Showing posts with label english. Show all posts
Showing posts with label english. Show all posts
April 9, 2015
Three Very Short English Lessons
ME: What are you reading? (Son in P2 or 3)
SON: "The Red Badge of Courage"
ME: Aha (please and surprised)
ME: Are you reading the original?...
SON: No, this (showing a comics of about 20 pages.)
ME: What is this about?
SON: A young man joined the American civil war, became brave and a hero.
ME: Which side did he fight on?
SON: Union side.
ME: What is his read badge of courage? It is a medal or prize?
SON: No it's a scar.
ME: The enemy hit him or something?
SON: No, one soldier from his own side hit him when they were running away.
ME: Yah, it is a nice story. The original is very famous and good.
ME: What are you reading? (Son in P4 or 5)
SON: "The Red Badge of Courage," comic, longer version.
ME: Funny, you find another comic for same story. Good. Can you tell me how he found his courage?
SON: I don't know.
ME: Maybe the book abridged too much. It is in the original. Even psychologists and military trainers praise the author's points.
ME: (Son in P5 or 6) This is "The Red Badge of Courage," original.
After running away, he cam back to his regiment. During the next fight, he fought bravely and found his courage. Try to show me the exact sentences about his discovery of courage.
(A few hours or days later)
ME: Have you found the place?
SON: I think .... these paragraphs.
ME: Right.
No grammar analysis. No rhetoric discussion. No dictionary to check long words. We just talked about what we wanted to talk about.
Very Unfair Exchange with my Students --- Episode 1
May 27, 2014
So I decided to invest about 1 hour to prepare for the 8-hour course. In 1 hour, I covered 90% of preparation for the course. Then as usual, I went further. In the end I spent about nearly 10 hours to prepare. In Jurong East Library(Level 3) alone, I re...ad nearly 150 books of marine engineering books and about a dozen Singapore, Malaysian insurance books. From Internet, I read dozens of vessel insurance reports.
He is older than me and has many degrees and certs. So we didn't need to do basics of grammar or writing. Only a few tricky stuffs and cases.
Well, some cases were so tricky that I even recalled David Crystal's remarks: In some cases, English usage becomes so tricky and so full of irregularities that it becomes hard to know which are rules and which are exceptions.
I was right almost all the time. My grammar is not strong any more as I have neglected it for nearly 20 years. Then I realized I was unconsciously using strategies of Poker players, day Traders and investors. That is, every time I am unsure, I check with grammar books or dictionaries. Every time I am sure, I can afford to bet 200% or more. Like George Soros, who borrowed to "gamble" when he was sure.
Soros's lesson is How often you lose or you win doesn't matter. But how much matters.
I told him: My grammar is shaky, but I stay with "clear-cut cases" and expand on them. So, you can be right 100% of time that way if you want to be right 100%.
I gave David Crystal grammar and I got George Soros's Courage because the Universe never allows an unfair exchange. Don't you see how much LOVE I put into my work and my STUDENTS and my CUSTOMERS?
I even told the student directly: The probability of me teaching a student like him again for the rest of my life is nearly 0, so I won't invest much in him. Tough teacher!
So I decided to invest about 1 hour to prepare for the 8-hour course. In 1 hour, I covered 90% of preparation for the course. Then as usual, I went further. In the end I spent about nearly 10 hours to prepare. In Jurong East Library(Level 3) alone, I re...ad nearly 150 books of marine engineering books and about a dozen Singapore, Malaysian insurance books. From Internet, I read dozens of vessel insurance reports.
He is older than me and has many degrees and certs. So we didn't need to do basics of grammar or writing. Only a few tricky stuffs and cases.
Well, some cases were so tricky that I even recalled David Crystal's remarks: In some cases, English usage becomes so tricky and so full of irregularities that it becomes hard to know which are rules and which are exceptions.
I was right almost all the time. My grammar is not strong any more as I have neglected it for nearly 20 years. Then I realized I was unconsciously using strategies of Poker players, day Traders and investors. That is, every time I am unsure, I check with grammar books or dictionaries. Every time I am sure, I can afford to bet 200% or more. Like George Soros, who borrowed to "gamble" when he was sure.
Soros's lesson is How often you lose or you win doesn't matter. But how much matters.
I told him: My grammar is shaky, but I stay with "clear-cut cases" and expand on them. So, you can be right 100% of time that way if you want to be right 100%.
I gave David Crystal grammar and I got George Soros's Courage because the Universe never allows an unfair exchange. Don't you see how much LOVE I put into my work and my STUDENTS and my CUSTOMERS?
I even told the student directly: The probability of me teaching a student like him again for the rest of my life is nearly 0, so I won't invest much in him. Tough teacher!
January 17, 2013
How to Write Cheaply in Examinations
Michael Cunningham
, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1998 for the novel The Hours, gave a lecture during the recent Singapore Writers Festival.
Here are some excerpts:
Every novel I've ever written, at a certain point, falls apart. Just disintegrates before me. Usually before page 100. It becomes clear to me that this is a bad idea, a silly idea ,.. It is for sure, a big, fat mistake.
...
What I began to realize is this: When a novel just turns to ash in front of you, it is not necessarily revealing its hopeless inadequacies, but defeating the little idea that took you into it and becoming something else.
As a species, we are not exactly smart enough to write novels with our conscious minds alone.We are using our consciousness to tap into our unconsciousness ...
You have to survive that period as best you can.What's actually happening is that the novel you actually need to write is being born
The novelist writing at leisure can afford to throw away the first 100 pages.
What about the student writing under severe time pressure in an exam situation?
S/he must test-write in mind only, and only in outline form. Such as traditional outlines, mindmapping, free association, or some other personally-tested methods.
The more pressure you feel, the more you need to plan and to plan cheaply.
And like, Cunningham, be open to the emerging new and better essay in you.
Here are some excerpts:
Every novel I've ever written, at a certain point, falls apart. Just disintegrates before me. Usually before page 100. It becomes clear to me that this is a bad idea, a silly idea ,.. It is for sure, a big, fat mistake.
...
What I began to realize is this: When a novel just turns to ash in front of you, it is not necessarily revealing its hopeless inadequacies, but defeating the little idea that took you into it and becoming something else.
As a species, we are not exactly smart enough to write novels with our conscious minds alone.We are using our consciousness to tap into our unconsciousness ...
You have to survive that period as best you can.What's actually happening is that the novel you actually need to write is being born
Writing in Examinations
The novelist writing at leisure can afford to throw away the first 100 pages.
What about the student writing under severe time pressure in an exam situation?
S/he must test-write in mind only, and only in outline form. Such as traditional outlines, mindmapping, free association, or some other personally-tested methods.
The more pressure you feel, the more you need to plan and to plan cheaply.
And like, Cunningham, be open to the emerging new and better essay in you.
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