When I walked into class on Friday it was as though I had gone back in time: there were my old students all lined up again! It was wonderful to see that you had returned but one thing that it did point out to me was that I still don't know so many names. I sincerely hope to be able to do something about that this semester.
It may have been a little bit of a downer [something that makes one sad] that we spent some of our very first class discussing my disappointment with some of the assignments that I gave you last semester. But I want to make it clear that my disappointment was not so much with you as with myself. I feel that, as a teacher, I had failed to make it clear what the purpose of those assignments was, nor of what my expectations were. This is another reason I am glad to see you back - it gives me a chance to rectify [to correct; to make good] this huge mistake on my part.
The first part of correcting this mistake is for you: I want each of you to go back and spend some time reading the article on "How to Write an Essay". On each of the articles on this site there is a "Comments" button. If there is something that is not clear or that you don't understand, then ask for clarification [ to make something clear]. You will see that it is possible to remain Anonymous if you don't want me to know who you are or you feel shy. However, having said that, I want to point out to you something from another article on this site. This was something said by Gandhi - a very wise man:-
"Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first requisite for acquiring learning of any kind." (MM-377). So don't ever be embarrassed to ask questions - as I have said before, to us, as foreign teachers, it marks a person out as a good student.
I do not want to write too much on this first blog because I have directed your attention back to the article on How to Write an Essay and that is what I want you to concentrate on. Some of you may be puzzling about why I think this is so important that I am making such a fuss about it. Don't worry, it will (I hope) become clear to you through class discussion and it does, in fact, link in with something quite a few people mentioned either in class or in their essays: How come [why] no Chinese person has ever won the Nobel Prize and yet many Chinese people have won awards for Science or Mathematics?
Yep. There is a connection. And we are going to explore that together in class.
Meanwhile, I just want to remind you of some of the points we made regarding research.
1. Use English Google NOT a Chinese web search.
2. Always look at as many different articles or results as you can. Three sites is the absolute minimum.
3. Use the translation button ONLY for words and not for whole articles or paragraphs. These are translated directly and so, when put together make very little sense.
4. NEVER, ever use Wikipedia. It is not an academic site and is not allowed in any University work.
Finally, some of today's words/phrases:
Slice n' Dice...this refers to the kinds of movies where there is a lot of blood and guts and chopped up body parts.
Chip on the Shoulder...to have a personal agenda; to feel very angry or depressed about something and to be unable to see things clearly or objectively because of this.
An axe to grind...a personal belief that intrudes upon the way you look at everything and also ensures you cannot look at things clearly or objectively.
plagiarism...to steal, to cheat and to lie by copying someones elses work or using something from a book or the Internet as if it was your own thoughts or work
Intellectual Property...your thoughts, ideas, work.
Good to see each one of you again, and lets hope we learn a lot from each other and have some fun while we are doing it!
It may have been a little bit of a downer [something that makes one sad] that we spent some of our very first class discussing my disappointment with some of the assignments that I gave you last semester. But I want to make it clear that my disappointment was not so much with you as with myself. I feel that, as a teacher, I had failed to make it clear what the purpose of those assignments was, nor of what my expectations were. This is another reason I am glad to see you back - it gives me a chance to rectify [to correct; to make good] this huge mistake on my part.
The first part of correcting this mistake is for you: I want each of you to go back and spend some time reading the article on "How to Write an Essay". On each of the articles on this site there is a "Comments" button. If there is something that is not clear or that you don't understand, then ask for clarification [ to make something clear]. You will see that it is possible to remain Anonymous if you don't want me to know who you are or you feel shy. However, having said that, I want to point out to you something from another article on this site. This was something said by Gandhi - a very wise man:-
"Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first requisite for acquiring learning of any kind." (MM-377). So don't ever be embarrassed to ask questions - as I have said before, to us, as foreign teachers, it marks a person out as a good student.
I do not want to write too much on this first blog because I have directed your attention back to the article on How to Write an Essay and that is what I want you to concentrate on. Some of you may be puzzling about why I think this is so important that I am making such a fuss about it. Don't worry, it will (I hope) become clear to you through class discussion and it does, in fact, link in with something quite a few people mentioned either in class or in their essays: How come [why] no Chinese person has ever won the Nobel Prize and yet many Chinese people have won awards for Science or Mathematics?
Yep. There is a connection. And we are going to explore that together in class.
Meanwhile, I just want to remind you of some of the points we made regarding research.
1. Use English Google NOT a Chinese web search.
2. Always look at as many different articles or results as you can. Three sites is the absolute minimum.
3. Use the translation button ONLY for words and not for whole articles or paragraphs. These are translated directly and so, when put together make very little sense.
4. NEVER, ever use Wikipedia. It is not an academic site and is not allowed in any University work.
Finally, some of today's words/phrases:
Slice n' Dice...this refers to the kinds of movies where there is a lot of blood and guts and chopped up body parts.
Chip on the Shoulder...to have a personal agenda; to feel very angry or depressed about something and to be unable to see things clearly or objectively because of this.
An axe to grind...a personal belief that intrudes upon the way you look at everything and also ensures you cannot look at things clearly or objectively.
plagiarism...to steal, to cheat and to lie by copying someones elses work or using something from a book or the Internet as if it was your own thoughts or work
Intellectual Property...your thoughts, ideas, work.
Good to see each one of you again, and lets hope we learn a lot from each other and have some fun while we are doing it!
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