字字字英文教室 時代雜誌解析 英文單字倍增課程 (歡迎免費試聽課程)

藤原 正彥是一位日本教授。他在2005年出版一本英文書，”國家的尊嚴” (關於反全球化) 在日本版時，銷售量僅次於哈利波特與混血王子。這顯示他在日本知識領域的卓越地位。 

這篇文章是他對於現今媒體的看法。這是一篇重要的文章，因為其提醒們要審慎選媒體，花太多時間在八卦媒體會使得我們對事物失去敏銳度。 

Masahiko Fujiwara is a Japanese Mathematics Professor. His book, The Dignity of a State (about anti-globalization), is the second best-selling book in Japan, trailing only the latest Harry Potter installment. This suggests his prominence in intellect.

The following article is his view on the media. It is an excellent article that it reminds us to select information warily, as one does not want to spend time digesting useless information.

http://www.childresearch.net/RESOURCE/RESEARCH/1999-1998/COMMENT.HTM

I’ve been teaching Time magazine nonstop for 8 years, and is getting wilder ever time I teach because of the richness of the world events the English language leads me and students to.

I constantly think of the way I learned English in school – those moments of rote memorization of words and rules, mechanical sentence patterns. We studied hard for tests but were rarely given the chance to use the language. Probably all language educations are like this – rigid and lifeless. Yet, it was the things outside the textbooks that fascinated me. I would read English newspapers and magazines because I wanted to know the stories behind those images. Yes, they were difficult, but they were interesting.

Little did I know what I was so doing until recently that my curiosity of things simply went go beyond language, and only at a very later stage did I realize that when we set our eyes on world events, language ability will follow. 

After 8 year of teaching, I have developed my philosophy in teaching – language should lead us to freedom, not constraint. It gives us freedom when we are wondering the meaning a language delivers. A constraints when we focus too much on the correct spelling, grammatical use of a language.  

Sometimes I think there is a conspiracy in education in which educators come up with all kinds of language textbooks and tests to cram students’ language creativity.

LITERATURE / HISTORY
When in China, Li Yiyun’s English level was like other college students. She came to the United States in 1996 to study immunology, and from there her English proficiency started to take off. 9 years later, in 2005, she published her debut collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, a collection short stories about the Chinese culture and Chinese expatriates in the West. The book won her many awards for first fiction – quite impressive for someone whose mother tongue is not English. The book also is a best seller because westerners are curious about China.

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An Excerpt from the Short Story Immortality (taken from the book A Thousand Years of Good Prayers)
by Li Yiyun

PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY
It is always a mystery about a person’s gender orientation. I read that a new-born baby is attracted to whatever matter in the world. When the baby grows up, he (she) is educated to be attracted to the opposite sex. Other scientists seek to explain this taking a genetic approach. To me, those explanations make little sense. What matters is, humans are humans, and should be treated as such.

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Supporting Boys or Girls When the Line Isn’t Clear
By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN

MONEY / PSYCHOLOGY / PHILOSOPHY

The first rule in life is making money; the second is making more money. What is the third?

Money was a human invention and in the modern times it is the essence in life without which life would be plain. But does it make our life better once we have a lot? How should we position money?

The article is about money. It makes us stop what we are doing to think. It is philosophical and thought-provoking.

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The Real Truth About Money
Why we remain keen for green even though it often gives us more social anxiety than satisfaction
By GREGG EASTERBROOK
Sunday, Jan. 09, 2005

LANGUAGE

 To what extent can a sign represent meaning? It’s not unusual that the meaning of a word remains elusive because of the changing of society and culture.

The article is very stimulating; it makes us think of meanings of words: should the meaning of a word be based on the definition in a dictionary, or how it is used? No one can say; it is an on-going struggle for any second-language learners.

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Can McDonald's Alter the Dictionary? By Christopher Thompson/London

MARKETING / ENTERTAINMENT / LANGUAGE LEARNING

For education, we have school. But one would be narrow-minded if he thinks school is the major source for knowledge. Actually, it might be the worst because it is rarely interesting to learn in school.

For learning English, years of experiences tells me that school, textbooks, or even Studio Classroom are not necessarily the major sources to improve English proficiency. Many a time, I found that people in the real world don’t talk like the way those texts presented in our education system, simply because those sources are a distance from reality. To learn English, or any second language, we need to enter the real world. For this, I suggest that you use DVDs.

I suggest that you watch the ABC series LOST. Enjoy it, immerse yourself in the context, dialogues, interesting characters, gripping story lines. Since it is addictive, it is possible that you would watch it again and again (and indirectly you learn English). The dialogues are interesting and unforgettable and you’d learn many lines of slang real people use but rarely included in textbooks. The show is a production of globalization – it contains characters from different countries with their own accents. To have the ability to understand various English accents is very important in the 21^st century.

The series is fun and very EDUCATIONAL. There’s no point you should bore yourself to death when learning English; no point at all. Go watch it to acquire the language, culture, and the western system. Smart or not, we can all learn, as long as what we learn are interesting and meaningful.

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Why the Future of Television Is Lost
 By James Poniewozik

BOOK REVIEW / LANGUAGE

The article is a book review of “A Man without Words.” It is about a man who never learned language until in his late 20s.

Humans are the only animal that knows how to use signs. Life must be boring if one does not, considering the case of Ildefonso, an illegal immigrant to the US. Ildefonso was born deaf and never learned how to use sign language. Somehow he got by without using words. He started to learn sign language when he met Susan Schaller. From then on his life has been very different.

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A New York Times Book Review: A Man without Words

Film Reviews

Reading a film review is an emotional experience. The writer watches a film, feels something, and expresses his (her) response to the film in words. The reader then picks up the feel reading it. A communication is thus accomplished. Language has to be the greatest privilege humans enjoy; animals do not have such tool to exact an abstract concept.

Here are two film reviews (from New York Times and Time Magazine) of Blue Gate Grossing, a Taiwanese teen movie. It is always interesting to see how foreigners see us because we are often too involved with ourselves, forgetting to see things from a different perspective. The writings are also beautiful and perceptive. They show once again that words can get deep into a text, digging out hidden treasures for us to enjoy.

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Two Teenage Girls and a Swimmer, Staking Out Territory in a Triangle
 By STEPHEN HOLDEN

WRITING

China is rising, but its internal unrest often remains invisible to the world outside. However, we can understand this through the article because the author was trying to make sense of the truth.

The author Hannah Beech started writing for Time magazine when she was still in her 20s. Her multicultural background contributes to her depth in writing: her father is American and mother Japanese. She speaks many languages and travels intensively. Her reports are mainly on underprivileged groups and she delivered their predicaments effectively through her writing. The article contains only 847 words, among which we see picture after picture playing out for us. We hear the sounds, we feel the situations.

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China's Fantasy of Freedom
 By Hannah Beech

POETRY
 

Here the article talks about poetry, through which we understand the functions of language. The author has great passion for literature, and his literature textbook Literature, Sound, and Sense “has taught hundreds of thousands, perhaps by now several millions of high school, junior college and college students how to read works of literature with appreciation, perception and perspicacity.”[1] In this article, he shows us the importance of poetry. He makes the abstract features of literature palpable to the general public.

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What Is Poetry?
(The article is taken from Literature, Structure, Sound, and Sense by Laurence Perrine, p553 – 556)
by Laurence Perrine

[1] Please go to http://www.smu.edu/registrar/Honorary_Degrees/Recipients/All/laurence_perrine.asp

PSYCHOLOGY / NEUROLOGY

Scholars like Steven Pinker are rare. The Harvard professor looks like a rock star that makes him so noticeable among people. He possesses formidable knowledge and he also knows how to make it accessible to the general public. He often asks interesting questions and it is stimulating reading his books. The following article is his view about the mind.

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Will The Mind Figure Out How The Brain Works?
Understanding how neurons operate is one thing; understanding how they make us the conscious beings we are is another matter
By STEVEN PINKER

ART / BUSINESS / TREND / HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Art is language, through which we feel certain truth. An artifact also has value, measured by the dollar. Here we use art to understand one thing – the formidable rise of China. No doubt that China is systematically working toward replacing America as the new Superpower.

From this article, we also learn how these businessmen and artists channel the market, manipulate values, and fool people.

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The Great China Sale
Foreign collectors want them. Newly minted local millionaires want them. The rise and rise of the country's modern artists
By SIMON ELEGANT / BEIJING

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

 In this article, David Crystal shows us how to learn grammar.

Mr. Crystal is an English linguist. He has profound knowledge in linguistics and his passion in languages is so strong that it is hard not to be influenced by him reading his books – he makes language learning entertaining.

He was awarded the OBE (Order of British Empire)[1] in 1995 for his contribution in the English language.

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How To Learn Grammar (The article is taken from the book How Language Works by David Crystal, p233-235. 2005)

[1] Please go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBE

BIOGRAPHY / CULTURAL PHENOMENA

Anna Nicole Smith (1967 – 2007) was an American model, actress and blonde celebrity.

Smith began her show business career as a dancer/stripper in Houston, Texas. She first gained nationwide attention when she appeared on the cover of the March 1992 issue of Playboy magazine. She then gained immense popularity as Playboy's 1993 Playmate of the Year. She also became a model for clothing companies, including Guess jeans.

Her highly publicized marriage to oil business executive and billionaire J. Howard Marshall, 63 years her senior, resulted in speculation that she married the octogenarian for his money, which she denied. Following his death, she began a lengthy legal battle over a share of his estate; her case, Marshall v. Marshall, reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

She starred in her own reality TV series, The Anna Nicole Show (2002-2004). In the months before her death, she was the focus of renewed press coverage surrounding the death of her son, Daniel Smith.[1]

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Citizen Anna By James Poniewozik

[1] Information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_nicole_smith

RELATIONSHIP / EDUCATION / HUMAN BEHAVIOR

RELATIONSHIP / EDUCATION / HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Here is a New York Times article about relationship, about how a wife (the author) learns to make her husband behave her way, and she learns so from animal trainers! It is full of funny and useful information and the tactics mentioned are too good to be missed. I think they are very useful not just in relationship. In schools or companies, teachers and managers can apply the same techniques

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What Animal Trainers Taught Me About a Happy Marriage By AMY SUTHERLAND

ASTRONOMY / BIOGRAPHY / VOCATION / PASSION / WORLDVIEW

Dr. Carolyn Porco first peered through a telescope when she was 13, and her life-long passion has since been at the other side of the telescope.Science is a very male thing, but Dr. Porco’s passion for the planets is way beyond that stereotype. Because of her dogged pursuit, she extends our scope of the solar system, reminding us how narrow-minded we sometimes are.

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Carolyn Porco: Keeping an Eye in Saturn
By Bjorn Carey Staff Writer posted: 14 February 2005

ART / BUSINESS / TREND / HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Art is language, through which we feel certain truth. An artifact also has value, measured by the dollar. Here we use art to understand one thing – the formidable rise of China. No doubt that China is systematically working toward replacing America as the new Superpower.

From this article, we also learn how these businessmen and artists channel the market, manipulate values, and fool people.

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The Great China Sale
Foreign collectors want them. Newly minted local millionaires want them. The rise and rise of the country's modern artists
By SIMON ELEGANT / BEIJING

EDUCATION

This Coffee Break contains only 10 words, a quote taken from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The quote is short, easy to understand, provocative, and very telling about human nature.

Published in 1960, the novel was an instant classic, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction the next year, and was made into a very successful movie in 1962, also a classic.

The novel is about racism, justice, truth, and education. It is a required reading in American high school because it contains virtues that are important and often neglected. The other day I saw the Chinese version of it in a bookstore. (梅岡城故事)

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“I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”by Jean Louise (Scout) Finch, a 6-year-old girl from the book To Kill A Mockingbird

NOW AND THE FUTURE

This article is about power shifting from “Great Men” to individuals in the new era, and of course, the Internet makes this happen. So, what can we do? We need English.

English speaking is important because human voice carries emotions, power, personality, latent meanings that are beyond language. Speaking a second language well builds up confidence and makes us want to learn more. Sounds, more than written words, tend to leave imprints on our minds. And have you noticed that salespersons need to use their voices to build rapports with clients?

But it is written words – the English words – that take us up and far. Since the Internet is dominated by English, and will continue to be for quite some time, it is understandable that those who know English can stretch out their senses to feel the world, and this is done through English reading. The article reminds us that if we want to be in the game, we CAN’T afford not to use the language well.

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Time Magazine Person of the Year: You
Yes, you. You control the Information Age. Welcome to your world.
By LEV GROSSMAN
Posted Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006