stories of Sherlock Holmes are still exciting to listening at my age. Want to try? (The patient, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjb337UnMUk)
Philomena - a novel of life long journey searching for one's own blood
Philomena by Martin Sixsmith
This story illustrates a life-long search journey of the value of one’s existence, a helpless and hopeless query of self, loaded with a destructing mental state of self-disgust and self-loath.
Actually, this story smartly depicts two parallel excursions of a mother and a son, both of whose hearts were severely damaged by a forcibly fatal and uncontrollable act of adoption when the mother was only 20 and the son three. Not knowing God’s plan, the mother and the son spent almost their whole lifetime (nearly 50 years) searching for each other but getting no luck at all. Your heart wrenched each time their hopes ran thinner and thinner; your protest and squawk against the Irish church during the 50s grew stronger and louder. The only and last place they went for help was a convent where the mother gave birth to the son out of wedlock. The church had seemed to render the mother enormously great help by taking her in, for she was literally rejected by her own father because of the shame happening in those days in 1950s when sex before marriage was not accepted by society and certainly a serious violation of God’s commandments. And the son, though being adopted by a rich American family which supported him with a good economical environment and affluent mother’s love, constantly, if not explicitly, rejected himself by the belief that “I am no good, so I am deserted.”
Though entitled “Philomena Lee,” the mother’s name, the entire book, except for the beginning and the ending, was actually a biography of the son, Anthony Lee, who experienced a far greater damaging impact on himself as a person. I have never imagined that children being adopted and taken away from their own mothers at a tender age would develop such a profound yet dubious and pathetic self-image that a slight dose of happiness or a potential felicity for life would call out the evil of doubt from within to destroy it at their own hands. This story, following the truth as much as it could and written with the author’s craft in writing, was presented to a subtle nicety, sincere, reliable, and deeply heart touching.
In addition, the reason this story fascinates me so much is Anthony’s story echoed the then-situations of politics in the US during the 80s to 90s as well as religion in Ireland, a country with its bishop a greater power over its government. Anthony’s sex interest and the burden he had to always hide the fact, in the meantime, brought up to the front the issues acutely sensitive as homosexuality and AIDS. The thread of AIDS among homosexuals and non-homosexuals, the government’s (the Republican Party) ignorance of this issue, and the trepidation of AIDS becoming an incurable epidemic in the US were all honestly described in this story. I think this book is more important than how most readers regard it.
Compared with its movie version, the book presents a great deal of more facts and more emotional charges for its readers. The movie somehow is shadowed by the crown of Judie Dench, a highly recognized Irish actress, focusing the query of the mother only and leaving the juicy parts about the son out of the theater.
I certainly didn’t tell you all, for there are just too many for you to discover for yourselves!
Monday, September 20, 2021
Happy Moon Festival and Welcome to this Class!
Welcome to the PBL reading and writing course in which we create meaning via multimodal resources and means. Any form of meaning-making is allowed, with language, image, and sound together. The definition of literacy has been broadened, making our works more creative, innovative, more touching, and more fun!
Nowadays, an integrated work of images and text is welcome among readers of all kinds, online or offline. I am posting my own photo here to show you how I look like. Reading is a must in my daily life, and doing research on reading and writing is my specialty as well as a duty I have been shouldering since I began my teaching career in college. Sharing with others my belief in reading and its radiant effects on language learning and personal growth is a responsibility I prescribe for myself as an educator and researcher. I am also a mother of two grown-up children, loving to cook and watch movies. Sometimes I also enjoy dramas made in Taiwan and discuss with friends like discussing a literary work.
I am now inviting you to do the same by posting your first post with one photo of yours, telling of your reading/writing history, hobbies and interests, and your imagination of this course. What do you expect from this course? What will you do to help yourself learn with fulfillment in this course? Do you consider yourself a reader/writer? If not, what do you expect of me to help you?
I'd like you to practice logging into this blog by posting your first log, and please title it as "log 1." But first, you need to have a Gmail account. See you soon!
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JANE EYRE
Is it because I am poor, obscure, mediocre-looking, thin, and have no soul and no heart? You're wrong, my heart is as rich as yours, m...
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Hello! I am Nature. I started to read my first novel when I was 12. I really enjoy reading lifeless words and transfer them into vivid image... -
Dear all, This post is to remind you that we'll discuss in class: 1. JK Rowling's "The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Imp...