烟台市高中英语10班 于健 [指导教师] 2008年9月15日 15:44:08
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于健[指导教师]于2008-9-15 18:42:04推荐
(This is one part of my son's article on one aspect of his experiences in Switzerland during this summer vacation. Following it are my thoughts which I'd like to share with you all. And your comments and sharing of thoughts are most welcome.)
Education is also a heated topic. I was really very delighted to have the opportunities to attend their classes . Students there are required to have at least 3 subjects of language among which German, French and English are very essential. Besides, they have many optional subjects which they can choose freely just depending on their own interests . Of all the classes I had, I was most deeply impressed by an English class. The teacher's teaching method was fantastic. He knew how to wake up the student's motivation and light up their passion making them wholly devoted to their lessons. At the beginning of the class, he taught us some slang to get everyone in high spirits and then let us play some games, such as using different gestures to stand for 3 types of verb tense. Then the students were asked to write a short passage using all the 26 letters and each of them should appear in each word in order. Of course, these sentences should make sense. This kind of teaching style can attract the students and make them concentrate on their lessons during the whole class. And the number of students in one class is very appropriate so that the teacher can take care of every student.
The students also left a deep impression on me. Especially in the discussion I had one afternoon with a boy from Leonhard. He really had a wide horizon and a quick mind. His questions were very hard to answer, meanwhile, his answers to our questions were quite perfect. He asked me a lot of political issues which I usually paid little attention to. But I managed to give the most satisfying answers to each question, even some ridiculous ones in our opinion. Such as: “Are the Chinese crazy about gold medals?” or “ Does more gold medals symbolize that China has become powerful?” or “ Do the Chinese people have human rights in China for you have only one party?”
From talking with the boy in the discussion as well as with the local people including my host family I learned that most of them knew little about China and some of them even told me that it was the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games that helped them become aware that printing was first invented in China. This phenomenon is not surprising. After all, China’s international status can’t compete with other developed countries’ and China is more famous for its large population as well as the mark “Made in China”, than its economic and political situations . At the same time, many foreign media reported some false news about China misleading a large number of foreigners who originally knew nothing about China. Those unexpected and in some sense ridiculous questions we encountered remind me of the bias from some western media against the Chinese government in dealing with the riots in Tibet. The world needs to know how much hurt the Chinese people were and are by those false reports! In fact, it is the same with us. Our knowledge of Switzerland is not sufficient, either. So next time, no matter who is the visitor or the host, both sides should know much about each other first in order to strengthen the bridge of our friendship and help keep a long contact with each other. Communication helps break down barriers to understanding.
Though the trip has been over, my dream is still going on. I’ve really benefited a lot from staying there and this special trip will root in the bottom of my heart for a super long time. If I could choose, I would go back to continue my sweet dream!
Here are my thoughts about my son's article:
The term "ridiculous" more than once referred to in his article regarding the questions asked by Swiss students sets me thinking. Why should such words as "encounter" and "ridiculous" pop up in his mind when describing his feelings towards questions like " Are the Chinese crazy about gold medals? " Do more gold medals symbolize that China has become powerful?" and "Do the Chinese people have human rights in China for you have only one party?" Personally I consider all of them excellent questions. In my opinion, "encounter" means he did not have much knowledge or thoughts in store for such questions, and " ridiculous" means he does not have the right attitude towards such questions. Though I never asked him, I can imagine how he responded to those questions. Compared to children in the west, our children are much less sensitive to things or issues beyond their academic subjects, thus lacking their unique thinking in depth and breadth. While we tend to put the blame largely on our present educational system which lays too much emphasis on the memory of facts rather than the cultivation of thoughts, teachers' teaching in the classroom as well as parents' directions at home also contribute in some scale to this problem. With this awareness in mind, I'm trying different ways in my teaching to make as much improvement as possible. In order to meet the students' needs and direct the students' thinking, I keep making modifications to the textbooks, creating lots of new activities which the students enjoy very much.
I have one doubt which I’d like to discuss with everyone: should the students be told not to ask or talk about political issues when communicating with foreigners, especially with people of their age? If the students are denied opportunities to ask questions concerning political issues, how can they put forward thought-provoking questions on the one hand and on the other, how are they able to employ proper language to get their ideas and opinions across? Who should claim responsible for the embarrassment our students encountered while stumbling through their speech when answering those unexpected or rather unprepared questions? We often send our children and students abroad, intending them to widen their horizons and introduce our culture to others. But have we made them fully prepared in all aspects for that mission? It's really time we did something as teachers of English! Arm the students with something realistic to enable them to communicate confidently and informatively with others!
Comments from others:
I can't agree with you more on your comment about your son's observations. Nevertheless, I find it quite natural for your son to consider questions of such type "ridiculous" as those who were asking these questions might have been manipulated or at least under strong influence by one-sided report of the news media. I see this a good thing as from the way your son and other Chinese students reacted to these questions they might be starting to doubt the truthfulness of these reports. And out of their doubt and desire to find out what is really happening in China, they may venture to get to know more about this emerging power through other channels. And from this point comes the necessity to foster better mutual understanding through extensive international exchanges. The purpose of mutual understanding, however, is not to bridge the gap between the nations,as some argue, but to recognize, respect and appreciate the differences or diversity. And it is because of this diversity that we have been driven to understand each other more and to work together to find solutions to our shared problems. Instead of feeling uncomfortable, we should try to appreciate the beauty of differences in our respective cultures and traditions.
Perhaps, one more thing your son could do apart from taking these questions for granted is to let these people know the true story of China. Of course, there is no need to hide our problems from anyone else. The other developed countries have also experienced or encountered the problems we are having at the moment in one way or another in their own evolution process. We could perhaps make our world a better place to live by giving more respect to each other instead of attempting to unify the world under a single value or system.