Thanks Jay and Ed for your candid sharing of thoughts, ideas and
experences... the issues are certainly complex and given our very
different life world experiences, social and cultural histories, it's
amazing that we can have achieved understanding and communication as much
as we have achieved now. idealist or pessimist, I'm glad that we can
have some communication of differnt ideas and experiences... language is
certainly not a good medium, but the best we could have now... oh well,
let me pose this challenge to you Jay and Ed and in general friends in North
America... Have you ever thought of going on a trip to the East, or the
so called "Far East", and experience for yourself what you won't be able
to experience here! Or learn a language very different from English or
European languages... you'll be amazed by ... anyway, I think I've been
blessed with the advantage of being able to live in culturally very
different worlds, and I guess you may find this worthwhile some time in
your life... that will certainly change your academic, intellectual,
educational outlook, I believe!
Anyway, I have to resist the temptation to write to xmca any more... I've
written too much and there should be time to do some donkey work, like my
thesis, like my papers, like my laundry :-) Life is mundanely practical,
eh? (to sound like a Canadian... :-)
Best wishes!
Angel
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Angel M.Y. Lin
Doctoral Candidate
Modern Language Centre
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
252 Bloor St. W., Toronto, ON M5S 1V6, Canada
E-Mail: MYLIN who-is-at OISE.ON.CA
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Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When ... we stand face to face in the cyber space? ...
--Adapted from: The Ballad of East and West, Rudyard Kipling
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