G and K make all the difference, but can we see beyond that?

A few years ago, I went to a school to prepare for an upcoming TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) test. Although it was a short program, I had a good time there that summer. And I also made a lot of friends came from all over the world, like Japan, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain, and Turkey. I think the class was a good way to learn the speaking and listening part of English because students can heard various accents and distinguish their own pronunciation errors which could cause misunderstanding. However, I was not anticipating that one day miscommunication could happen to me.

One sunny afternoon, during a short break from the class, I was in meditation and was not in a talking mood. A few classmates were talking and one guy from Peru turned to me and asked me something in a Peruvian accent, and I heard: “Hey, are you a gay?”

“What?” I was not sure how to react.

“Are you o’ gay?” I assumed that “o” and “a” pronounced similarly in Spanish.

“No.” I was curious why he asked that question.

“What’s wrong? Did you go to see a doctor?”

“Err…No.” I thought I just answered his question, but why did he keep asking me like I am? However, even if I were gay, I don’t agree anyone should go to a doctor just because he is a gay.

“You should go to a doctor if you feel sick,” he added. He looked very serious.

I started to suspect something was wrong, especially the last word he said. I think nobody would be that rude anywhere in the world. So, I asked, “Can you repeat the first question?”

This time he slowed down a bit, and pronounced it carefully. “Are you okay?”

Finally, I noticed the “k” was not a “g,” it was “okay,” not “a gay.”

And then we laughed so hard that everyone on the same floor can heard it.

It was a funny experience. But looking back, I feel the event was significant in some way to let me understand why there are many conflicts and disputes in this world.

There are thousands of languages on Earth. Even within the same language, there exist different accents or dialects to separate us. Language barrier create culture barrier; culture barrier create mistrust; mistrust create perpetual hatred. As a result, political, territorial, economical, racial, and ideological conflicts seem endless; wars sparked between counties and within counties seem unavoidable. Often, they would say they were fighting for a righteous reason. But, actually, childish is the only way to describe it if we can look from a perspective outside our selfishness nature and see humanity as a single organism. If we can just sit down, clear some misunderstanding, and learn more about each other before fighting each other to misery every time we encounter something we don’t agree with, what’s left could be a good laugh instead.

It is to say that long ago, human used to have only one language and they stayed together to build a tower call Babel to reach heavens. So, God or gods, afraid of mankind to exceed they purpose to do, went down to earth and scattered them upon the Earth, and confused their language. But it may just another reassuring tale to explain our self-destruction tendency and our inability to unite. I believe human are more capable of greatness. Together, we can achieve more than Babel Tower, if we give ourselves a worthy goal.

Waiting and Escaping

My life were pretty much all about waiting and escaping.

I don't really remember my preschool age that much, but I guess I was just waiting for grow up. I didn't have worries to escaping from except some rare incident that cause my parent's wrath, which I didn't have such ability to possibility avoid.

Six years of elementary school is the most violent environment I have ever experience, especially the latter years. I did't even know violence is not supposed to be the nature of education until I grew much older. In class, I will be slam in both hands if I don't hand in my homework in time, perform tests badly, or not behave accordingly. But I doubt that education is the purpose of such punishment, even at that little age I sense those intense anger and frustration on the faces of my teachers are the true reason. Why anger? Why frustration? I don't know. Maybe they thought education is all about indoctrinating the strictest moral value, so our future society can be more perfect, and failing to do so is endangering their reputation. Or, maybe they thought textbooks and tests is all students have to know. Remembering them is so easy that whoever fails the test must subject to laziness and stupidity. Sometimes I and my classmate were lucky that we knew our test score early, so we can count how many slam we ought to get and psychologically (even physically, don't ask me how) prepare for it. I always want to escape from it, naturally. But that was the only school nearby. We didn't have much choice, and my parents told me they went through the same thing, why can't I? Every time I had been punished hard, I wished I can grow up. Waiting was my only choice.

Junior High is a different place—at least a bit different. The crazy-manner, child-hater, and punish-addict kind of teacher no longer hold dominant number in the school. I think partly because there are more educated parents in the city (Yea, I moved) and partly because teachers were more often been criticized on media (and sued) as year passes. But some teachers still ignored the tendency of educational reform and constantly indoctrinated the discipline legitimacy (I rather call it child-abuse legitimacy) while continued their own style of penalty (Ass/hand-slamming and ear-twisting). I did violate those rules and got those penalties, every classmate did. However, that was not because I don't want to learn or I don't want to know. I felt bored remembering every detail in the textbooks and taking average 4 or 5 tests a day. I felt tired of doing endless and meaningless homework every night without really learning anything. I really wanted to leave somewhere else in any possible way at that time. But escaping everything teacher told me to do was the best I can do. I tried to treat school as a behavior adjusting facility rather than an educational institute. I copied most of my homework from others either at the morning or the 10 minutes break just before that class. I constantly cheated on tests in a tricky way (would you just don't bother to ask how?) so my tests won't be too high to get too much attention nor too low to be punished. Why not try just don't go to school? No. Those teachers knew and I knew that most students will think that way. No mercy, sorry. If I excuse myself from class for whatever reason, I have to finish homework and tests I missed with no exception. This will only makes my day worse. I was still waiting for time to pass; waiting for suffer to end. While knowing that the end was going to be a big test, decide which school I ought to be.

I once thought my high school life will be better, but it wasn't. For me, it is a psychological torture facility. Those teachers had stopped adjusting students, at least without a rod, but they had no idea how 9 years of "education" can made. All I remember in class is just constant devastating noises—no science learning, no problem solving, and no language-communication training, but only chatting, laughing, and murmuring exist. I really want to learn and listen to what teacher trying to say (at least some), though classmates' loud silly-talking block my flow of thinking all the way down to the end of day. The cause is not because there were more "bad" students in my school; it is the previous punish-leading education leads to the total distrust of authority; it is because most of student spent most their night went to other place for the purpose of "more effective learning" as well. In other words, student won't give a damn thing for what teacher said no more. They had already learned how to beat every test in expensive private school, and using public school only as a playground. Also, the part that I don't remember in class is because some class are so boring that everyone went to a complete sleep just after 5 minute the class began. Ironically, compare to ear-suffering status, sleeping and dreaming with a painful sitting posture in class was my only salvation. In a way, I went to joint club activity during my break between classes and lunch break just to escape. Overall, I was waiting, and I wished soon I can join the legendary free world, college. However, with no exception, I have to take a big test again. Unlike my last big test, my anxious disappeared—along with my courage to take another one.

Somehow, after the General Scholastic Ability Test, the summer break I had always waiting for was no longer just a summer break. I was totally free; no more fake summer break that I have to go to school half a day and carry a ton of homework back home; no more annoy psycho can tell me stop doing whatever I want and how important to do well on tests, so I can get an easy job, sit in an office, and doing nothing productive. Of course, I was waiting for college, the place I thought I can learn the very knowledge and truth.

Indeed, I was disappointed. The class was not as good as I thought it could be. And I didn't have much choice for what course I like, even what instructor I prefer to attend. It let me feels I returned my high school again. That is not the fault of Tatung University itself but the cause of commonly low tuition within this island. And I realized much later why choices can be so much expensive. But, regardless some disappointment, I was glad to learn more about the true world and to listen some mechanical product making method or real life experience. Also, I had much more free time to spend on what I like, despite the fact that some general and language course instructors still gave us meaningless homework and memory-based tests just like high school. It turns out that those free times are more valuable than anything. It seemed to me that, by the time I've spent one year deliberately using English excessively the same way as it is my first language, I've learned more than anything my 6 years of English education had ever taught me. Again, I tried to escape; I sometimes can't help but slept in class because I only had my free time at night; I read textbooks by myself to compensating my intentional absence of concentration on Chinese-base classes; And I wait, wait for a chance.

Every summer and winter after my freshman year, I would go to New York. That is a place too crowded for me, and those famous shopping places are like a pin in my eyes. Maybe I would like New York if I was raised lack of entertainment or fulfillment, but I was not. I already have internet as my entertainment and knowledge as my fulfillment. But anyway, thankfully, I can escape from the intolerable hot and humid weather in Taiwan.

Then, at the fourth year of my college, somehow I got my chance to go to Iowa State University for a short semester. I gradually understand what education really mean to offer is just guidance; not moral indoctrination; not remembering detail word-by-word. I felt like I belong to that place more than anywhere simply because I need guidance, the kind of guidance I lack during my whole life. However, I decided I can wait, patiently, just one more year of suffering. And I can probability thinking about how to mentally escaping it as well.

Wallace & Maxwell 1.1

吃完與往常一樣好吃的晚飯後，Wallace到廁所洗了洗臉順便甩了甩頭，然後準備開始他們的討論。

Max一臉不可置信的問道"那樣甩頭不會痛嗎？」

「你覺得呢？ 要是會痛我就不會甩了。」

「這要對腦袋不好，會死腦細胞。」

「喔? 最好啦~! 要是那樣會死腦細胞，我早就變白癡了。」

「那只是一部份啦。 OK，繼續吧。」

他們一起回到房間，Wallace抓起枕頭舒服的坐在床上，沉澱一陣子，將幾個重點彙整後，便開始了

「我想，要把整個事情說清楚，必須追尋"一綱一本"這個關鍵字，才能得到答案。首先，什麼是一綱一本你知道吧？」

「恩，基本上有充分的了解，在『icecream風鈴的小說盒』裡面的文章就有很清楚的解釋。」

「好，那我就只說重點。重點就是，大部份的民眾根本不知道到底什麼是一綱一本、一綱多本，他們只認為『多版本』的教科書會讓他們造成麻煩，他們得要把所有的書籍都看過一遍，才能保證不會漏掉任何一個需要背誦的地方。於是有個白痴在參選市長的時候弄了一個一綱一本的政見，果然順從民意的選上了，然後真的想聯合其他縣市辦起『北北基自辦基測』。」

「然後呢？這有什麼陰謀嗎？」

「你難道看不出來嗎？為什麼民眾會笨到去相信一綱一本才是好東西的說法？為什麼民眾會盲目的將自己的孩子送到那些爛大學去浪費錢？為什麼民眾會蠢到不管遇到什麼考試都花大錢去補習班捕一捕然後回家天天哭窮？我不管怎麼想都想不透那到底是為什麼，直到最近我突然明白。」

講到激動處，Wallace忍不住站了起來。

「那全都是因為有人在對台灣人進行大規模計畫性的洗腦。」

Max語塞了，簡單的說，就是無言了。

「......老兄，你開玩笑的吧？誰有錢有閒能做這種事？況且要進行這種規模的行動是很容易被揭穿的，沒有人能做得到，況且也沒有什麼可能的動機。」

「這很簡單的，聽著，你提到了一個很重要的東西『動機』，你覺得誰最具有最充分的動機？」

「萬惡共匪！？喔不，我的意思是中共。」

「基本上我也認為是中共，因為他們唯一的動機就是統一中國，為了達到此目的，便不能讓台灣的經濟持續成長，而有充足的資金買來能敵檔他們的軍備。當然，單方面對台灣進行經濟上的打壓和封鎖一定會遭到國際（尤其是美國）的反制，倒不如讓台商自由的到中國貿易，不僅可以幫助國內經濟又可以在入侵台灣時握有更多的談判籌碼。並且，為了防止台灣率先向著先進國家的方向發展，與中國大陸脫離關係，他們便想到必須對著台灣人民進行洗腦。而後最終目的就是讓台灣經濟政治衰敗、衰亡。相對快速成長的中國大陸，台灣人民將來一定會自行選擇投靠『祖國』的懷抱。」

「等等！這一切都只是你的推測，你沒有任何證據可以證明！」

「我會的，你等著。」

to be continued...

Wallace & Maxwell

"Hey." "Are you there?" Wallace看著白的發亮的螢幕，對著在網路另一邊人說話，因為他無聊透了。 "Yes, What are you doing now?" "I'm doing nothing. I just want to find something to do!" "一綱一本共辦基測 郝龍斌:時程提前1年 http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/7/1/5/n1580460.htm" "What's this?" "Just click it.." 而接下來的30分鐘，Wallace 都沒有回話，在浩瀚無際的網路上努力的搜尋各種有關一綱一本的各種資訊和各方角度的看法。最後，他關掉了最後一個網頁，剩下依然白亮的螢幕，深思。 "我知道這一切的原因了" "really? Show me, due." "這全部都是因為一個非常邪惡的陰謀!!" "A extremely "EVIL" conspiracy? You really know what you are talking about?" "是的，我知道" "而且" "我還知道是誰幹的" 這時，廚房傳來一陣具有心理上強制力的呼喚 "吃飯了~~" "I'm hungry now. Let's eat our dinner and talk later." "Yeah." Maxwell從他的房間走了出來開玩笑的拍了拍Wallace的屁股，說"瘋子才會在自己家裡用打字聊天吧?" "Yeah, but that's the way we always did." to be continued...