You can please some of the people all of the time.
You can please all of the people some of the time.
You cannot please all of the people all of the time.
There is no single teaching pedagogy or methodology that fits everyone in every situation.
Some of you have benefited from HE while some have not.
Some of you benefited from ABC day and some did not.
Some of you benefited from English Corner and some did not.
Some of you liked Iron and Silk while some did not.
Some of you have not benefited from HE, ABC Day or English Corner but most of you have.
Some of you do your own work while some copy from others. Some of you have done none of the homework. You only cheat yourself.
I have 700 students fall 2009 which means there should be at least 700 posts on each thread.
Iron and Silk 219 posts
Deng Xioping 356 posts
Trojan Horse 234 posts
ESE at SYSU 640 posts
Mute English 632 posts
English Corner 672 posts
ABC 686 posts
Some of you claim you do not post because I will not accept anything that does not agree with me. You have obviously NOT read your classmates’ posts. Every post is allowed unless it is vulgar or disrespectful.
I give 100% to my teaching responsibilities but many of you do not give 100% to your student responsibilities.
In your future you will reap what you sow today. You must live with the consequences of your actions.
Some of you claim to be afraid of HE class, my emails, and even me. But you are not. You are afraid of something else and to find that something else you only need to look in a mirror. If you have not benefited from HE it is because you decided NOT to benefit from HE!
BELIEVE YOUR OWN LIES!
I laugh when you say there were only a few people at English Corner and they were just talking Chinese so you left. You did not go to the 11-11 English Corner, you just made up a story but I allowed your post so everyone knows you now.
Some of you cut and paste from another web site. You are an IP thief! Check your post for the editor’s comment.
Who is kidding whom? This is a rhetorical question that answers itself. No one is kidding anyone. You are just kidding and cheating yourself.
Frankly speaking, I like the HE class very much although I might be a little nervous every time when I enter the classroom. I like to communicate with you and listen to your story about your students, your family and so on. Although there are always many articles for us to read and many assignments for us to do, I like the way you teach us. I believe I’m a reachable and teachable student. I do all the assignments seriously and I try to study English better and better.
I don’t like to cheat others and don’t want to be cheated by others, either. Who is kidding whom? You just kid yourself. The first thing I do everyday when I surf the Internet is looking at my mailbox to search for Martin’s mail. But sometimes some mails don’t explain whether comments are needed on the essay, so I have missed some comments.
Mr Martin,there is no doubt that you are a good teacher.But maybe sometime you are too
strict.
Dear Professor Martin Wolff,
I’m very respect of you for your spirit of teaching.You are a good teacher. Maybe there are some culture differences between our countries and misunderstood each other sometimes. You always help us create an English speaking environment,for example can’t speak Chinese in the class , have English corner, make friends with foreigners and so on. However we don’t make good use of all of these. We are adults and post-graduates but some our actions look like kindergartners’. We must master ourselves future and make for it and don’t need to cheat anybody.
At first, I didn’t understand why I should do so much homework about English. That had never happened in my past university days. I once doubted if it could make sense. But I just do as the teacher say. To my surprise, my oral English has improved unconsciously. Now I love to go to the English Corner, love to speak with the new foreign friends, love to watch the movies with sub-title in English. Everything becomes interesting.
HE class is very helpful for my English. I’m not afraid of communicate with others in English anymore. Moreover, it is gradually becoming natural to speaking in English. However, as my grad student work is really heavy I always did not post my opinion on time. Still, I’m very grateful to have this class and benefit from the homework.
“If you have not benefited from HE it is because you decided NOT to benefit from HE!”
I quite agree with your opinion vry much.Frankly speaking, I felt our Holistic English homework is a little too much.But it is not your duty.That because I don’t distribute my time reasonablely and waste a lot of time. I don’t like cheat others,and son’t like be cheatea either.No matter how wonderful a reason you made,”You must live with the consequences of your actions.”as our oral English teacher say.Just doing things With the princeple “Have a clear conscience!”.Nobody can know you but yourself.
In this semester, I really benefit from the HE class, English corner and ABC for a day. At first, I don’t like to speak English, and I am a little afraid of speaking English. But I have tried to change myself in English learning.
I think the important thing is what we can achieve in the English acquiring process. Process is more important than the result.
I feel very sorry that I fail to follow your advice sometimes.I must say at the beginning I have some doubt about your teaching method,or even sometimes I don’t want to do like what you require us to do.But after these days’ practice,as I am always writing,listening,speaking,watching English movie and so on,I find that I get a great improvement on my English.
By now,I think I am fortunately have such a chance to take part in such an English teaching program,I also think that as we continue to pursue it,we all will get improvement on English.
Like most students,I thought there was too much homework.I was afraid of opening my E-mail,afraid of knowing there was homework waiting for me,but I was also afraid of missing homework that the teacher asked for.However,after several homework , several ABCs for a day,several English coner ,my oral Engliah have improved gradually.If you want to succeed ,just do it by yourself.
Practices make perfect! We have learned English for more than ten years. Before this semester, I could read and understand many English articles, but I must spend much time in writing and I seldom spoke in English. After attending the English class and finishing my assignments, I find that I can write the comments faster and faster, not finding the words in the dictionary quite often. What’s more? I can speak English more fluently and confidently. The most important thing is I learned to how to improve my English without the books
First, I want to say what HE brings to me is more than the methods of acquiring English. Maybe you cannot imagine how happy I was when I knew “4 Great Lies”, because that means I still have the chance to save my poor English and maybe become accomplished speaker in an English conversation.
In this noisy period, always, we are too busy to stop to think about our lives or our future, not to mention the social problems. We are surrounded by the trifles and forget the objects of our college lives, like to broaden our views or to think creatively and independently. Thanks to HE. It gives me the time and the environment to think about more things of our society, culture, education and our responsibilities as postgraduates.
In addition, this essay reminds me the words that Coach Cater said to his son in the movie, “Part of growing up is making your own decisions and living with the consequences.”
I believe it is the same that student dislike doing homework whether in China or foreign countries. It is very normal that students too lazy to do homework. I can understand your feeling when seeing this condition, because I have served as a student teacher in a middle school. At the same time I am also a student, so, I understand students’ feeling, too. I just want to say that everyone who could succeed at last is the one who can overcome his lazy and shortcoming.
When some subject has too much homework to do,the students may lose their patient to do each homework well and may also lose their passion to study that subject well.That is to say,we just don’t like things that go to extremes.So may you understand me.I am not against you, and I am not the unteachable student.I just want a balance between we students and the teachers.
I have a suggestion that Professor Martine please do not let us do more assignments. Every morning I nervously have to check my e-mail box assuring is there an other assignment we have to do, and every night before I sleep I will recheck it. If an assignment comes, I have to spend a lot of time to read articles and write a comment. We spend much more time on the these things—-classes of Spoken English. What we should emphasize on is having more opportunities to speaking and hearing. It is only my opinions. But I still want to say “Thank you” for your efforts to make our English better.
It’s really a shame hearing such kind of things happening in SYS University.Just like what Martin has said,the majority of us Chinese are friendly and amiable and it’s not common insulting teachers in public.I’m shocked when I know that only a half of the students post their comments on the websites.I don’t care about what others think about HE,but I’ve benefited a lot from it indeed.Everytime going to the HE,I’m a little nervous and excited very much.In addition,all my roommates agree with me that HE is too few for only every 2 weeks.Maybe I’m interested in English and want to do well in English.Being an ABC is not only tasks but also our hobbies including my three roommates.Thanks to all my roommates who really support eachother and all have an eager heart,we play as ABC anytime we want.
It’s beyond all doubts that the majority of us become more confident when we speak English and higher motivated in learing English.Mr. Lu Xun’s said that time is like the water in the sponge,if you really want to screw it out,I believe you could manage it.Too much homework and no time to post your comments is unbelievable and farfetched if you genuinely intend to do it.Hope everyone can make each day count and don’t gap away your time!
I hate cheating. I am not willing to express something not loyal to myself, thank our professor for accepting variety of ideas. As a student, it’s his responsibility to accomplish all the assignments from the teacher. There is no excuse to refuse the homework. In my opinion, we can get a lot from comments. We analyze more, write more, also, we can read others’ views. And the holistic course let us speak more.
I am so sorry to hear that there are some students who still have not finished their homework and some students even copy other’s work to kid our teacher. We are all adults and should responsible for our behaviors. Dr Martin’s hard word is highly appreciated by us, though we may be busy with our homework, but we can real benefit from them. So, cheer up and try your best!
Although some students don not agree the method Martin teaches us ,I do believe that he try his best to teach .What he want to is creating an environment of English studying and improving our English level .As he says “you cannot please all of the people all of the time”. For me ,I think my English level is improving through holistic English ,although the process is hard and I have complained about it . The important change for me is the attitude I learn English .Now I could learn English more active ,I owe it to Martin professor’s stringent requirement .Believe it or not ,I do thanks holistic English
I like HE, it is really helpful for me to improve my English. Prof. Martin is one of the most responsible teacher I had ever met. I admire him, because he work hard on improve China’s English education. He may just teacher like many other teachers do, he need not to care about whether our English is good or not. But he is not those kind of teacher , he love us, he care about us. That is why he work hard to help us in English. I’ d like to say: Prof. Martin ,thank you very much!
Actually, when I enter the classroom, I still feel nervous every time. However, I am not afraid of the HE class or teacher. Mr. Martin, he uses a special method to teach us and I like this because I can think more and more ideas in the class. Besides, I can also listen to the other students’ thoughts. It is meaningful and I believe my English will become better and better.
I have learned so much from HE. Thanks to HE, I got great advantage from commenting on these articles, being an ABC for a day, making a new friend and so on. In my opinion, it’s a wonderful experience. HE is not just a method to learn English, it’s more than that. it gives me an attitude of serious and changes me a lot.
maybe that is another chinese bad habit ,we are really responsible for ourselves.As the professor told us in the first class,if you wanted to have a brilliant future,at least a not bad career,it was up to you .Do not complain anything in future,cause you deserve it .Roma was not built in one day ,what we can do from now,especially most of us try to improve oral english ,is posting every thread by ourselves,thanks to professor and the sysu university,i have experienced plenty of wonderful moment in my english learning ,and i persist in doing every assignment on my own,even if the phraseology is not appropriate sometimes,i believe that as you sow so shall you reap.
If someone do not want to go forward, others can hardly do something to pull him forward. And that may even lead to his rebellion. If he wants to improve, then without any supervision, he will be motivated.
Well, the fact showed in this article remind me of a common situation among Chinese students. In Chinese universities, some of the student get lost on the way to their goal. Because they have more free time now, they spend most of their time playing PC games and watching movies. These entertainments are definitely more attractive than doing homework. They become irresponsible for themselves. When they are assigned to do some homework, they think it’s boring and would take up their game-time, so they would rather copy other’s answers or just ignore it. It seems that every student who dose this knows that it’s cheating, but they just can’t help to. The students can easily find lots of excuses not doing the homework, but I doubt that they definitely know those excuses are not the real ones and actually can be easily overcome. They must know they are cheating themselves, because they decide not to benefit from HE, they choose to refuse the course, and they want to be irresponsible for themselves.
Who is Kidding Whom? I think all you have learn is for yourself,not the teacher,not the parents,and even not the girlfriend or boy firend.When we read and write a lot of English,it is a good way to improve English.Some people believe,but some are not.They have right to choose.But I want to say ,we should not be a thief,it is most important.
It is a new and surprising thing for me to posting comments as the homework. After several times, I started to enjoy this homework mean. Once you post your comments on the internet pointed, others will see them, you see, many people can share their different ideas on the internet. But if you copy others, it is useless to post your comments on the internet pointed, you cheat yourself.we all know that we learn knowledge for ourselves not others. On the other hand, you cheat others. At the same time, you steal the other’s IP. It is not equal to others.
I like the HE class very much. By taking this course, my oral English even my thought has improved little by little, step by step. In my opinion, only real pains can gain at last. Cheating others equals to cheating themselves, people who want to progress should do everything by heart.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
BUT YOU HAVE PASSED CET 4 AND CET 6 SO YOU ARE ACCOMPLISHED AT READING AND WRITING ENGLISH.
IF THESE TESTS ARE VALID AND USEFUL HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW WHAT TO WRITE?
Although I did not enjoy all these homework, I do learn a lot from it. Sometimes I thought they were too much and some homework were a little hard, I did not know what to say to post a comment, how to make myself clear. But after doing the homework time after times, It helped me with my reading and writing ability, and what’s more, it made me think the way we learn English and how to practice English to make it better.
As a student, we must finish homework on time. And we should have the thought of ourselves instead of copying the ideas from others or the website. We should get into the habit of accomplishing assignments punctually and independently. Then, when we get a position three years later, we can do a good job.
I think posting comments on HE is a very good manner to improve my English. What’s more, after reading an article or watching a movie, I always have some viewpoints. So it is an easy assignment to post the viewpoints on the website.
Frankly speaking, I have really benefited from HE. Although Professor Wolf has sent and is still sending me numourous e-mails and I have to accomplish numourous assignments, I am not afraid of this class or Martin. In the passed weeks, I did my best to finish the jobs-read articals, post comments, read the book, look up new words on the net, watch movies and do the homework. I do feel I am making progress in English. What I have done are not useless. I like this class.
This kind of thing could happen everywhere ,because there are more than 700 people, there can not be without a few “special people.” This situation can be tolerated. After all, we can not ask everyone to be the same.
But, for their own benefits ,i hope that they should take part in actively,in my opinion, even if you finish a very simple thing diligently ,I am sure that it will benefit you very much.believe me , I am not a liar.thank you.
China has an old saying just as “you will reap what you sow”,and I like this saying very much.What we do today is not for anyone else,but for ourselves.We are not a child,we have grown up,so we should should the responsibility for ourselves.Honestly,the English homework spends me a lot of time,but I feel what I have learnt is worth working for.I really cherish this experience of learning English.
Your post has set me thinking. Sometimes, for a variety of reasons, I permit myself in dissipation. I ever finished my homework carelessly. I ever missed my lessons for sleeping. I was also ever afraid of learning. Think carefully. It’s me who is kidding myself. Martin is right. I shouldn’t blind myself. Self-discipline is an important virtue that should be practised by those who will succeed in life. I should persist in setting strict demands on myself. I believe in an old saying“ god helps those who help themselves”.
In my opinion, stealing others’ comments is a bad deed and a harmful study way which will prevent our progress in English. Actually, every student has a lot of things to do, like doing experiments, reading references, doing English and subject homework and so on, but we must keep balance among these things. As the saying “in your future you will reap what you sow today”, we should learn hard to improve our English. Frankly speaking, I like this course and I understand that doing homework is good for me. I really appreciate you and your group because you have spent a lot of time and energy to design HE course and read our comments.
If you really want to upgrade yourself in English or any other aspect, you don’t need to cheat anybody. You have the srong will to fulfill your dreams. You have strength in carrying out the tasks that face you. If you just want a so-so standard, the only person you should cheat is yourself.
In HE course, what we gain is more than the English language itself. So I don’t think I need to cheat anybody in the course.
I just try my best to “live my life” English. And I believe that I can gain a lot from this process.
I think nobody like to kid others. Every one of us want to learn English well, and we all enjoy the process of holistic English studying, I think it is the most special class in all the class I have taken. I like watching move and comment these movies; I like reading articles and comment it. But I can’t take all the time on English studying. So I have not enough time to perform well my tasks. I think all of us have try our best to studying English.
Through this term ‘s english study,I found myself got a big progress of english,especially my oral english.I had made a foreign friend,and I invited him to the english corner!I like chingland,every class I will express my idea,and that increased my confidence!Maybe someone who have no desire to improve their english will play a kidding!Or others are too busy,they have no time yo finish their homework,however this is not a excuse,I am busy,but I often remember to do it,for it really benifit for my english!
When I come into contact with English, I like it from the bottom of my heart. I am very easy to get high scores in exams. I misled to believing that my English is well. But when I come here, I know it’s not the case. My English is just mute English, I can’t communicate with others in English, that is to say , English I have learned over ten years is useless. It’s ten years of wasted effort ! so I must thank my oral teacher, you let me know my future direction of effort. I read every article required carefully, write the comments word by word. Because I know you can’t kid yourself .
Let me tell you something about prevalent thought in the Chinese student. 1) Few of them will do their homework earnestly unless the subject is really funny or useful to them. If it`s just a subject they have to have, they will manage (do it insouciant) it, not only in your subject, but also in major subject. They individuate themselves by such behavior. 2) The students do their homework they don`t like earnestly only when the teacher of the subject is harsh. I think this is the situation in HE. “I give 100% to my teaching responsibilities but many of you do not give 100% to your student responsibilities.” is a same problem the other teachers have ever met. Maybe more harsh is a way to settle this problem. 3) Treasonous mind is still working. Some of them will glory in denying what the teacher ask to do.
You are a very good teacher, and you give 100% to your teaching responsibilities. You can devote all your energies to this job. Some of us didn’t give 100% to our students’ responsibilities, that because our attention were distracted from other subjects, but I think that who concentrate wholeheartedly on English will reap in the future, so attitude is important. Sometimes I felt exhausted to finish it, but I believe that one reaps no more than what he has sown. So I force myself to finish Professor Martin’s homework on time. I think in my future I will reap what I sow today.
We are now students of SySu and what are the aims of our being here.The answers may be “to find a good job,or to get a valuable degree and so on”.Yes,we all want to be different the time we graduate from this school no matter what our original intentions are.However,nothing will be changed if we are passive and come to a standstill.Nobody intend to push us forward.Our future lie in our own hands,it’s only we who can chang ourselves.It’s only that you really want to improve your English that you can improve it.
I think we are responsible for what we do. If we want to do well in English, we must work hard on it. Of course I have a lot of work about my major to do. So sometimes I don’t have time to watch other’s comments and comment on the website, but once I have time to finish my homework, I think and write it by myself. Because I know it is a good chance to express my idea and practice more. I don’t want to cheat myself.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
USING A PUBLIC WEBSITE LIKE THIS IS NEW FOR ME AS WELL AS FOR YOU. THAT MEANS I AM ALSO LEARNING! THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM.
I have always appreciated your pedagogy of making us using English everyday and acquire this language through this course. And I have to say that is a much funnier way to learn English than memorizing words and set phrases. But I feel there may be too much content about EFL, and comments have to be made on this topic for so many times that I feel a little bored, although I knew something new each time. So I think if the articles to be commented can involve more interesting topics, and students can choose the topics they like instead of commenting on all of them, the work will get more funnier and more acceptable.
‘I give 100% to my teaching responsibilities but many of you do not give 100% to your student responsibilities.’
I think this sentence make ashamed some of us. The reason I very much respect for you because you are a responsible tutor. And about your teaching methods, your wit, your manners are all of secondary importance. I think a foreign teacher who can do like you he is outstanding, at least you are only teacher that I have encountered.
Our previous efforts may not be enough, which is inherent in our previous thinking and habits to hinder our progress. I believe that your help we can become an excellent graduate students. No one who willing to deceive themselves. Wandering in the lies of the people need to help by themselves.
I know that no one is kidding everyone. We all know what is right and what is not. I was really struggle in the ABC day and I love the movie Iron and Silk very much. What I post were what I thought about. Every single word was come from myself. Well, by the time this article was post, there were only a little post on the 3 threads, but the number was increasing. It was not quick enough though, most of us are still trying to improve ourselves.
Like you said: “in your future you will reap what you sow today”. I gain my crops in HE class. In this class you not only teach us the language but also lead us to think. Think more and deeply about the affairs happened around us and guide us to find the essence of things. You are a good teacher. Maybe some students can’t understand what you do for them, please give them time to recognize you and patience for them.
They are maybe a kind of unreachable and unteachable students, I think. I donnot like such behavior. Maybe we cannot complete the assignment perfectly, but at least we should try. What’s more, it is no excuse for us to be a liar.
I think it is all right that we reap what we sow. What we do today is directly related to our future. We all know that what’s the teachers’ responsibility is teaching well. We are not younger, so we should take all the duty about ourselves. Whatever we do now, we should ask ourselves if we try our best.
We should take responsibility to ourselves. It is really hard to a teacher, who teaches more 700 students, to satified every student. Maybe some students don’t like that movie or that assidement as it don’t accord wich his appetide, and you can choose do or not do, but when you give up doing a assidement you just give up youeself.
Cheating orther is exatly cheating ourselves.