"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." Aristotle
"If we knew what we were doing, we wouldn't call it research." Albert Einstein
"You have to be confused before you can reach a new level of understanding anything." Dudley Herschbach.
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My
first recollection of being smitten dates back to primary
school and to Mrs. Xia, a teacher who took my breath away
with this question at the beginning of the literacy class:
“What is life?” As a ten year old, I was too stunned to
say anything. Since then I have been lingering on the
question over and over and still have not a clue of it.
I
grew up in a tremendously loving family and enjoyed a warm
family life. My parents are traditional middle-class
teachers. And their view of “what is life” for women
consisted of getting a good education, getting married,
having a family, and staying home with them. That is
literally the track that I have been following. College,
university and graduate school, I have been so busy living
the life without conceptualizing the phrase.
Teaching English to non-native speakers and researching how people learn in general, and more specifically learn to use the language, is a lot of fun. And I believe that as a teacher I might have some impacts on others.
As Einstein said, "We wouldn't call it research if we knew what we were doing." Much of the fun I have is figuring out how students (and I) learn and trying to formulate a theory to guide my practice.
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." Aristotle
"If we knew what we were doing, we wouldn't call it research." Albert Einstein
"You have to be confused before you can reach a new level of understanding anything." Dudley Herschbach.