Every night when I was a child, my father would sit in the old chair next to the bed to read a story created by his words and my imagination. The unique voice he used for each character extremely amused me, and I would laugh so hard that sometimes I missed the plot and would beg him to start the page over again. My dad’s storytelling developed my language and vocabulary, teaching me creativity and empathy.

My dad encouraged me to love books long before I learned to read. At the second grade, I still struggled to read full sentences. By the fifth grade, I was suddenly able to finish reading chapter books in a matter of days. Even after I was reading on my own, I’d still ask Dad to sit in the old chair and read me a chapter before bed. His words still had the power to touch me, but more than that, when Dad read to me, he was showing me how much he loved me.

I have loved telling stories since I was a child, whether it was with my friends gathered around me at rest or on stage in a play. I’ve been lucky to find ways to fit stories and books into my professional life — from my first job as a theater camp counselor (辅导员) to being a high school English teacher in Malaysia. During my time as a preschool teacher, I would sing songs, talk about colors and feelings, count together, and move our bodies like the characters did in the stories with my students.

When I got to Tandem, I knew my favorite part of the job would be the interactive Read Alouds. So I started the preparation for it. I would practice my books at home and try out different voices for each character the night before. The day before I visited my first Tandem classroom, I drove to my parents’ house and asked Dad to be my audience. He gave me his full attention, smiling through the whole book.

Joseph Conrad, a famous English novelist, said that his goal as a writer was “to make you hear, to make you feel, and above all, to make you see. That, and no more, is everything”. A good short story tries to give the reader a sense of the actual experience. Often it leaves a single sharp impression to be turned over and over in the mind. After finishing the story, the reader should have something to think about: the humor of life, its ironies (嘲笑), or the unpredictability of human behavior.

In order to read a short story with full understanding, the reader must approach the content on two levels. The first and most obvious level is conveyed through the plot. Plot refers to the sequence of events, to the actions of the characters and the situations in which they are involved. To explain the plot, then, is to tell what happened in the story and to whom. In some short stories, plot is the dominating element. In other short stories, plot plays a very minor role.

In Hemingway’s story, The Old Man and the Sea, however, we must approach the content on another level. The impact of the story comes from the insight it gives us into the needs and desires of youth and old age.

To understand and appreciate the story, the reader must be able to identify its general topic or theme. The next step is to identify the device by which the author comments on this theme. Finally, the reader should be able to explain the insights which the author has given into the theme.

Readers cannot appreciate a short story fully unless they react not only to what has been said but also to how it has been said. They must look for style and structure. Style grows out of the writer’s own personality and can be seen in the choice of words and phrases, the arrangement of sentences, the rhythm and tone. Structure refers to the architecture of the story, the way in which the details are selected and arranged to produce the desired effect.

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