《幸福人生》第五课答疑

 今年Young Professional团契开始了新的《幸福人生》课程的学习。在讨论中大家提出了很多很好的问题，我在这里整理了一些问题供大家参考。

1.第五讲《圣经是神的话语》中，为什么神只启示给几个人，而不是给所有人祂的话语？

答：神做事有神的主权，和神的方式，我们不是神，如果我们认为我们自己有比神更好的做事方式，那我们就认为自己比神更有智慧了。

当时在伊甸园里亚当夏娃犯罪的时候就是想要“与神相似”。在巴别塔的时候人类也是只想“传扬自己的名”。

我们从小生活在集体主义的氛围里面，从小受的教育就是统一行动听指挥。但是神拯救人的方式是一个一个地拯救，从我们的经验来看，每个人信主的经历和方式都有很大的不同。虽然有的人是一起受洗的，但是细问每个人经历神的故事都是不一样的。所以也不难理解神为什么通过拣选一个民族中的某些人来成就祂的救恩，神也使用十几个使徒委托他们成就传福音的大使命。我们能够学习到的是尊重每个人独特的生命，我们在传福音，造就门徒的时候也要一个人一个人地去影响他们的生命。

当然，神在给先知和使徒启示的时候，同时告诉他们要把这些话告诉以色列全家，或者传福音直到地极。神的恩典有普遍性，但被拣选和使用的使徒先知们受到的挑战是比一般人更大的。若不是神的恩典，一般人是承受不了的。我们享受了前人耕耘的果实，更应该向神感恩，也要尽上自己的本分。

2. 如何证明圣经是无误的？

答：如果我们接受并相信圣经是神所默示的，那么圣经的无误性就是毋庸置疑可以推断出来的。

我们可以通过新旧约中预言很多都成就了，来证明圣经的真实可靠性。

有一门学科叫做《圣经考古》，专门考证圣经中出现的事件的真实性。

马太福音24：35耶稣讲到：“天地都要废去，我的话却不能废去。”如果神的话有误，为什么还能存到连天地都废去，神的话却不废去的地步呢？

当然，让我们自己相信圣经无误性最深刻（但不是最简单）的方式是自己去经历圣经的话语和应许是否可靠。我们可以借着祷告，依靠神并留意神的作为来经历这一点。

Starting as a Professional Writer

        Taking English Composition One was an exciting adventure at the first time. Yet it was also a great challenge for me due to the lack of the English language skills compared to those whose native language is English. The learning process not only is studying what it required on the learning outcomes, but also a process of English as a second language learning. I am very confident at my first language skills, which can help me better understand the course content and its goals. For example, to be a critical thinker is not as hard as it looks like, for the ability I have processed to think dialectically in my native language.

        I faced my first biggest challenge when I began to start the reading process. For example, I reread the first pages of Translation Nation for several times until I found the good way to way to read it. Since the obscure new words and location names blocked my understanding of this passage, I have to google what are they and what they are referring to. With the help of the Internet, I could be toughly able to learn what the author was trying to say.

        Speaking of the writing process, both of the drafting and the revision work were unbearable burdens at first. For drafting, I spent a lot of time thinking what I was going to write in order to make it interesting to read and practical to hand with. I also did not want to bore myself if I did not want to bore others. As for the revision, it seemed like an gigantic mountain that I have to cross over. To be specific, I need to figuring out which direction I should go to according to instructor's feedback. Knowing your audience background knowledge is a very significant in deciding what I am going to write. I cannot write the same as to whom are also Chinese and whom are familiar with China's history, current situation and its culture.My audience should be noticed about why "One Child Policy" and "Culture Revolution" matters and how serious damage they have costs despite that they probably know the terms through news or Internet. I have to put on western upper class's shoes while imagining what they probably know and what they would like to read.

        The way of organizing the writing portfolio was also very stimulating. I tried to find the theme or connection among the four essays. The first one “Imaginary land” was my beloved one, which tells about my family background information in a rhetorical way. The second one is about parent generation. Maybe you can find out the relationship between the historical reason and its leading to the mistreating of children. The third one is analyzing of “Fresh Challah”, which was one of our class reading materials. It has some elements of family-influences too. Finally I brought up issue of learning English as a second language. Through research and reading after some psychological papers, I built the confidence of learning English. 

        I was always questioning if I could be able to become an English writer in an official way. These writing processes in this class evoke my passion of creation again. If there is someone that is willing to listen, I might have the possibility to write continuously.

Imaginary land

        I always dream of this imaginary land, which stands for purity and peace, joy and prosperity. Maybe somewhere I dreamt of is not somewhere I live right now. For me it is something real and I am so familiar with it, and I have met it many, many times in some kind of mysterious ways.

Stage photo from Bridge to Terabithia, 2007.

        I have not seen this place when I was born. It came to me while I was left at home at very young age. My parents were both busy at work. I could hardly saw them until the mealtime came. The door was locked to prevent me sneaking out from home. I have nothing to do but read the picture books. I can still remember on that picture it said “welcome to play with us!” with the background of a white house in the forest. At that time I believed such place was really exists. The imaginary land began to reveal itself to my daily life since then.

        At my age of four, my mother aborted her second child. After I grew up, they told me that it was a boy. I realized that, they were so frightened to conceive a second child at that time because of the dreadful One Child Policy. If they insisted to have the baby, one of them would lose the job the government provided. How could my mother willing to give up this urban job after years of striving from the poor rural country? But everything changes after the abortion. I could not figure out why my life became so cold and tough when I was so young. Did it might be that mourning to the unborn baby made my mother changed her temper and behavior? Why did she act weird and irrational, and being a fan of destroying things and suddenly yelling at others? My brain was too immature to analyze the whole picture. Every happy feelings fade away my four year old. I was finally falling from the warm and solid ground into a black hole filled with fear and cold.

        But I know my imaginary land never abandoned me. One day afternoon, my aunt persuaded me, or pushed me, to recite one story written in a storybook. Something retained in my mind forever since then. Even now I can still remember the sunset shadow reflected on the white wall in the bedroom while we were working on that story, which took us hours, and which seemingly tells about how a little girl finds a magic plant that can bear plenty of golden seeds. From then on, I could connect the sunlight with something warm, delightful, and companionable. I discovered the charm of lights when I began to learn photography. I am always shocked by the beautiful sunlight covering all secular beings and making them even brighter. At those moments I felt like I was reconnected with the place I should be. The lights also recall me about that afternoon when my aunt and I spent together. Perhaps through these lights, I can find the way back home.

        Sometimes the information comes to me from imaginary land through music. I know a singer whose name is called Anna; in her newly released album Grace, I can tell her strong imploded emotions originated from her neglected childhood trauma. I began to know someone was once being in the darkness, and then they reunited through creating arts—through music: the expression of emotion; through photography: the capture of lights’ beauty; or through literature: the narrative of bleeding and pain.

       I also love the book Bridge to Terabithia, which described an imaginary land where Jess and Leslie found their own place. I firstly saw this story from the movie shooting in 2007. On the prelude, Jess created a beautiful, dramatic, colorful imaginary land in where monsters and elf exists. Jess found friendship there, and he learned how to be courageous and begin to appreciate the days with his friend Leslie. He also tries to open his heart, and had seen the place in faith. With the music and the picture showed in the movie, I was also touched by this story and my imaginary land overlapped with what they invented in the forest, the place called Terabithia, which Leslie give the name to.

      I would not say my imaginary land could offer me the resources for art creation, but I would rather to say I seek to go back there again. Even though I can only meet with this mysterious place or just few seconds each time, my heart is still softening by that beauty it reveals to me . I also feel the gentle protection from my imaginary land, and being loved by the mysterious and pure hearts. The place is exactly where I seek for and where I belong.

Culture of Cultural Revolution Generation in China

         The people who were born during 1950s and 1960s are unique generation in contemporary China. They happen to be the parents of the youth who were born during 1980s and 1990s. What is unique about them is that they are the only generation who has many siblings in one household. For example, my mother has five siblings and my father has four. The large population born during Chair Mao’s years was the reason leading China to a stunning population booming in the midst of last century. This generation’s life experiences shaped their exclusive characteristics that can stands for some parts of Chinese contemporary culture.

         Back then, their parents, who are the young people’s grandparents now, were encouraged to have more children even though they do not have the financial ability and the resources to raise them at all. The government persuaded them to do so because they had to guarantee that there would be enough solders that could be used to meet military needs if the third world war came. Imagine how does the parent generation’s childhood life look like: they were always living in starving and eager to grab food from anywhere they could fetch. Food shortage was the biggest problem at that time. They now still remember and retell the stories to us of how they survived during the three years famine. That historical event led them to a frugal lifestyle and the habit of saving money. Moreover, due to the jam-like lifestyle and messed-up working behaviors they experienced in their childhood, the parent generation can hardly respect other’s borders and meanwhile distain people’s privacy.

       

The "Red Guard Army" was marching in front of Tian'anmen Square.

        Another outstanding characteristic they shared is that they blindly adore Chinese government, which is the Communist Party in charge right now, in terms of ideology. This personality could be traced back to the specific events called Cultural Revolution happened in 1966 through 1976. Their childhood and adolescent years were overlapping with this historical event. Most of them at their children or teenager years could not regularly spend time on school and homework but reciting quotations from Chair Mao. Besides, their routine job was reporting any suspicious opinions and arguments against the government, torturing the cultural celebrities, and humiliating them in public until they confess that they were guilty of counter-revolution. Cultural Revolution forced many great scientists and artists to committee suicide and greatly affected the development of education in this country. When our parents’ generation grows up with such experience during teenage years, they seem to lack appreciation of beauty and the sense of scientific intellection. They can easily believe and be persuaded by the government propaganda or some random salesperson’s promotion. Sarcastically, our parents can suffer a very mean life but squander their life savings to stocks and political-related-fraud investment. Such spirit of “sacrifice for country” seems permeated through their blood and was deeply rooted in their subconscious. Most of them still think that those Cultural Revolution years are the most passionate, purest and idealist memory ever.

        Not only do they have a great passion of defending for country’s reputation, but they are afraid of the man in power too. When they got older as time went by and they were mature enough to propose their individual political ideals, the Tiananmen Square massacre occurred in June 4^th, 1989. The young generation at that time was harshly beaten by the political reality and never had the courage to say no to the government. Only thing they can do is to submit and be obedient to the authorities. They even do not have the courage to speak out their own political stand. What is more absurdly, they and their children spontaneously utter harsh words towards who courageously speak out the dissident commends, such as the recent news that tutor Wu Wei in University of Sydney was attacked by the overseas Chinese students because of Wu Wei’s commentary against Chinese rulers and their misbehaviors. Besides the politics, they even do not encouragement to explore the possibilities of career development, and they think only getting a job from government system is the most secure choice. The men in some kind of government position seems too dreadful to this generation as if the men the power can easily take over all your property and ruin your life in seconds.
        In summary, the generation who are in their middle adulthood now represents a particular culture. They are greatly affected by what had happened in history, and what they have been through have formed their government-depended personality.

Textual Analysis of “Fresh Challah”

        I started to select “Fresh Challah”, which is written by Sergio Troncoso, as the text of my textual analysis because this article is one of the few English-based articles that I had read carefully and thoroughly. Based on the pre-reading, in-class analysis and peer discussion, I gradually not only understand the superficial meaning but also perceived the deep emotional feeling underneath the description. It documented the hard times Troncoso’s grandmother had been through and demonstrated the great love that she offered to him that shaped him a better person. The emotions the author tried to express was so exquisitely intertwined with the descriptive techniques and elements, which will be analyzed in the following paragraphs.

Challah is a special Jewish braided bread

eaten on Sabbath and Jewish holidays. 

         In “Fresh Challah”, the memory of Troncoso’s grandmother’s figure was firstly triggered by the old lady he met in the  Royal Bakery on 72^nd Street. We can roughly imagine what Troncoso’s grandmother look like by the description of the old lady: “An old woman, not higher than five feet, with a bouffant hairdo under a back hairnet, her skin a creamy pallid except for the smear of rouge on her cheeks, shuffled toward me. Her long, stiff apron seemed to snag her legs, and I worried she would tumble forward at any moment, but she did not.”(11) Shared the similar age and the same gracious treatment with this old lady, Troncoso’s grandmother was also described a strong and nice person in his essay.

        Grandma’s history is the next coming-up main body of this text. Through the description of the history, the essay gradually revealed who she is. As I reflected on this part, I did not feel bored about his narrative by telling histories, but it made me realize that his language and the way he delivered in this part indicates the complex yet sincere love underneath his narrative. Troncoso tried to find the meaning from the “painful” (13) experience she used to live in El Paso, and that experience made her a strong, wise and nice grandma. She was also a courage warrior who could be the survivor within the upheaval years, and yet still kept the faith and hope to life as well as inherited the spirit to her grandchildren. Troncoso attributed her ways of survival as a “great spirit”, which is “she was a person who found meaning in life despite, and because of, her pain.”(16) This sentence related to me very much, because I was and am the person with deep scars yet still striving to survive in a meaningful way. Besides, the Troncoso mentioned about his grandma’s full name, Dona Dolores Rivero, in which Dolores means sorrow in Spanish. (15)

        As for my reading experience, for the first few times I looked through this article, I found some foreign words pop out now and then, making me confused and wonder if I should look them up in the dictionary. However, the technique of foreign language use merely not strikes me down and lose interest, but brings the reader to wander over somewhere fantasy and exotic. He uses rugelach, kasha, tsimmes and asaderos (12) to refer to the food he was eating at Royale Bakery on 72^nd Street, showing great enthusiasm towards these food and even attracting the readers by describing their history and the smell. The most important character, his grandmother, is also called in foreign words in this article as “my abuelita” (13), which shows an intimate, private and unique love of the writer towards his grandmother.

         Troncoso also put the store and street names into the passage where they used to live or had connection with, such as Royal Bakery, Licon’s Dairy in Clint, Texas, El Paso, Olive Street, Chihuahua desert, and Los Coyotes del Rio Bravo. His list of these specific detailed names concreted the intangible and abstract ideas into physical location, which made this essay credible and be dug into. When the author expresses his reflection on Jewish beliefs, he also uses certain words such Challah (11)—the Jewish bread—and Yom kippur (12)—the atonement day of Jewish holiday. The usage of these words shows the author was not just saying these for fun, but he had done some research on this topic and treated his beliefs and spiritual struggle seriously.

        The sophistication of the essay’s organization also revealed by its title: “Fresh Challah”. I found the title is a very elegantly delivers three elements in this article from my perspective: the status where the author now lives—he met this bread on one street of New York; the clue of memoir of his grandmother—the old lady in the bakery store who stands for grandma’s figure; and the moral and spiritual reflection on Jewish religion—Challah is a specific Jewish bread, indicating his spiritual pursuing.
        We were all impressed by the tough experience Troncoso’s grandmother had been through and finally she became a good and inspiring person. Her love and care for next generations also inspired her grandson and encouraged him during his hard time at Harvard University. Her spirit toward life cultivated Troncoso’s spiritual growth, and in his essay he informed a tendency of converting to Jewism in order to being a person with high morality, just as his grandma used to be. Troncoso’s overall description advanced “grandma’s love” into a new high spiritual level indeed.

Does ESL help?

        English as a Second Language (ESL) programs have been introduced for a long history to immigrants who do not speak English as the native language. ESL programs widely spread in schools, educational institutions and even churches in U.S. Language is a huge barrier for non-English speakers to be able to survive in a foreign country with different culture and rules of behavior. But also mastering English could be a great benefit for an individual’s career and life development. ESL classes probably would be the best places for these demands of desiring to master this specific language. How does the ESL programs work during the decade years? Is it helpful enough for the immigrants to face the language challenge during their studies and work time? While many believe that ESL programs can fully fulfill the increasing demands of English learning for foreign speakers, the effects of teaching-learning process varies due to many unpredictable factors. Merely enrolling and attending in the ESL program do not guarantee the fully mastering of English skills in a given period of time, and do not always be the prime factor in the process of learning a second language.

        People who insist that attending ESL can help immigrant children seamlessly overcome all the language obstacles overlooked disparity of language learners as the subjects. Due to the principle of human language learning principle, many factors contribute to second language learning such personal motivations, social ability, and extent of attachment with parents and first language skills with regard to individual disparity. Firstly, self-motivation is and has been a great impact on second language learning process, and it is the first drive to all the learning process. According to Zoltán Dörnyei “Motivation in second and foreign language learning”, he interpreted motivation leading to second language learning into a psychological terminology: paragram seeking. “A significant proportion of the published works are characterised by some sort of 'paradigm seeking', that is, making attempts to extend the scope of existing motivational constructs by either setting up or importing new paradigms in the hope of better explaining the particular contexts analysed.” (121-122) In Dörnyei’s statement above, he highlighted the “motivational constructs” as a way of better understanding the given context via attempt of seeking “new paradigms”, in where the new concepts of the certain second language generates and being proceeded.  

        Besides motivations, other individual varieties such as social skills and attachment with parents and even one’s first language proficiency can also make an impact on second language learning process. Adam Winsler et al have investigated a number of Hispanic English learners in preschools on how do the social skill affects the acquisition of English. In their paper “Socio-Emotional Skills, Behavior Problems, And Spanish Competence Predict The Acquisition Of English Among English Language Learners In Poverty”, they argued that “Multivariate analyses demonstrated that Spanish-speaking preschoolers with greater initiative, self-control, and attachment and fewer behavior problems at age 4 were more successful in obtaining English proficiency by the end of kindergarten compared to those initially weaker in these skills, even after controlling for cognitive/language skills and demographic variables.”(Winsler et al 2242). They also emphasize the importance of first language proficiency, Spanish to be specifically in this paper, during the second language learning process as well as their transition to the new school (Winsler et al 2250). The research of Adam Winsler et al also indicates that ESL programs do not guarantee the students can be seamlessly involved with school activities that are designed for majority of native English speakers merely by the their teaching content.
          Face-to-face classroom setting does engraves new language into learners’ mind more than media-based language learning, yet the reality are not as good as people expected.  Although ESL services are federally mandated, their quality and quantity vary at the school and district level. One of my friends said when she attending ESL classes in high school, the teacher of the class seldom lectures, and lack of interaction with students. How does ESL class different from other ways of English learning if spending class time on just writing paper works? This is not the extreme case existed. Rebecca Callahan et al have investigated some facts about the classroom settings relating to second language outcomes. In their publication “ESL Placement and Schools: Effects on Immigrant Achievement”, the research concludes that “In schools with more immigrant students, the authors find that ESL placement results in higher levels of academic performance; in schools with few immigrant students, the effect reverses”(335), which means only in where immigrant students are not the minority in school and occupies extensive population, the ESL classroom setting can satisfy its full purpose.

        As for adult learners, the impact of learning through ESL classroom is even less in terms of improving English skills. However, for exchange scholars and immigrant housewives, they are not expecting a dramatic advance via lecturing and class discussion, but treating this classroom setting as a social event and network building. From some churches’ perspective, providing ESL program for non-English speakers is a good way to outreach to these people and preach Good News to them. For example, the American-Chinese Fellowship in Houston had cooperated with West University for the ESL program, connecting and outreaching these international scholars and students with English teaching as well as Bible study.

        Although I still concede that the ESL programs provide the good place to get social connection with the mainstream school and to get familiar with his/her surroundings for the newly arrivers, yet there are other places that can also fulfill such functions. Immigrant children and second language learners can make English-speaking friends through ministries of church. Or some of them can join the community club around the neighborhood to gain social supports and encouragements.

        In summary, the ESL program provided by various institutions does help improving English proficiency for second language learners in some ways, especially for immigrants, preschool and school aged children to keep up with peers, but due to differences existing in individuals that affect acquisition of second language learning, and the varieties of quality and quantity of classroom setting, the outcome cannot always keep optimistic for whom expect harvesting another language skills through ESL programs.

Work Cited

Callahan, Rebecca, Lindsey Wilkinson, and Chandra Muller. “ESL Placement and Schools: Effects on Immigrant Achievement.” Educ Policy (Los Altos Calif). 2009 May 1; 23(2): 355–384. NIH Public Access. Web. 17 Apr. 2016.

Dörnyei, Zoltán. "Motivation in second and foreign language learning." Language teaching 31.03 (1998): 117-135. Google Scholar. Web. 19 Apr. 2016

Winsler, Adam, Kim Yoon Kyong, and Erin R. Richard. "Socio-Emotional Skills, Behavior Problems, And Spanish Competence Predict The Acquisition Of English Among English Language Learners In Poverty." Developmental Psychology 18.5 (2014): 2242-2254. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Apr. 2016.