Awhile back a student gave me a bookstore gift card for help I gave on her personal statement for Brandeis. It still had 100 RMB on it. The card was due to expire on December 31 (perhaps, turning into a pumpkin), so, we had Liu Yifu pick out some books. Of the 7 books, this is Liu Yifus reading list as far as I can divine amidst the Chinese: Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain, Victor Hugo, and Emily and Charlotte Bronte in Chinese translation. He is not much for studying, but he does love to read. I like that. And I cant argue his choices--a couple of which I have yet to read yet. The other day he wanted to download a book for the Kindle, so he showed me a portion of the movie adaptation since he did not know the English for the translated Chinese title. After watching for a couple minutes I figured out it was Jane Eyre. Intrinsic motivation is a strange thing. If I were watching this movie and said to him, This is good; you should watch this. He would turn up his nose (especially in his teenage incarnation), but stumbling upon it himself he is interested. At some point he will have to make his peace with the art of compromise and the need to do things and give things a try whether you feel the initial tug of interest or not (the responsibility, duty, and necessity side of the freedom equation), but in the interim, whatever works...
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 01:10:50 +0000