Skip to main content

LIVE, LEARN, & LOVE SERIES #14. The Analects of Confucius

LIVE, LEARN, & LOVE

Do you take delight in watching films or listening to pop music? For English learners, movies, songs, and books are one of the most wonderful sources to explore the language! You can indulge in your favorite pastime and still learn some expressions, words of wisdom, and oftentimes good lessons while you’re at it.

 

#14. The Analects of Confucius



 

1.   “The failure to cultivate virtue, the failure to examine and analyze what I have learnt, the inability to move towards righteousness after being shown the way, the inability to correct my faults – these are the causes of my grief.”

 

*”to cultivate virtue” means “to actively and intentionally try to develop or improve positive character traits such as honesty, courage, compassion, justice through consistent practice and habituation” This act of improvement is supposed to continue outside family and/or school boundaries to make our society a better place for all.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

2.   “I do not expound my teaching to any who are not eager to learn; I do not help out any one who is not anxious to explain himself; if, after being shown one corner of a subject, a man cannot go on to discover the other three, I do not repeat the lesson.”

 

*To expound something to someone means “to give someone elaborate and systematic explanation or commentary in detail.”

 

As well aware, the Analects of Confucius transcends time and space in teaching people the most fundamental philosophy or wisdom for living a good life not only as a private individual, but also as a citizen of a society in harmony with others. The Chinese philosopher Confucius and his disciples discuss a variety of qualities we need to improve ourselves and this world we live in.

 

** Jean’s Small Thoughts:

As a language teacher, I have often reflected on how I could better support my EFL students in Korea in developing both their language proficiency and their confidence to speak in class. When I think back on the Communicative English courses I taught, I realize that I sometimes imposed my own thoughts on students by completing their sentences while they were still quietly searching for the right English words to express themselves. I failed to consider how they might have felt when they were interrupted during that process. Without being aware of it, I likely raised the affective filter between my students and myself. Now, recognizing and regretting my impatience, I remind myself that, as Confucius suggested, I must first improve myself before trying to cultivate virtues in others.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the Day of the New Beginning of My Home Country

  Opening the Door to My Strong Home Country by Jean Jiyoung Lee June 3 rd 2025   Let your long-lost inner light shine Wake up and stay woke from dark torpor Prayers for those in pain are yours and mine Heart-wrenching memories will stay where they were It will be all right to find yourself supine As long as you get up and go tomorrow as a warrior Pat on your back and be on cloud nine The wintry chill in the past would rather feel like warmer When upslopes batter your spirits down, just say you’ll be fine As you feel connected to your strength, curveballs are no longer a torture Now laugh out loud and give a smile so divine The moon rabbits would greet you back in your dreams tonight with rice cake from their mortar Blessing is another word for fine The bitter past was only a blessing in disguise ‘cause your new era will be a perfect restorer Raise your glass of wine Time to live your life on the solid anchor
Post a Comment
Read more

Evolving Grammar Rules

  The Grammar Rules Are Evolving or Becoming Extinct! Are you hairsplitting grammar police based on the existing/ traditional prescriptive grammar or gravitating more towards casual/ colloquial descriptive grammar? As we are living in the era of myriads of fast-paced communication venues such as instant text messages and lots of online conversations, languages and their grammar rules are fast evolving today. English is no the exception. Let us go over some of the English grammar rules that people ignore quite often times and are normally accepted today. Even the following examples might be out of their styles or seem outdated in any time soon. One thing you need to remember is that quite a lot of academic or formal writers are still expected to follow the existing/ old school grammar rules.   1.    Prescriptive Grammar: Don’t end a sentence with a preposition. Vs. Descriptive Grammar: Yes, you can end a sentence with a prepostition.   E.g., Winston C...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bird Word Scramble

Are you a bird watcher or stalker? 😊 Try to unscramble the popular North American birds below. Example:  prswaor: ________________,     answer: sparrow    1.    nidralca: ________________    2.    rekuty: _________________    3.    cnifh: _________________    4.    drocewpkeo: ______________    5.    mhbigrmudni:__________________    6.      boirn: _______________    7.    leacpni: ________________    8.    riooel: ________________    9.    kiehaeccd: _________________    10.                raekapte: __________________    11.             ...
Post a Comment
Read more