Stanford students possess an intellectual vitality. Reflect on an idea or experience that has been important to your intellectual development.
It didn't happen in a day or a moment, but a span of seven years. The Little Prince is more than my favorite book, it is an experience I treasure. I adore the classic because it doesn't pretend with its effortless prose and enchanting view of life. The Little Prince also marks my intellectual development from being monolingual to more than bilingual. When I first picked up the book- an edition that had three languages- at age ten and read through it in Chinese, I fell in love with the Little Prince. Quite literally, I sat on the toilet and sobbed through the last chapter (I have an unhealthy habit of reading in the bathroom). The novella made me appreciate the minute details of life and freed my mind from mundane concerns.Three years later, I revisited the Little Prince, in English this time. I realized the difference it made to read in another language; I had taken on a new perspective of the book. I still loved the Little Prince, but I began to discover the nuance of language, the subtle differences that accompanied each translation. This summer, I have started to read the original in French, slowly working through each chapter, paying attention not only to unfamiliar words but the grammatical structure as well. The satisfaction of being able to comprehend my favorite book in its original is unparalleled. I noticed that the original is brimming with the subjunctive mood that the Chinese and English versions struggled to convey. The Little Prince is vital to my linguistic development. It inspired me to challenge myself with learning new languages and to re-examine life from a child's perspective.
All comments are greatly appreciated!
It didn't happen in a day or a moment, but a span of seven years. The Little Prince is more than my favorite book, it is an experience I treasure. I adore the classic because it doesn't pretend with its effortless prose and enchanting view of life. The Little Prince also marks my intellectual development from being monolingual to more than bilingual. When I first picked up the book- an edition that had three languages- at age ten and read through it in Chinese, I fell in love with the Little Prince. Quite literally, I sat on the toilet and sobbed through the last chapter (I have an unhealthy habit of reading in the bathroom). The novella made me appreciate the minute details of life and freed my mind from mundane concerns.Three years later, I revisited the Little Prince, in English this time. I realized the difference it made to read in another language; I had taken on a new perspective of the book. I still loved the Little Prince, but I began to discover the nuance of language, the subtle differences that accompanied each translation. This summer, I have started to read the original in French, slowly working through each chapter, paying attention not only to unfamiliar words but the grammatical structure as well. The satisfaction of being able to comprehend my favorite book in its original is unparalleled. I noticed that the original is brimming with the subjunctive mood that the Chinese and English versions struggled to convey. The Little Prince is vital to my linguistic development. It inspired me to challenge myself with learning new languages and to re-examine life from a child's perspective.
All comments are greatly appreciated!