Shen and (I)deology

An interesting take on the problems faced by those who have to learn and think in English. The author must learn a whole new way of thinking about himself and his relation to reading and writing in English. I found the idea of suppressing the "we" in order to develop the "I" especially interesting and props to anyone who has to do that. The two modes of thought are polar opposites and it must be especially difficult to do. There are literally ingrained thought processes which must be re-ordered. The concept of yijing, or thinking pictorially, is appealing to the comic book geek inside me, but it would make writing essays troublesome. Screenwriting might be easier to do with this mode of thought. Very interesting that Ron has actually had to work this way with his students. I can see how experience becomes a central aspect of this form of writing. It seems to differ from a typical screenplay in that the language is opened up by experience and incorporates an almost poetic like thought process. You are not just thinking in pictures, but how these pictures, or sensory images, relate to your own experience. ESL presents students with cognitive problems which have never occurred to me.