长者学员的分享

简惠诗 - CLA9023 Creativity in Western Classical Music，2023-24 学年下学期 （节录，全文请按此）

"To me, I found the course amazingly arranged according to special themes of love, death, destiny, music and nature which is very philosophical…these themes would just naturally link up with the life experiences for mature students like us!

As I never had the chance to take any music classes in universities, I treasure this opportunity very much and would try my best to attend all classes. Besides a full attendance for this course, I also try to listen to other music pieces of the great icons mentioned in class; give deep thoughts to each lecture and review them with the previous themes to see if they are interrelated, very interestingly, very often the answer is yes! … the knowledge we learned, I think, is just like seeds sown in our hearts, for students young and old, which will germinate and eventually grow, though it takes time!

The learning from the great icons of western classical music like Beethoven - he persisted on developing his own talent, never yield to fate and concentrated on doing his best. As for Bach, with a bumpy life, time for jail might bring him other opportunities … I have learnt that though we might be thrown stones at our life journey, never give up is a very positive way to face the challenges!

Each lesson, attentive listening, a review in between and wrapped up with a take home message were the basic actions that I would do, in addition to sharing with the young classmates before and after class. I would take the initiative to talk to them to ask what their views were, on the topics discussed and share with them mine, such that we could look from different perspectives and I can understand young people more. Besides, they are very shy and green to speak up, with an elderly student to kick off a conversation, communication amongst young students would be much easier.

(Cross generation communication) is one of the most important gains here in class, as there are young classmates with different musical talent and training, we always share topics on music. We became more familiar and they would tell me about their family and other problems…sharing with outsiders will be more relaxing (comparing to) with family members."