Am I passionate about English? Sometimes I am confused about the reason why I’ve been studying English so hard. Do I consider English language as a tool which might give a boost to my future career, or do I treat English as an entertaining value, loving it with all my heart? I really don’t know. I only know that when I feel upset, stressed or depressed, studying English at a café can comfort my anxiety and sadness, making me forget all my sorrows. I only know that if I have a laid-back afternoon when I don’t have to work or to suffer from the heavy burden of schoolwork, I’d love to go to a coffee shop to enjoy my time there, studying English with a great cup of coffee and with soft music. That is my favorite thing to do. Learning English makes me feel fulfilled and delighted.
Most importantly, the most valuable lesson I learned at Harvard was to have exceeded the English language itself. The greatest benefit that will last my lifetime will be the attitude to approach knowledge. We’re required to do research: to read, to annotate, and to listen to the materials online and then come to class to discuss the work. This Top-Down learning method at Harvard is vastly different from the way I learned in Taiwan, where students are used to coming to class and waiting for the teacher to feed his or her knowledge to them. “Whatever you can do yourselves, you have to do it on your own,” said Liane Jeschull, my workshop instructor. I have learned how to absorb knowledge proactively, instead of passively. It is significantly important, and it will be a great influence for the rest of my life. Be prepared and come to discuss!
In addition, the way of thinking at Harvard has had a great impact. We are encouraged to debate, to throw out our ideas, and to think critically. “There is no absolute truth,” Liane said, which impressed me deeply as well. I am extremely surprised to discover that I have been developing a strong curiosity about the knowledge that I don’t know. One day, for instance, we were required to prepare for the debate on Obama and McCain’s economic policies. Doing research, I found that there was a term called “subprime mortgage crises” which I heard about frequently in Taiwan, but I had no desire to know it or to learn why it so heavily affected the U.S. economy. During the preparation for the debate, I immersed myself into the pleasure of exploring this newfound knowledge. Now I have more interests in the things I don’t know, such as cloning or stem cell research, over the fields I’ve been very familiar with.
Learning language in this summer was not my plan initially, but now I am so thrilled that I did it! The courses are greatly valuable! Taking English classes at Harvard might have been the most correct decision in my time of the US.
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