也斯的小說
2003-04-25 - 8:49 p.m.
可能很久沒有讀小說，今天一口氣把也斯的〈養龍人掌門〉、〈玉杯〉、〈李大嬸的袋錶〉、〈租房子的人〉和小說後記讀完，在圖書館待了兩句鐘。也斯把古代的故事重寫得很好，看來我也應該讀一讀《中國古代神話》，不要只識舶來貨荷馬的希臘神話。
說回也斯的小說，上述的都是他少壯時候的作品，是他剛投身社會的切身體會。究竟我將來的工作又會如何？可能我根本沒有工作機會。
乖學生
2003-04-24 - 1:22 p.m.
昨天因LANG306功課安排很動氣，更因此會instructor作了一個小小的筆戰。事緣我在昨天deadline之後收到instruction，說要在4月21日前交功課。本來就是小事一樁，我的要求也很合理，只不過instructor的reply太ingorance，才會使大家也下不了台階。email詳列如下：
Hi D!
The first deadline is April 21, which can no longer be met. Since it has been passed, can we make it next week? Every students are working on FYP this week.
Thanks,
Hi P!
Who is "we", P? You have to decide for yourself if you are going to hand stuff in late - remember this is a "participation mark", and speed or slowness must be part of that.
Cheers,
Dave.
Hi Dave!
Sorry for the misunderstanding caused. For "we", I mean both you and me, and also our fellow classmates in the LANG306 T2B. I don't quite understand what is meant by "speed and slowness" in the participation mark, I guess it should be some kind of mark penalty. But the fact is that "we" only received the instructions today, after the deadline of 21/4. (It is said in the document 306tailendschemeofwork, page 9) and the task is originally planned to be finished in 1 week, not in a day or two. Therefore I suggested in the last email that "we" should come up with a new deadline in next week.
I would like to ask everyone receiving this email voice out your opinion, so that we can have an agreement that everyone will be happy, of course, including our respectful instructor, Mr. David Mxxxxx.
Best wishes,
P
Hi P! (and all)
Thanks for your usual robust combative reponse, and don't worry about misunderstandings on my part. I really do appreciate your typically clear, direct email. However, I hope you aren't going to prompt a huge flood of emails, because that would only prevent me getting back to you with your corrected work more quickly. If you look at my email (the one you quote) it quite clearly says that, as usual, you can expect a flexible approach from me, and so long as things are finished in time, there's no problem. So if you need to set yourself a new deadline of some time next week, that seems fine to me. After you finish here, you'll be expected to be able to set your own deadlines, and I think you have sufficient maturity and commonsense to do that. Obviously I'm not going to insist on unreasonable deadlines, but everyone has different pressures and needs, and if you seem to be very late or slow in completing a task, I think it's fair for me to expect an explanation. Beyond that, I can't see any great problem. Obviously, I regret the delay in getting stuff to you, but I couldn't predict that it would be blocked or I'd have done something to get round that.
Enjoy! And feel free to come in and see me if necessary.
D.
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我當然知道我的用詞有點過火。不過他的那一句「Who is "we"?」根本就是把instructor和學生的關係對立起來。我一直認為，做學生的時候，沒甚麼經濟壓力，又沒有升遷的考慮，叛逆一點其實一點也不礙事。難道我又不會作一個聽聽話話的好學生？如果在學的時候已經是一隻聽教聽話的馴羊，出來做事稍稍磨練一下，自然就會變成順民，逆來順受，只懂心懷怨恨，不會作任何反抗行動。