By Cedric Wong (ELED Graduate) A polysemous word is a word with multiple meanings. In order to understand a passage, interlocutors need to determine in what sense a word is used, or else misunderstanding may occur. Strategies of determining the intended meaning include interpreting the context, and asking the speaker to clarify. This article introduces two …
By Cedric Wong (ELED graduate) Have you ever experienced a “no and yes” moment, when your shoulder angel says yes and the devil begs to differ, putting you in a difficult internal struggle? Kate Chopin and Seamus Heaney describe different, yet, on second thought, extremely similar internal conflicts in their characters in The Story of …
By Cedric Wong (ELED graduate) Abstract The time that we remember, the way that we remember, the fact that we remember, is perhaps, more important than what is being remembered. In Bharati Mukherjee’s Nostalgia, an Indian doctor Dr Patel who established a successful career in America remains constantly longing for his Indian roots based on …
By Cedric WONG (ELED alumnus) A production of Shakespearean play today can be quite different from one in Shakespeare’s time.Electric stage lighting was non-existent, thus the audience at Shakespeare’s time might have to rely on the lines performed by the actors, not so much the on-stage lighting to tell at what time of the day …
By Cedric WONG (ELED alumnus) How are experiences in the nature relevant to our lives? The Prelude by William Wordsworth, and Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelly describe divine and spiritual encounters with the nature, which enable people to transcend the unpleasant current experiences, and harbor hope for the future. The nature, …
By Cedric Wong (Year 4, 2015-2016) and Ross Ng (Year 3, 2015-2016) Although Beijing is a modern city, many aspects of its English language education are seen as being influenced by traditional Chinese thoughts, collectively known as Confucius Heritage Culture (CHC). Confucius Heritage Culture is named after Confucius. A scholar and a teacher himself, Confucius …
By Cedric Wong (ELED Year 4, 2015-2016) The two artists in Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind and Kafka’s A Hunger Artist explore how individual artistic expressions can carry wider social implications. The hunger artist lives a private artistic life as a protest against the society, while the artist in Ode to the West Wind …
By Cedric WONG (ELED Year 4, 2015-2016) July 17, 2013 We just went for a nice, after-dinner, spontaneous, sunset punting trip. Every imagery of that super-classic Chinese-in-Cambridge poem appeared in front of our eyes—the rainbow-ish reflections on the river, the rosy clouds, the golden willows… The occasional tweets and hums of birds and bugs made …
By Cedric WONG (ELED Year 2, 2013-2014) “Five years have past; five summers, with the length of five long winters! And again I hear these waters, rolling from their mountain-springs with a soft inland murmur.” Here I quote from William Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey. I wonder if I would return to that abbey in Scotland and …