What is English? Who owns it, anyway?
Language as a Flow of Possibilities
(For Chinese version scroll down)
English is river. Like the Nile or the Congo or the Yangtze, its vocabulary and rules of grammar change over time. Poets know this. They experiment with different grammatical forms and with the very idea of a "sentence" in order to explore fresh possibilities for meaning. They love words, and they play with English.
English is a mist. It does not belong to any set of nations or to native speakers. It has been deterritorialized from its lands of origins and reterritorialized in other settings many times, and it finds its home in multiple locations. There are more English speakers in Asia and Africa than in the United States and the United Kingdom.
English is an ocean of ideas. At least that is how some of us at JJB think of it.
We think of "ideas" as proposals for your consideration, not dogmas. Not just sentences, but individual "words" contain proposals for your consideration. Think of the word "yes" uttered by a small boy as he is asked if he wants ice cream. His word is a proposal for the idea "I would like to be eating it right now." Whitehead calls these proposals "propositions." A proposal is like a dish of food on a banquet table. You can take it and mix it with other dishes. A proposal is food for thought.
English can be the devil's tongue. This is what history shows clearly. When people are forced to learn English by colonial powers within or outside their nations, and when they lose the beauty of other languages, English is a tool for oppression. It imposes ideas in their minds which eliminate other ideas. When this happens English is a tool for injustice. It is the devil's tongue. The good news is that the devil is a river, too. The devil can be converted to goodness.
English can be a playground. People who have been forced to learn English can turn the tables of oppression and discover that learning English can be fun. They can write poetry with it; they can play with the words and change their meanings; they can learn new ideas. It is in this spirit that we offer the games below. Whitehead is famous for saying that, in living our lives, it is sometimes more important that ideas be interesting than that they be true. Interesting ideas stimulate our imaginations. If you play these games in order to increase your vocabulary or practice reading skills, we hope you might also find some of the ideas interesting.
英语是什么？
英语是一条河。像尼罗河、刚果河、或长江一样，它的词汇和语法规则随着时间的演进而变化。诗人们懂得这一点。他们总是在尝试用不同的语法形式、用句子这一观念本身来探索表达意义的新的可能性。他们爱词语，他们与英语游戏。
英语是一团迷雾。它不属于任何特定的国家或说本族语者。它已经突破了它所发源的领土，并已多次在其他的环境中再建领地并因此在许多地方安家落户。在亚洲和非洲说英语者比在美国和英国还要多。
英语是一个观念的海洋。至少我们JJB共同体的一些人是这样认为的。我们认为“观念”是供你考虑的建议，而非教条。不仅句子中，而且单个的“词语”中都含有供你考虑的建议。想一想一个小男孩在被问及是否要冰激凌时所说的“要”字。他所说的这个字就是一种建议，表达“我现在就要吃冰激凌”这一观念。怀特海称这样的建议为“命题”。一个建议就像宴席桌上的一盘菜。你可以把它端起来并将它与其它盘中的菜混合在一起。建议是思想的食粮。
英语能够成为魔鬼的语言。历史清楚地显示了这一点。当人们在殖民势力的威逼下被迫在其国内外学英语时，当他们丧失了其他的语言之美时，英语即是一种压迫的工具。它将一些排除其它观念的思想观念灌输进他们的头脑中。当这种情况发生时，英语就是一种非正义的工具。它就是魔鬼的语言。好在这一恶魔也是一条河流。恶魔能够被转化为善。
英语可以是一个游戏场。那些被迫学英语的人可以推翻压迫的游戏台转而发现学英语可以很有趣。他们可以用它作诗；他们可以游戏于词语并改变它们的含义；他们可以学习新的观念。我们提供下面的游戏正是出于这种精神。怀特海有句名言说，在生活中，有时观念的有趣性比其真实性更为重要。有趣的观念可以激发想象。如果你为了增加词汇量或练习阅读技能而做这些阅读游戏，我们希望你也可以发现其中的一些观念有趣。
英语是一条河。像尼罗河、刚果河、或长江一样，它的词汇和语法规则随着时间的演进而变化。诗人们懂得这一点。他们总是在尝试用不同的语法形式、用句子这一观念本身来探索表达意义的新的可能性。他们爱词语，他们与英语游戏。
英语是一团迷雾。它不属于任何特定的国家或说本族语者。它已经突破了它所发源的领土，并已多次在其他的环境中再建领地并因此在许多地方安家落户。在亚洲和非洲说英语者比在美国和英国还要多。
英语是一个观念的海洋。至少我们JJB共同体的一些人是这样认为的。我们认为“观念”是供你考虑的建议，而非教条。不仅句子中，而且单个的“词语”中都含有供你考虑的建议。想一想一个小男孩在被问及是否要冰激凌时所说的“要”字。他所说的这个字就是一种建议，表达“我现在就要吃冰激凌”这一观念。怀特海称这样的建议为“命题”。一个建议就像宴席桌上的一盘菜。你可以把它端起来并将它与其它盘中的菜混合在一起。建议是思想的食粮。
英语能够成为魔鬼的语言。历史清楚地显示了这一点。当人们在殖民势力的威逼下被迫在其国内外学英语时，当他们丧失了其他的语言之美时，英语即是一种压迫的工具。它将一些排除其它观念的思想观念灌输进他们的头脑中。当这种情况发生时，英语就是一种非正义的工具。它就是魔鬼的语言。好在这一恶魔也是一条河流。恶魔能够被转化为善。
英语可以是一个游戏场。那些被迫学英语的人可以推翻压迫的游戏台转而发现学英语可以很有趣。他们可以用它作诗；他们可以游戏于词语并改变它们的含义；他们可以学习新的观念。我们提供下面的游戏正是出于这种精神。怀特海有句名言说，在生活中，有时观念的有趣性比其真实性更为重要。有趣的观念可以激发想象。如果你为了增加词汇量或练习阅读技能而做这些阅读游戏，我们希望你也可以发现其中的一些观念有趣。
Crossword Puzzles
Based on Specific Articles:The World is a Reflection of the Heart
Learning from (Half) a Chinese Saying GO Can a Christian Be a Buddhist, Too? One Person's Story GO Whitehead and Evolutionary Theory Saying "Yes" to Evolution and "Yes" to God GO Korean Bibimbab: The Jazzic Aesthetics of Food Hybridity GO When Headache Becomes Adventure: Dancing with English with Help from a Teacher GO Confucian Scholar, Christian, and Guitarist: Remembering my Grandfather in Korea GO “知音”(zhī yīn) and Musical Friendship: Gaining wisdom from Chinese characters GO Language Learning: An Adventure in Multi-Colored Thinking GO Learning English, A Part of My Life: An Adventure in Humanity, Too (English and Chinese) GO The Spiritual Meaning of “Delicious” Enjoying a Meal in Hubei, China GO How Jazz Changed my Life: Finding God in a Strange and Distant Place GO |
Based on Our Whole Website:Whitehead Crossword
For Readers of Process and Reality GO  |
Word Search Puzzles
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Based on Specific Articles:Curing and Healing：
An East-West Approach GO Tea Leaf Egg: A Recipe and a Story, With a Whiteheadian Reflection GO How Many Rivers are There? Langston Hughes, Buddhism, and Whitehead GO Six Ways of Eating Watermelon GO The Chinese College Entrance Examination; One Student's Story GO The Chinese College Entrance Examination; One Student's Story God Sets Down the Melody; We Offer it Back to God GO |
Based on Our Whole Website: |
Cryptograms and Fallen Phrases
A Little More About English: It does not "belong" to native speakers.
English is a global language which is evolving over time. It does not belong to any nation; it does not belong to the United States or Canada or Great Britain. It is circulating throughout the planet by means of books, movies, music, education, and the internet.
What circulates? Whitehead's name for the circulating reality is propositions. A proposition is not a word or even a sentence. It is a lure for feeling: an invitation to look at the world in a certain way. It is not exactly a material object like a mountain or a river. It is an idea, a proposal. Every word or image or sound carries a proposal. Many of them are inside our minds, too. They are wordless.
Consider your experience at this moment. Your consciousness contains words and sentences, images and sounds, goals and memories, fantasies of possible worlds. All are propositions. All are lures for feeling.
If you have read this far, you now have in your mind the proposition that "propositions" are lures for feeling. You cannot eat this proposition; it is not physical in the same way that Korean bibimbap is physical. Or that a Chinese dumpling is physical. But you can feel its presence. It is real in the Whiteheadian sense of real. It can be experienced.
Languages are carriers of propositions. In the best of worlds there will be many languages, each capable of carrying countless propositions which can be mixed in innumerable ways, adding zest and creativity to life. The preservation of languages is as imortant as the preservation of plants and animals. Cultural diversity is as important as biological diversity.
It is unfortunate that the English language so dominates our planet today, that others are being lost. But we must also be practical, and we know that English is an overriding reality for many people.
Thus we are also interested in how readers who are learning English claim English as their own language, using it as an enjoyable form of self-expression and idea-generation. This is why so many of our Chinese columnists, ever so gifted in the English language, are so important to this site. They are living examples of a kind of linguistic enjoyment which can be part of the human experience.
It is in this spirit, then, that we offer crossword puzzles. For many readers of this website, English is not their first language. This is true of our Chinese readers, some of whom are forced to take English and wish they could not.
This is why we try to offer increasing numbers of essays in Chinese, and also why we are offering these reading games. We hope that we can make the study of English -- particularly the act of reading comprehension -- just a little more fun. We want to help you claim English as your own, and do creative things with it. Perhaps it begins with testing your reading comprehension skills in your own way. Puzzles are forms of self-testing. There are no grades. Just enjoyment.
What circulates? Whitehead's name for the circulating reality is propositions. A proposition is not a word or even a sentence. It is a lure for feeling: an invitation to look at the world in a certain way. It is not exactly a material object like a mountain or a river. It is an idea, a proposal. Every word or image or sound carries a proposal. Many of them are inside our minds, too. They are wordless.
Consider your experience at this moment. Your consciousness contains words and sentences, images and sounds, goals and memories, fantasies of possible worlds. All are propositions. All are lures for feeling.
If you have read this far, you now have in your mind the proposition that "propositions" are lures for feeling. You cannot eat this proposition; it is not physical in the same way that Korean bibimbap is physical. Or that a Chinese dumpling is physical. But you can feel its presence. It is real in the Whiteheadian sense of real. It can be experienced.
Languages are carriers of propositions. In the best of worlds there will be many languages, each capable of carrying countless propositions which can be mixed in innumerable ways, adding zest and creativity to life. The preservation of languages is as imortant as the preservation of plants and animals. Cultural diversity is as important as biological diversity.
It is unfortunate that the English language so dominates our planet today, that others are being lost. But we must also be practical, and we know that English is an overriding reality for many people.
Thus we are also interested in how readers who are learning English claim English as their own language, using it as an enjoyable form of self-expression and idea-generation. This is why so many of our Chinese columnists, ever so gifted in the English language, are so important to this site. They are living examples of a kind of linguistic enjoyment which can be part of the human experience.
It is in this spirit, then, that we offer crossword puzzles. For many readers of this website, English is not their first language. This is true of our Chinese readers, some of whom are forced to take English and wish they could not.
This is why we try to offer increasing numbers of essays in Chinese, and also why we are offering these reading games. We hope that we can make the study of English -- particularly the act of reading comprehension -- just a little more fun. We want to help you claim English as your own, and do creative things with it. Perhaps it begins with testing your reading comprehension skills in your own way. Puzzles are forms of self-testing. There are no grades. Just enjoyment.
英语是一种全球性的语言：它不属于本族语使用者。
英语是一种随着时间的演进不断发展变化的全球性语言。它不属于任何一个国家；它不属于美国或加拿大或英国。它通过书籍、电影、音乐、教育和英特网而在全球流通。
流通的是何物？怀特海称流通物为命题。一个命题不是一个词语甚或是一个句子。它是一种感受的诱惑：一种邀请，邀请人们以某种方式来看世界。它并非某种如山脉或河流似的确切的物质性实物。它是一种观念，一种建议。每一个词语、每一幅图像、每一种声音都携带着某种建议。它们中的许多也内在于我们的头脑中。它们可以是无言的。
来看看你此刻的经验。你的意识中包含有词语和句子、图像和声音、目标和记忆、对可能的世界的幻想。这些都是命题，都是感受的诱惑。
如果你就读到此段的此处，此刻你头脑中的命题就是“命题”是感受的诱惑。你不能把这种命题吃进去；它并非如朝鲜的拌饭或中国的饺子那样是物质性的。但你能感受到它的存在。它的现实性存在于怀特海过程哲学意义上的现实性之中。它可以被体验到。
语言是命题的载体。世界发展的最佳状态是允许多种语言共存，每一种语言都能够携带无数的命题，这些命题可以以难以计数的方式相混合，给生活增加热情和创造性。保护语言与保护植物和动物同等重要。文化多样性与生物物种多样性同等重要。
不幸的是，英语在今日的地球上占据着如此强势的支配地位，致使其他的一些语言在消失。但我们也必须面对现实，我们知道对许多人来说英语是高于一切的现实。
因此我们也感兴趣于那些在学英语的读者如何声称英语为他们自己的语言，把它用作一种表达自我和产生观念的令人快乐享受的形式。这就是为什么我们欣赏那么多来自中国而极富英语才华的专栏作家，他们对本网站非常重要。他们鲜活地表达着语言享受即其人生经验的一部分。
正是出于这种精神我们在此提供填字游戏。对本网站的许多读者来说，英语并非他们的母语。如对我们的中国读者来说情况就是如此，他们中的有些人是被迫学英语的，惟愿他们可以不必如此。
因此我们努力在网站上发表越来越多的汉语文章，也因此我们在此提供这些阅读游戏。我们希望我们可以使英语学习——特别是阅读理解活动——哪怕稍稍更有趣一点儿。我们想帮助你称英语为你自己的，并用它来从事创造性活动。也许这就始于你用你自己的方式检测你的阅读理解技能。谜题是自测的形式。这里没有计分，只有享受。
英语是一种随着时间的演进不断发展变化的全球性语言。它不属于任何一个国家；它不属于美国或加拿大或英国。它通过书籍、电影、音乐、教育和英特网而在全球流通。
流通的是何物？怀特海称流通物为命题。一个命题不是一个词语甚或是一个句子。它是一种感受的诱惑：一种邀请，邀请人们以某种方式来看世界。它并非某种如山脉或河流似的确切的物质性实物。它是一种观念，一种建议。每一个词语、每一幅图像、每一种声音都携带着某种建议。它们中的许多也内在于我们的头脑中。它们可以是无言的。
来看看你此刻的经验。你的意识中包含有词语和句子、图像和声音、目标和记忆、对可能的世界的幻想。这些都是命题，都是感受的诱惑。
如果你就读到此段的此处，此刻你头脑中的命题就是“命题”是感受的诱惑。你不能把这种命题吃进去；它并非如朝鲜的拌饭或中国的饺子那样是物质性的。但你能感受到它的存在。它的现实性存在于怀特海过程哲学意义上的现实性之中。它可以被体验到。
语言是命题的载体。世界发展的最佳状态是允许多种语言共存，每一种语言都能够携带无数的命题，这些命题可以以难以计数的方式相混合，给生活增加热情和创造性。保护语言与保护植物和动物同等重要。文化多样性与生物物种多样性同等重要。
不幸的是，英语在今日的地球上占据着如此强势的支配地位，致使其他的一些语言在消失。但我们也必须面对现实，我们知道对许多人来说英语是高于一切的现实。
因此我们也感兴趣于那些在学英语的读者如何声称英语为他们自己的语言，把它用作一种表达自我和产生观念的令人快乐享受的形式。这就是为什么我们欣赏那么多来自中国而极富英语才华的专栏作家，他们对本网站非常重要。他们鲜活地表达着语言享受即其人生经验的一部分。
正是出于这种精神我们在此提供填字游戏。对本网站的许多读者来说，英语并非他们的母语。如对我们的中国读者来说情况就是如此，他们中的有些人是被迫学英语的，惟愿他们可以不必如此。
因此我们努力在网站上发表越来越多的汉语文章，也因此我们在此提供这些阅读游戏。我们希望我们可以使英语学习——特别是阅读理解活动——哪怕稍稍更有趣一点儿。我们想帮助你称英语为你自己的，并用它来从事创造性活动。也许这就始于你用你自己的方式检测你的阅读理解技能。谜题是自测的形式。这里没有计分，只有享受。
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