school in China I want to support to
pursue my secondary and tertiary studies
now I made a rare choice by taking both
Chinese and English literature’s so I
had a chance to meet teachers who are
educated in both the eastern and western
cultures respectively so as students I’m
not admit I’m not proud of what I’m
going to admit now but students our
attitudes toward this two courses very
so one simple standard to judge us by
our phone battery levels so well after
all Chinese literature classes were more
likely to be seeking for charging ports
all around around our school but after
English literature classes well we are
more willing to lend our charters to our
friends who had just finished their
history classes okay so well now the
explanation to this anomaly is that our
Chinese literature teachers would prefer
to rely on textbooks but they would
repeat most of the information given to
us and adding some extra materials so a
for English literature teacher mistake
or instead of just telling us what the
author means instead of instead of
giving us a fully cooked meal we have
our raw materials and it is our job to
analyze the text so now the point the
fog slowly the fog hung shoulder with a
grey face no the fog could mean that the
author the poet is going through a very
dark and grey period of his life and you
can see that yes a blind man hums in the
moon now the moon would represent
something pure something I do well that
is the common explanation so it
surprises me when one of my classmates
pointed out that the fog could actually
be a serial rapist so well who
only commits his crimes by dong or you
can see from some evidences hunched
shoulders well fingertips touching the
way and well searching searching all
through the streets refuse and now the
moon will obviously represent young and
one herbal ladies well so it looks I’m
shocked when I heard this explanation I
are you allowed to talk like that in
class but what shocked what is more
shocking is that my English teacher said
and I quote that this idea was
inspirational and insightful so now if
we look deeper to that explanation we
will see yes it has some flaws but
instead of just quitting sizing the idea
she taught us or she did was to teach us
the correct literature devices for us to
search for evidence ‘as for us to prove
our points now that is very different
from the chinese literature classes so
she taught us personification imagery
the how to find the atmosphere the tone
or the mood now it was fun if you’re
like fun so I I felt like Sherlock
Holmes searching for evidence and
looking through mirages to find the best
explanation to the point now I’m met a
brilliant young lady just a few days ago
well she shares a huge pressure a huge
passion in in writing I mean she is
writing for the stun gun magazine now
currently so she shares the same slight
disappointment towards Chinese
literature education here right here in
China or in a very mild manner so
claiming that our literature learning
experience is separating the lively
literature learning experience into
mechanical pieces which serves only to
the purpose of coping exams now there’s
a lack of
discussion about the neutral influence
between people and the society which is
a key so well some teachers might have
made minor dents to make their lessons
more fun well by giving reading tasks to
students that’s good but we still should
adopt a entirely different teaching
method from the way you teach let’s say
mathematics so it is a quality of
critical analysis instead of the
quantity that matters well that being
said I cannot deny that it is the
teachers role to introduce students to
all kinds of styles of literature work
especially in China we have our well
asian poems the modern points the pros
will play scripts or both asian work and
more than work and well the one young
one is a tough part asian chinese is the
tough part is a tough part for students
to understand there is a bigger
difference between the women and the men
during we use now then what shakespeare
wrote and what we see for now so it is
hard so it is hard to delete all the
driver sightings or fixed
interpretations from the textbook we
have but what we could do is to change
our teaching method to give a chance for
students to form their own original
thoughts now we have this poem young Leo
bajo de Jong is a very well-known poem
is about willow trees so the last two
lines or I’ll try my best to translate
it I do not know who cut out these thin
leaves but the spring wind in February
feels just like scissors so now the
spring wind feels like scissors because
they are literally cutting out the
outline of the leaves but there could be
another explanation like what we do to
the fog well willow trees is a common
represent for saying farewell if you
break the willow tree branches well it
would be what it would be what asian
chinese do when they’re saying goodbye
to their friends because willow tree in
chinese leo sound just like leo so
please stay now this is a whole new
perspective so the spring wind does not
only cut out the leaves it also breaks
the branches so it points out that a lot
of people says farewell during spring
but right after the chinese new year so
now it has two meanings instead of one
rooting in a textbook well that is what
I expect so we could teach students to
get the correct devices to understand
the point instead of just give you
answers now I was being cured being
curious on what Chinese students are
capable of I was being invited to join a
few reading club events called the
radiation which is a combination of read
plus radiation so well I shared a few
points with the students and I
introduced them to the idea of critical
thinking we only had two hours two hours
for the entire event all those are new
to this concept but they did a very good
job to get comfortable with it to form
their own ideas and even defend their
own ideas where others disagree so about
critical thinking the ability to
evaluate to explain to analyze to deduct
and most importantly to boldly admit
your misunderstandings and you love your
own ideas well this is left in the
current teaching methods in China but
students but from my experiments I can
see that they could learn this method in
very short time so yes every year after
the call call the goal call in China I
will search for the zero mark essays
well to mostly to LA
that and i would also search for the
full mark asus also to mock us because
well the former classes are what the
kind of work you expect from the
teachers pets so the follow every
routine but the zero mark asses well
these guys are geniuses there’s alright
poems well your job paintings on a paper
so it’s fun so I need to look at I need
to look at them to make myself feel but
better when I look at my own writings so
no jokes aside oh it is the Chinese the
gonk OST part is in desperate need for
Reformation because it gives the
situation to students and it’s their
freedom to choose to write a narrative
essay or a argumentative essay so there
were being this struggle well should I
well should I make the examiners
surprise them with fancy vocabularies
and extraordinary metaphors or should I
build a strong castell with logical
thoughts now oh I suggest that we
separate the essay writing into two
parts so Part A we could do our
narrations or process to evaluate the
students literary writing skills well
we’ll give them a broad topic like what
do you feel about seasons something like
that and as for part b we could ask them
to form their own ideas and prove them
so well task their abilities to raise
innovative ideas for a moment achieve a
say so but in this method so the
students would be clearer and i think
that is a minor change we can do to
start to introduce the entire idea of
critical thinking to train your students
thank
[Applause]
you [Music]