As a teenager, Paulo Coelho set his mind to become a writer. However, he was confronted with an obstacle to his dream. His parents strongly disapproved of his plan; instead, they wanted him to be a lawyer. To drive the crazy idea out of his mind and get him to “the right track,” they even sent him to a mental institution where he received electroshock therapy. Despite the intervention from his parents, Coelho took firm steps on his path to writing and eventually became a world-renowned writer.

Without Coelho’s dogged determination and persistence, we would not have been inspired by such a powerful sentence as “When you really want something, the whole universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

Yes, the universe was on his side.

The following is an excerpt from the book The Element. It’s thought-provoking and inspiring.

“My brother Ian is a musician. He plays drums, piano, and bass guitar. Years ago, he was in a band in Liverpool that included an extremely talented keyboard player named Charles. After one of their gigs, I told Charles how well I thought he’d played that night. Then I said that I’d love to be able to paly keyboards that well. ‘No, you wouldn’t,” he responded. Taken aback, I insisted that I really would. ‘No,’ he said. ‘You mean you like the idea of playing keyboards. If you’d love to play them, you’d be doing it.’ He said that to play as well as he did, he practiced every day for three or four hours in addition to performing. He’d been doing that since he was seven.

Suddenly playing keyboards as well as Charles did didn’t seem as appealing. I asked him how he kept up that level of discipline. He said, ‘Because I love it.’ He couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

Yes. This love is known as passion. With passion, we take delight in what we do, without feeling a little bit tired. Physically we might be exhausted, but mentally we have a strong sense of pleasure.

洪蘭：書讀得少 心中沒典範

【聯合報╱記者陳智華／高雄報導】2009/11/25

 中央大學認知神經科學研究所所長洪蘭昨天以「終身閱讀」為題演講指出，學生書讀得太少，沒有典範，才會沒有目標，不知要做什麼，閱讀不但可將別人經驗內化成自己的，用有限的生命去學習無限的知識，也讓人心中有典範。

My comments: Reading (auto)biographies helps find role models. I once read a simplified version of Benjamin Franklin’s biography to see if it was at the right level for students to read as supplementary material and was amazed at what he accopmlished. No wonder his biography is regarded as one of the best.

洪蘭在98年度師資培育大學主管聯席會議作了以上表示。她說，21世紀知識相通，不分課內課外，只有有用與沒有用的，例如婚外情就是沒有用的知識。她也表示，現在學生英文不好、中文也不好。

My comments: Where have all these students’ time gone? However, I know quite a few students who are good at both or at least one.

洪蘭指出，她曾接到一位教授的e-mail，寫道：「我是你先父的學生」，她非常訝異，最近有記者透過e-mail要採訪她，寫的是「你外子在做部長時」，但「先父」和「外子」只有她自己能用。

她又舉例，面試醫學生時問學生有沒有典範，有學生回答：「史懷哲」，再追問德國籍的史懷哲是那一國人時，學生卻答不出來。她又問學生中國醫生的典範，有學生回答：「國父」，另一人用比的說「這樣這樣的人」，洪蘭認為，書讀得少，沒有閱讀，心中才會沒有任何典範人物。

My comments: A NHSH graduate once came to my class to talk about how to prepare for the UEE. She suggested that the students familiarize themselves with at least one famous person–his life, his achievements, etc. so that they can use him/her as an example in writing. I still remember the example she used was Su Tung-po (蘇東坡). A very good suggestion!

洪蘭說，法官、老師與醫生是三個一定要進修的職業，尤其是老師會教出這三種人，更需要不斷的進修與閱讀。她強調，學校不可能把所有事情都教給學生，加上時代與知識不斷進步，如何教學生培養閱讀習慣以及如何思考非常重要。

My comments: I’m glad that I’m a teacher who enjoys reading. I’m eager to pass my passion for reading on to my students. Reading is a joy.

她也指出，說話是本能，閱讀是習慣，要從小培養，且是「悅」讀，小學一二年級是「learn to read」，也就是學習閱讀，挑喜歡的給他們讀，投其所好，三年級以後卻是「Read to learn」，孩子要靠著閱讀去學習。

My comments: Agreed!

她以自己兒子為例，小時候學校要求讀完「蒼蠅王」，老師出的功課男女生不同，要男生要把書中提到的島嶼製作成模型，她的兒子當時為完全解讀島嶼的地理位置，和同組幾位學生一共把書看了三遍。

My comments: What an assignment! William Golding’s 1954 novel Lord of the Flies, according to Wikipedia, “was chosen [in 2005] by TIME magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present.^“ I didn’t read the novel but saw the movie when I was studying at Illinois, Champaign. It was the first movie that stunned me to the extent that I stayed in my seat for quite a while after it was over, contemplating what it tried to convey. To me, it raised a question: How many of us can still stay “good” when there is no law to govern us? A thought-provoking movie, and book as well.

I agree with the sentences on pages 184~185:

“The disadvantage of reading aloud remained the fact that it took longer. But books read aloud also stayed long in my memory. Even today, I can remember things in them absolutely clearly.”

I always suggest students read English aloud, believing that it will definitely them in learning the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, simultaneously. Now I can use these few sentences in the book to convince my students.

A passage on page 188 is about the importance of being able to read and write:

“I knew about the helplessness in everyday activities, finding one’s way or finding an address or choosing a meal in a restaurant, about how illiterates anxiously stick to prescribed patterns and familiar routines…Illiteracy is dependence. By finding the courage to learn to read and write, Hanna had advanced from dependence to independence, a step towards liberation.”

Good that we are able to read and write! Even such a small thing is worth feeling happy about.

Today I mentioned in class a sentence I read this morning before leaving home:

   “In a place that has been described as “the city that care forgot,” It is a fact that Brad Pitt never forgot to care.”

This sentence appears at the end of  the story about Brad Pitt, written by Carville and Matalin, both of whom are political strategists.  Brad Pitt is one of the most influential, nominated as a philanthropist under the category of “Builders & Titans.”   He lent a helping hand to people in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck the city by starting the Make It Right Foundation, “which is building hundreds of affordable and sustainable homes” in parts of the city.

By rearranging the words “care” (noun/verb) and “forgot,” the writers made the sentence very powerful and easy to remember. 

It’s easy for me to be touched by words, even if they seem simple.  

I often see this kind of problem in students’ writing, though the idea of unity has been emphasized in class many times.  For example, last year on a mock exam, the students were asked to write about an unforgettable family trip.  A student wrapped up his composition with the sentence:  My father is really a hero.  

Other problems found in the examinees’ writing on the GEPT are wrong spelling and commas before sentences. 

The following is the article. 

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_MAIN_ID=381&f_SUB_ID=2705&f_ART_ID=181381

【聯合報╱記者楊正敏／台北報導】 2009/03/06

全民英檢舉辦近10年，承辦的語言訓練測驗中心發現，19歲以下受試者聽說能力優於讀寫能力；19歲以上正好相反，除了世代差異，整體閱讀能力都在下降中。

全民英檢開辦至今已有330萬人次參加測試，從中可發現台灣英語學習的一些趨勢與現象，語言中心除了委託台大學分析研究中級考生作文，並在今、明兩天舉辦英語教學測驗研討會，提供國內外學者溝通平台。

台大語言所所長張顯達說，英語教學者大多知道台灣英語學習者常見的錯誤，但少有量化的統計研究，台大接受委託研究分析中級考生2000份作文與口說的內容，並嘗試建立語料庫。

目前初步發現，中級受試者寫完整的單句沒有問題，但段落的處理方式有問題、文章脈落與主題發展的論述不符，會出現一些無關的句子。

他舉例，請考生介紹異國美食，寫一寫就會出現「台灣的美食也很不錯，有機會可以試試看。」中文看來沒有什麼問題，但其實跟主題無關，「天外飛來一筆」，外國人可能會覺得很怪。

他認為，這可能跟考生的閱讀經驗愈來愈弱，對文章概念薄弱，用口語和中文思考寫作文造成的。此外，考生習慣用電腦修改後，作文拼字能力很差，還有考生的作文把逗號放在句子前面。

This seems a very effective way. The dogs are a mirror for the juvenile delinquents. In the process of training the dogs, the teens justify their own behavior.

I recall an article written by Master Sheng-yan, in which he mentioned that we cannot arrange our own life.  He used Bill Gates as an example.  When Bill Gates worked on his projects in the garage with his friend, he did not expect that he would become such an influential figure.  According to Sheng-yan, what life has in store for us will come to us.  If my memory serves me right, his main point in that article was that all we have to do is live every minute to the fullest and that fate will take care of the rest.

Last night before I went to sleep, I re-opened The Secret and read it. Here is a passage from the book that might help lift you up when you are feeling down.

“BOB PROCTOR

When you’re feeling down, did you know that you can change it in an instant? Put on a beautiful piece of music, or start singing–that’ll change your emotion. Or think of something beautiful. Think of a baby or somebody that you truly love, and dwell on it. Really keep that thought in your mind. Block everything out but that thought. I guarantee you’ll start to feel good.” (p. 37)

I remember reading an article in the newspaper long time ago. The article was about a person who was so easy to please. The person started to feel happy the moment he/she opened the eyes in the morning and found he/she was alive. I believe being a happy person, he/she would attract more wonderful things toward him/her the whole day.

Quotes from the essay by Nancy Gibbs, “Real Patriots Don’t Spend,” in the current issue of Time (October 13, 2008):

“‘Thrift comes too late when you find it at the bottom of your purse.’”
~ from Nero’s adviser Seneca

“…it was private virtue that made public prosperity possible.”

“In hard times, people often rediscover the peace that prudence brings, when you try to spend a little less than you have because tomorrow might be worse.”

To read the whole article, you can visit:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1846735,00.html

I like the notes for Gibbs’s essay on the index page:
“The day that spending replaced thrift as a way of life is the day that America’s economic woes began.”