To Ms. Hung on how to spark enthusiasm for the English language and literature

Here is my response to Ms. Hung, who left a comment on my Oct. 8 entry Ithe Life Type blog) as follows:

Re:Enthusiasm

I have to find the enthusiasm of Foreign Language and Literature. God bless me. haha

Posted by hung at 10/10/2008, 11:34

Dear Ms. Hung,

Definitely, to enjoy your life now, you've got to love what you're doing. Remember Steve Job's "You've Got to Find What You Love"? He had every reason to tell those college graduates so, right?

When students come to ask for my advice on whether to major in English in college, I usually tell them that to be an English major, they need a certain degree of interest in literature. If they don't have a spark of interest in literature, they'd better major in a subject which interets them and take English as a tool, learning it one their own.

Now since you're already an English major in your first year, a way to arouse your enthusiasm is to read something you like in English. For example, think about your favorite English movies and read their novel versions. The scenes in the movies might bring the English novels to life.

My former student, Spencer (陳昭龍), also an English major, suggested spending more time listening and speaking in the first year, for example, listening to CNN. I think it is because when you really "feel" the beauty of the sound and rhythm of the language, it will be easier for you to "fall in love" with it in other forms. Here is another option: why not listen to some poetry reading and then read the poems aloud yourself? Of course, for a beginner, choose simple ones, such as some by Robert Frost or Emily Dickinson.