今年第1課後
阿祥收到的第2封情書
也是來自內地的同學......
Dear Simon,
On the Orientation Day, I sensed from your brief talk that you are impressively passionate and enthusiastic about life and career. After attending your lecture last night, I knew I was not wrong, especially when I saw your paintings on the slideshow and on the pages you gave us. I think what you are trying to do is exactly imparting knowledge and educating people. Education is happening and it is not limited to classroom or book knowledge.
At the beginning, I was happy and surprised that you provided us with so many informative handouts in apple-pie order. Then I was more surprised to play a game in the classroom of a graduate school, which was actually very thought-provoking. In my humble opinion, I think the game makes me realize that translation is both an art and a science. It is a science because there are tools like forks, spoons and knives to give instructions and framework to the translators. Meanwhile, it is an art as it involves play of words or tricks of language expressions which is not obvious at the first glance.
The task for group discussion was kind of challenging as we were supposed to put four-character compact Chinese into authentic English expression. The answer shown on the screen at last were of course idiomatic to convey the original taste, at the cost of sacrificing the formal integrity in traditional Chinese. I agree that translation has many standards according to various occasions. As for this Austrian restaurant, eye-catching description is the top priority to appeal local customers....
I feel fortunate to enroll in your class and there are many native Cantonese students there. It is from such communication that I can expand my outlook and take in ideas foreign to me.
It touches my chord when I see your third pedagogical philosophy that education is happening when lives are transformed, which makes me think of Kafka's and Ovid's Metamorphosis. I cannot agree with your philosophy more as I am physically transformed due to a rarely-seen chronic disease, the cold reality of which makes me familiar with roller-coaster ride of life and empowers to face up to the challenge.
I would like to have a chat with you beyond class, but since you are so tightly scheduled, I will just put it in this email....Many thanks.
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