My friend and colleague, Dr. Leslie Perry, suggested I do an entry about teaching here. I will do several. I am teaching advanced writing to 120 English majors who are preparing to write the thesis, which is required of all students. In addition, I am teaching oral communication to 130 graduate students drawn from all parts of the university. Yes, you added right. I have 250 students. Fortunately, the oral communication course does not involve any paperwork.The students have learned their English out of a book. They are overdependent on Chinese English pocket dictionaries. Here's how their work is apt to sound:
I found milk pouch in which happy fat cow drowning with smiling baby cow, the print wholesome and beautiful, pictures show product for all seeing if not literate. Also nutriments across package.
It's hard to know where to start. I'm discussing general problems like run-ons and encouraging people to come to my office. To help them recognize what a run-on sentence is, I've had them write the most ridiculous run-on sentences they could produce. At first, they had trouble believing I wanted them to do this-- having been raised in an authoritarian society, they're used to observing rules, not breaking them But after awhile, they began to enjoy the activity, and I'm pretty sure they now understand what a run-on is.
2 comments:
Roz, I always find it interesting that Confucius has a version of our "golden rule." Translations I've seen read something like this: "Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you." A very passive statement in comparison to that Jesus made. Although Confucius lived a few hundred years before Christ and several hundred years before you went to China, can you speculate about the difference between the two statements? Is it a language difference? Is it cultural?
Jesus' version of the "Golden Rule" is unique. Rabbi Hillel, a contemporary of Jesus, also taught this precept in its inverted form. I speculate that Jesus was aware of these other ways to articulate this great maxim, and he offered it as he did because of His radical doctrine.
Post a Comment