關懷及友愛 LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP
法國作家莫法科曾說：「任何關懷及友愛均足以在我們的生命軌跡中留下印記。」此名法國作家言詞睿智，但我個人卻從未讀過這位已逝作家的任何作品。如果照我的青少年學生們的話來講，閱讀這種已經作古的人的作品，是種無聊的事情。在他們眼中，很多事情都可能無聊到令人憤怒，又或者，他們不大清楚為何有人可以保持平和的狀態，即便他們看似動怒。
自然，這些學生當中往往有人視教師們給他們的良善評語為理所當然，同時，也將像影像當中花時間寫卡片給任教老師這樣的事情，視為無聊、無趣。
場白講，很多很多我們所花的時間真的都是完完全全的無聊無趣、浪費精神，不過，我們很少思考，也許正是這些無聊無趣且浪費精神的時間，造究我們成為更好的人，畢竟，法國那位作家莫法科所說的「關懷及友愛」，根本毫無形體可言!
針對毫無形體、無法言喻的事情，我們怎麼將它語言化、量化、質感化呢?
所以莫法科所說的「關懷及友愛」根本應該是廢話?!
只不過當仔細思考，我們卻可能在這種無聊無趣且浪費精神的時間裡面，發現一個國家裡面飲食文化的美好(如目前英語課本UNIT 1主題)，或者一種體育項目的特別(如目前英語課本UNIT 2主題)，就像我的外籍同仁如果從來沒有「浪費生命般地學習著華語」，那麼，也許他不會跨過半個地球來到異地工作；同樣地，如果我從來沒有「無聊之餘到達第三世界國家」，那麼，那些人們今天可能還是大部份沒有辦法過上更好的生活。而我們兩個人就是從這些「無聊的事情」裡，喜歡上了這些異國風情、不一樣的體育賽事的關注。
B
在身為一位廣播人的過程中，我必須播報英語版本的文教新聞，在播出的同時有一則消息讓我印象深刻，那就是全球的青少年、少女們的自殺比例節節攀升；從媒體報導中得知這樣的消息是一回事，當我必須自己報導這樣的新聞給大眾、對著麥克風以英語說給大眾聆聽的時侯，那是一種真實的恐怖感! 因為當我報導完一條新聞，幾名青少年、少女可能就自殺成功了，數據顯示，全球每十分鐘就至少有一至三名青少年、少女自殺，很多落後國家及地區的自殺者根本還無法統計，而且經過統計的數字每一天都在上升當中……根據醫界及科學界的專家們的說法，輕生的青少年、少女們通常極度容易憤怒或者憂愁，因為他們憤世嫉俗的心態，導致他們對於事件中的「人」非常氣憤，而非「事件」本身。
由於希望我的學生們不要成為自戕或者傷人的受害者，我一直期盼學生們可以分享自己的關懷和友情給他人，而要進行這樣的分享，首要條件就會是「自我尊重」。「自我尊重」來自於我們能夠適時完成任務，甚至「浪費時間作些無聊的事」，像是與人談話、聆聽、以及關懷他人，而不是完全將目光鎖在自己的手機和自己的世界中。
很多人覺得很奇怪：「為什麼英語課要談這些無聊的事情呢?」
然而，更奇怪的應該是：為什麼不能談這些無聊的事情呢?
C
換句話說，如果我們不處理這些看似無聊的事情，我們怎麼能夠去尊重別的國度的人群，運用英語去和世界各地的人對話呢?
上述也就是何以我的外籍工作夥伴及我個人希望鼓勵我們的青少年、少女學生們，重新審視自己在上週所寫出來的英語小考內容，並且在本週四提供給大家一段時間，讓每個學生都可以針對自己的答案來做更好的、更精良的修正。學生們可以使用色調不同的筆(但希望不會是用紅顏色)，來思考自己的答案在英語方面，是否已經達到應該表現水平，並且在國語方面，是否站在尊重自己及他人的立場書寫相關內容。在多花一些時間的情況之下，也許我們的這些學生們都會察覺「浪費時間」和「浪費精神」其實在本質上，並不是那麼糟糕的一件事情，因為我們會由於這種「無聊」的行動，讓自己和他人都更加正面而美好!
“No love,
no friendship, can cross the path of our destiny without leaving some mark on
it forever.”
―Francois Mauriac
Francois Mauriac was a French novelist. The
words he expressed above are quite true. It’s just I have never read any of his
novels nor poems, which, in some of my teenage students’ words, may be a waste
of time or something triggering their anger, or they cannot fully grasp the ideas that some people can appear to be solemn instead of angry. And if we think very carefully,
many things in life are wastes of time or energy: the lengthy discussions
between people of different cultures, the playing of sports games with friends,
and so on. Naturally, among such students there are those who take their
teachers’ positive comments towards them for granted; on the contrary, they
view such students spontaneously writing cards or letters to their teachers to
express their gratitude as boring, non-sense.
To be honest, most of our time seems to be,
perhaps, wasted, but it is just the time wasted that creates us to be better
human beings; after all, the ‘love’ and ‘friendship’ this deceased French
novelist, Francois Mauriac talked about, are extremely shapeless! To consider
more carefully, though, we may find such ‘wasted’ time or energy may exactly be
the time and energy we need to discover the beauty of a nation or a sport. For example,
if my foreign colleague has never ‘wasted’ his time learning Mandarin Chinese,
he could not have made up his mind to be working at another side of the globe. As
for me, if I have never ‘wasted’ my time to be in some poor nations, some
people’s lives would not have improved. For the two of us, we have begun to
like some foreign cultures and sports more because of our being there at different
places, ‘wasting our time!’
In my career as a bilingual cultural and
educational news reporter, I had to report in English news stories about teenagers’
suicidal rates skyrocketing worldwide. Learning such news stories in the media
is very different from reporting such by myself—it reminds me how lucky many
adults are that as teenagers, we did not choose to be so angry or upset that we
would kill ourselves! According to physicians and psychologists, these young people
taking their own lives often are individuals easily angered or upset, for their
mind is very cynical about many “people,” instead of the “issues” confronting
them. Not wishing my students to be falling into the victims to hurt themselves
or the others, I have long wanted my students to share their love and
friendship with each other. When we share such love and friendship freely, it
means we respect ourselves by doing something decent, like completing our own
tasks on time, or ‘wasting’ our time by not focusing on our digital devices and/or
personal disputes only but to look outside ourselves to those who need our love
and friendships!
Many people would find it to be strange. "Why would people need to discuss about such boring, senseless things in English classes?"
What is even more weird, though, is why shouldn't such issues be discussed?
If we don't discuss about such things with some people, how can we utilize English, this lingua franca, after we have learned it?
Can it be that when my counterparts of the same skin color and cultural heritage of mine often feel they're discrimiated overseas, I've never felt so because I've "wasted" so much time discussing with people things or issues that are "boring?"
Thus, my foreign colleague and I would like
to encourage our teenage students to modify their quizzes this Thursday. We’d
like the students to re-examine what they’ve written, to think if what they
have written can match with certain standards of English they should learn, and
the respect they should give to themselves. They will be invited to use a
different colored pen to write below or next to their original answers of
English and Mandarin Chinese. Once they spend some more time, perhaps they’ll
find that to ‘waste’ some more time can trade some more meaningful outcome.
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