学长说｜廖泽宇：Films, Books, and More
英语语言文化学院 2018级 廖泽宇
· 连续七次学期校级一等奖学金
· 一次中国银行奖学金
· 一次国家奖学金
· 专四：91/100
· CATTI二级英语笔译
· 学术成绩均分（绩点）：90.09
· 毕业去向：香港中文大学 英语文学研究
BEFORE READING: this is written in the style of ordinary-life English. Don’t write your exam articles like this.
（阅读前的小提示：这篇推文写作风格以日常生活所用英语为主，请不要用这样的风格来写考试作文哦~ 中文的文章大意小结在文末~）
Hi guys this is Zack. You can also call me Liao Zeyu, or Zachary. I am a senior English major from TKKC SELC, and I’m here to share some experiences from my past 4 years of college life.
This is actually quite a challenge, because I have to limit this sharing to just a couple of paragraphs while there has been so much stuff going on since I got into this college.
I guess the best part of my college life is the time I invested in books and films. Let’s talk about films first. I’ve always been a fan of aesthetic and dramatic cinematic productions, such as the titles from A24 and Focus. Lady Bird is my absolute favourite. It could’ve been Call Me by Your Name but actually I love it more when I read this story in its written form. I’m also a fan of Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that explains that crazy night when I stayed up late on the first day when Avengers: Endgame premiered in IMAX format in Xiamen, so that I could go watch it at 3 am in the morning. Believe it or not, the tears were relentless when Iron Man died on that huge screen.
At this point you may think, I thought I was reading this for something about how to improve my English, right? My point is that most of the time, you shouldn’t do this in a conscious way. Loving films produced in English is a better way to enhance your oral and aural capability of English, especially when they are enjoyed without subtitles in Chinese. Since words are limited here, I’d love to make no further explanation on how such things work. I got my MA offer in literary studies, not applied linguistics. So, let’s move on to the next topic, books.
Books in English are the most unignorable part of every English major’s college life. Come on, the name of the language is in its title. There is no better way for me to kill time when I’m bored than randomly picking up a book and starting to read it. The most convenient type of book is magazine, and for your extensive reading I would definitely recommend publications like GQ or The New Yorker. Broadly speaking, they are both about lifestyle and thus their use of language should be easily understandable. If you want to get more serious, go and subscribe to The London Review of Books. For intensive reading after class, you can buy or rent canonical or major works from every era you can think of—be they contemporary, romantic, or Shakespearean. I loved British novels from the 19th century, especially those by Brontë and Austen. But now my favourite ones are those written merely decades ago—the books that are considered the great legacy of contemporary American literature. Light Years, the book where I might have learned the word susurration, is a masterpiece of Salter’s artistic and splendid use of the English language.
The culmination of my college life would be the time when I began to realise the nebulous existence of schools of literary criticism. Deconstruction, structuralism, gender issues… Man, they are just fabulous. The book calledThe Norton Anthology of Criticism is my key to such a vast and rich world, and if you are really interested in literary studies, I would definitely recommend you acquire one copy with The Norton Anthology of English/American Literature. The combo will be of great help for your college life.
Okay, now let’s talk about something else that is not about studying. Making friends is an inevitable part of college life, and I wouldn’t say that you have to have a lot of friends to make your time on campus less miserable. Sometimes one or two whom you can share your true feelings with without hiding anything can just suffice, because it’s not good talks that make a good life; it’s the feeling of actual company and accomplishment. Reading books, watching films, and listening to music can really help when there is no one around. Nonetheless, the best solution is to find someone who you really love, but not just like.
I guess this is the end of my sharing. Thanks for reading what I’ve written above. I am really grateful for my friends and teachers here in TKKC, and I wish the best for you who are from Grade 1-3. Hope you become the best version of yourself in the journey of English learning!
大意小结：这四年的大学生活，对于我个人来说，最重要的两个部分，一是电影，二是书籍。我比较喜欢收集英语国家与地区发行的一些蓝光影碟，尤其喜欢看A24和Focus的一些剧情片，比如《伯德小姐》等等，不带中文字幕看，纯粹地去享受画面、声音、语言交杂在一起的美好体验。至于书籍，我之前很喜欢19世纪的一些小说，比如勃朗特和奥斯汀那些大家耳熟能详的经典。现在我比较喜欢当代美国文学的作品，比如詹姆斯·索特的《光年》等等。《光年》是我最喜欢的一本小说之一，它的语言有一种清冷平淡到极致的美。闲暇时候我比较喜欢读《伦敦书评》杂志，这份杂志对于那些喜欢研究世界文学的朋友很有帮助。无聊的时候我会去读一读《GQ》《纽约客》这种大众英文杂志。（以上书籍，如有兴趣，请读原版哦~）
英语语言与文化的学习永远不局限于课堂。如果大家有志在这条道路上取得一番成就，不论大小，希望大家首先找到方向，比如文学研究、翻译、语言学研究或者跨文化交际研究。找到方向后，希望大家多多把学习融入到日常生活中去。
最后推荐几本书：《诺顿批评理论选集》《诺顿英国文学选集》《诺顿美国文学选集》。大家有兴趣钻研英美文学的话，请买英文版备在案头，找到自己感兴趣的理论流派、年代、风格、作家，然后相应地精读。