Reflection paper

It has been one semester since I took the first computer assisted language learning class. At the beginning, I had no idea how computers can assist learning language until the first course. On the class, teacher classified four aspects of online language learning resources. Among all the topics, I was deeply impressed by Steve Job’s speech, TED talks, and My ET. The well-know speech was not unfamiliar to me. When I was in first year in college, our English teacher has introduced us this speech on class. However, a year passed and when I listen to the speech again this year. Something about my thoughts changed. I started to consider the meaning behind the stories he shared. And for the first time that tears kept streaming down my face after the speech even though I just listened to it on YouTube. I was so envy those graduates who sit down there on that day because the speaker conveyed his philosophy of life in three simple stories, each of them means more than it seems.

    Since I was a child, I was educated that there is only one answer to the question or one solution to the problem. It seems that the education in Taiwan is not so flexible. Under the education system, most Taiwanese students lose their abilities to think independently and so do I. When teacher mentioned about TED on class, originally I thought it was another website which can watch celebrities deliver speeches online. Until I found so much interesting yet meaningful topics on TED, I realized how wrong I was. My favorite speech is Zak Ebrahim’s “I am the son of a terrorist. Here's how I chose peace.” It reminded me of a movie, the green prince, whose leading role has similar background like Zak. The same point that the two focused on is violence isn't inherent in one's religion or race, we should train our ways of thinking, exploring this world through our own eyes.

    There is a problem disturbing me for a long time. That is, I always concerned about my Taiwanese accent made me sound not like a native speaker. Although I do aware how difficult it is. However, after I used MY ET, I gradually knew that it really does not matter what accent you speak, the more important is people can understand what you are talking about. Take me for instance, even though I speak English with accent but I still can get 186 in Speaking Proficiency Test (SPT) on My ET. So, don’t let the unimportant things trap you just do your best!