關於 active listening social work ，我們在網路上蒐集到這些相關的討論、資訊與評價

【台美日共同守護印太安全】
　　
美國、日本、台灣三國智庫共同主辦「2020台美日三邊印太安全對話」，包括蔡英文總統、美國前國務院助卿坎博(Kurt Campbell)、前國防部印太安全助理部長薛瑞福(Randall Schriver)、日本前駐美大使佐佐木賢一郎等重要人士都與會。
　　
我也參與三國國會議員的對談，與羅致政委員、陳以信委員、美國聯邦眾議員貝拉(Ami Bera)以及日本眾議員鈴木馨祐，交流2020後的印太及台海情勢與願景。
　　
結果準備厚厚一疊的英文講稿幾乎沒派上用場，講太HIGH不小心就脫稿演出....。無論如何還是提供原本的講稿跟大家參詳，一起來練習英文吧：
　　
　　　　
2020 Taiwan-US-Japan Trilateral Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue

Hello moderator, fellow panelists, I am Taiwan legislator Freddy Lim.

This year, due to the pandemic, we can only conduct this panel online. I’m still very glad to be invited to attend this event and exchange ideas with these great panelists. Here I want to share my views on today’s main topic: “Challenges and Opportunities in the Indo-Pacific Region and the Taiwan Strait in 2020 & Beyond”.

First I want to start with the conventional positioning of Taiwan under the established international order.

After WWII, the international order led by the allies dragged Taiwan into China’s civil war. Since then, Taiwan's been struggling with the “One China” dispute, unable to gain independence and world recognition like many other colonies.

Even though Taiwanese people have built an independent and democratic country after half a century of hard work, now we enjoy freedom and human rights, the international community still isolates Taiwan. One of the main reasons is obviously China.

The established international community viewed China as a huge economic opportunity, a partner that would eventually carry out political reforms and be integrated into modern international order. Under this conventional thinking, the international community is willing to help China ease and suppress many of its unpleasant problems, including the thorny "Democratic Taiwan."

This has reduced Taiwan to merely China’s “Taiwan Problem”. We’re even slandered as the “troublemaker” of the Taiwan Strait; As a result, the respect that Taiwan deserves continues to be shelved, and the active role we can play, the contributions we can make in the international community are also ignored.

However, this established international structure is now changing.

After decades of appeasement policy, and acquiring WTO membership in 2001, China’s various structural changes that the world anticipated have never taken place. On the contrary, China’s been using organized measures, such as bribing, infiltration, and hybrid-warfare, to undermine international norms. It’s worked hard to manipulate and control international organizations, in order to project its influence onto the world. These actions have been even more distinct after Xi Jinping became President of China in 2012.

Internationally, China implemented debt-trap diplomacy on many countries through the Belt and Road Initiative. It established Confucius Institutes around the world, which are basically intelligence operations in the name of culture. Chinese tech giant, Huawei also aids China’s international surveillance. Not to mention China’s relentless expansion in the South China Sea, building military bases, creating man-made islands. This year, it’s even more serious. We witnessed the long time Chinese infiltration into UN organizations. The favoritism towards China helped its cover-up, which led to the dysfunction of WHO, ultimately causing the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Domestically, the Chinese government not only failed to implement any political reforms, but it also created the “Social Credit” system with advanced technology, to surveil and control its own people; In addition, the Chinese government built the notorious “Reeducation Camps” - concentration camps in reality, in Tibet, Xingjian, where human rights conditions were already in a bad shape. Even the Hong Kong people, who were supposed to be protected by the promise of “One Country, Two Systems”, their freedom and human rights were completely destroyed by the Chinese government.

These compelling examples show that there is some serious fallacy in the conventional way of viewing China. All facts point to this: Taiwan is not the problem. China is the problem. China is the troublemaker of the Taiwan Strait. It’s the troublemaker of the Indo-Pacific region. It’s even the troublemaker of the entire world.

Under decades of collective misjudgement, China was allowed to become the most terrifying, largest digital authoritarian government in human history. It’s a new form of dictatorship. As a response, many countries have vastly changed their China policy in recent years, thus the change of international structure.

This brings me to my next point: Give Taiwan the status it deserves. Let us contribute to the international society.

In a new international structure, Taiwan shouldn’t be categorized as “China’s Taiwan Problem”. Instead, we should be one of the key countries for international cooperation, responding to the new type of dictatorship.

Taiwan has faced authoritarian China on the front line for decades. Many countries are now facing the problem of China's infiltration under its United Front programs. Taiwan started dealing with the same problems 10 to 20 years ago. We have gained a lot of experience to contribute to the international community.

Taking the COVID pandemic as an example, Taiwan has studied and analyzed the actual situation and the information provided by the Chinese government with a serious and high-vigilance attitude. Based on our experience and lessons learned from the China SARS epidemic in 2001, we decisively formed a series of epidemic preventive measures. We have handled the crisis with the principle of openness and transparency. Our people have been self-disciplined and willing to cooperate. All of this demonstrates the high level of democracy in Taiwan’s society.

After the domestic epidemic was brought under control, Taiwan has continued to share our epidemic prevention supplies and the experiences on forming epidemic prevention policies with the world.

Although Taiwan was suppressed, even excluded by China in various international organizations in the past, we’ve been doing our best to comply with the norms & regulations of international organizations. We always actively contribute every time we have the opportunity. What I want to say is, all of this proves Taiwan could be a reliable partner in the international community. We are capable of working with other countries to solve major problems. We deserve our seats and participation in international organizations.

Regarding the impact of U.S. change of administration.

Now the U. S. presidential election is over and the administration is currently under transition. Many countries, including Taiwan, are concerned about whether the new U.S. government will change its course on foreign policy, especially its China policy. However, the "Rebalance (of Asia-Pacific Region)" proposed by the Obama administration in 2011, was in fact already a strategic adjustment in response to the rise of China and possible subsequent expansion.

The Trump administration further proposed the Indo-Pacific strategy in 2017 to promote and uphold international law and regulations, aiming to ensure every country has the liberty to be free from oppression and coercion. I believe that both parties in the U.S. understand the root cause of the Indo-Pacific regional problem comes from the Chinese government. Even for the Biden administration, it will have to provide practical responses. Facing the new structure, they can’t just go back to the traditional thinking of the last century.

As for Taiwan, the pro-Taiwan acts in the U.S., such as the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018, Taiwan Travel Act, Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement, were passed with strong consensus between the Republicans and the Democrats. I believe Taiwan could be a key partner to the international community and play an active role in the free world. This isn’t just the consensus of the two parties in the U.S., but will be the consensus of all democratic countries.

In a progressive aspect, the International community can benefit from a wider recognition of Taiwan.

In recent years, the performance of Taiwanese society in terms of epidemic prevention performance, human rights, gender equality, marriage equality, and open government are actually in line with many progressive ideas and visions. The ideas and visions that many democratic countries have long supported. Therefore, I’m quite optimistic that, after 2020, Taiwan can make even greater progress, on multiple levels and in broader aspects, contributing to the international community.

Finally, I want to emphasize again that to truly resolve regional problems, we need dynamic multilateral cooperation. But this must not be a return to the conventional thinking of the past century, which was "expecting" China to abide by the international order. The outdated thinking had been proved to be a failure. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a series of Chinese infiltration and aggression after its rise in recent years, which became one of the most difficult issues in the world. I believe after 2020, U.S., Japan, and Taiwan can establish a new model of international cooperation through deeper collaboration and communication. And hopefully, this model will maximize the security of the Indo-Pacific region and promote peace, stability and development in the region.

This concludes my speech, thank you all for listening.
Lastly, I’d like to express my gratitude to the moderators, my fellow panelists, and the organizers of this event.
I wish everyone peace and good health. Thank you.

[教育時評] Developing Empathy

為什麼同理於此時比以往任何時刻都重要？

同理(empathy)可以定義為從他人觀點理解感受他人所感的能力。這與同情(sympathy)不同，同情是對處於困境之人感到難過的感覺。在某些情況下，兩個術語有共同之處是因為同理是一種共鳴的關切，其中包括希望人們更好的渴望。

心理學家已辨識出不同種類的同理，主要為情感和認知兩種類型。情感同理心 (affective empathy)是指能分享他人感受的能力。它使我們能夠「鏡像」他人的感受並覺察他們的焦慮或恐懼。

認知同理心(cognitive empathy)，也稱為換位思考，是識別和理解他人感受的能力。有效的溝通需要情感同理心和認知同理心兩者，因為它們可以幫助我們建立情感連結並向受眾傳達信息。同理對於協作和領導力也很重要，因為一個人需要理解和預期他人的情感和行為，才能與之工作並帶領他們走向成功。

人們可以看到同理呈現在所有職業中。老師需要靠同理來理解和滿足學生的多樣化需求。研究表明，富有同理心的醫療人員的患者享有更好的健康狀況。警察需要同理來拉近與之打交道的人的距離，來減少以武力處理的狀況。想想當警察缺乏對示威者的同理時會發生什麼。

現在比以往任何時候都更需要同理心。身份政治，政府競爭，甚至是最近的健康危機，都在逐漸蠶食我們的同理心和同情心，導致更大的緊繃，分裂和衝突。社交媒體上有多少發文在強調相互幫助的需要，又有多少在傳播恐懼和仇恨？

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並非所有希望都已失去。我們仍可以懷有和培養同理心。我們可以試著練習：

1.積極傾聽 (Active listening)：傾聽並關注他人意見。不要只是簡單地摒除與自身不同的觀點。

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2.破除認同屏障(Shared identity)：了解與自己不同的人。與其只關注兩者間的差異，不如考慮自己與他們分享的共同點。想像自己如何能設身處地的換位思考。

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3.制止不平等和冷漠 (Combating inequality and indifference)：許多獲得較高社會經濟地位（socioeconomic status、SES）的人有時同理稍弱，因為他們較少有連結、依靠或與他人合作的需求。這並不意味所有富裕之人都對他人的需求漠不關心，但他們可能更需要去關注維持對他人的同理。

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4.閱讀與改變觀點 (Reading and changing perspectives)：研究表明，閱讀文學小說（例如《殺死一隻知更鳥》，《老鼠與男人》）著重於人物心理及其與世界的互動。這些書激發讀者理解角色的意圖和動機，且這種的意識可以被帶入現實世界。但是，我認為，所有書籍，即使是非小說類書籍（例如《安妮·弗蘭克日記》）也能做到這一點，讀者不應受到書本類型的限制。重點在以閱讀了解他人的思維方式，從他人的角度思考和「體驗」生活，並將所學應用在自己的生活中。

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因此，為協助學生發展同理這一重要能力，我決定在我們的粉專上發起一個全新的系列：翻轉視界 (Changing Perspectives)。除了定期發布的《時事英文》、《教育時評》和《學習資源》，我們還將分享來自世界各地的人們的故事，文章中會提供關鍵詞、翻譯並向你提出批判性問題以期能幫助各位從不同的角度解讀世界！但是，單單思考並不夠！希望你可以不僅通過閱讀來發展同理，也通過理解和與他人合作將同理應用到生活中來取得成功。

References

Bal, P. M., & Veltkamp, M. (2013). How does fiction reading influence empathy? An experimental investigation on the role of emotional transportation. PloS one, 8(1).

Kaplan, S. (2016, July 22). Does reading fiction make you a better person? The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/07/22/does-reading-fiction-make-you-a-better-person/

Keen, S. (2007). Empathy and the Novel. Oxford University Press on Demand.

★★★★★★★★★★★★

Why is empathy more important now than ever?

Empathy can be defined as the capacity to understand feel what others experience from their perspectives. It differs from sympathy, the feeling of feeling sorry for someone in a difficult situation. In some instances, the terms overlap as sympathy is an empathetic concern, which includes the desire to see people better off.

Psychologists have identified different types of empathy, two main types being affective and cognitive. Affective empathy refers to the ability to share the feelings of others. It enables us to “mirror” what others feel and detect their anxiety or fears. Cognitive empathy, also known as perspective-taking, is the ability to identify and understand how others feel. Both are needed in effective communication because they help us build emotional connections and relay information to our audiences. Empathy is also essential for collaboration and leadership as one needs to understand and anticipate the emotions and behaviors of others to work with them and lead them to success.

One can see empathy present in all professions. Teachers need it to understand and meet the diverse needs of students. Research shows medical workers high in empathy have patients who enjoy better health. The police need it to feel less distant from people they are dealing with and defuse situations with less physical force. Think about what happens when the police lack empathy with protestors.

Empathy is needed more than ever now. Identity politics, government rivalry, and even the latest health crisis are gradually stripping us of our empathy and compassion, leading to greater tension, division, and conflict. How many posts on social media highlight the need to help one another, and how many spread fear and hate?

Not all hope is lost. We can still nurture and cultivate empathy. We can practice:

1. Active listening: Listen and be mindful of the opinions of others. Don’t merely dismiss every viewpoint different than your own.

2. Shared identity: Learn about people who are different from you. Rather than focus only on the differences, think about what you have in common. Imagine what you would do in their situation.

3. Combating inequality and indifference: Many who have attained higher socioeconomic status (SES) sometimes have diminished empathy because they have less of a need to connect with, rely on, or collaborate with others. This does not mean that all wealthy individuals are indifferent to the needs of others, but they might need to be more mindful about maintaining empathy towards everyone.

4. Reading and changing perspectives: Research shows that reading literary fiction (e.g., To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men) focuses on the psychology of characters and their interaction with the world. These books motivate readers to understand character intentions and motivations, and such awareness can be carried into the real world. However, I personally believe that all books, even non-fiction (e.g., the Diary of Anne Frank), can do the same, and readers should not be restricted by the genre. The point is to read to understand the mindset of others, to think and “experience” life from their perspectives, and to apply these lessons to your own life.

Thus, to help students develop empathy, I have decided to launch a new series on our page: Changing Perspectives (翻轉視界). In addition to our regular posting of News English, Opinions in Education, and Learning Resources, we will share stories of people from around the world, provide key words, translations, and ask you critical questions to help you view the world from other perspectives! However, thinking is not enough! Develop empathy through reading but also apply it to your lives by understanding and working with others to achieve success.

References

Bal, P. M., & Veltkamp, M. (2013). How does fiction reading influence empathy? An experimental investigation on the role of emotional transportation. PloS one, 8(1).

Kaplan, S. (2016, July 22). Does reading fiction make you a better person? The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/07/22/does-reading-fiction-make-you-a-better-person/

Keen, S. (2007). Empathy and the Novel. Oxford University Press on Demand.

★★★★★★★★★★★★

圖片出處：https://bit.ly/2JUYzA9

★★★★★★★★★★★★

tl;dr: View the world from different perspectives. Have empathy and be nice.

教育時評: http://bit.ly/39ABON9

Recently I’ve seen many rumors circulating about me and enormous amounts of hate. This is no surprise to me. I know that since most people are not aware of the full meaning of the climate crisis (which is understandable since it has never been treated as a crisis) a school strike for the climate would seem very strange to people in general.
So let me make some things clear about my school strike.

In may 2018 I was one of the winners in a writing competition about the environment held by Svenska Dagbladet, a Swedish newspaper. I got my article published and some people contacted me, among others was Bo Thorén from Fossil Free Dalsland. He had some kind of group with people, especially youth, who wanted to do something about the climate crisis.
I had a few phone meetings with other activists. The purpose was to come up with ideas of new projects that would bring attention to the climate crisis. Bo had a few ideas of things we could do. Everything from marches to a loose idea of some kind of a school strike (that school children would do something on the schoolyards or in the classrooms). That idea was inspired by the Parkland Students, who had refused to go to school after the school shootings.
I liked the idea of a school strike. So I developed that idea and tried to get the other young people to join me, but no one was really interested. They thought that a Swedish version of the Zero Hour march was going to have a bigger impact. So I went on planning the school strike all by myself and after that I didn’t participate in any more meetings.

When I told my parents about my plans they weren’t very fond of it. They did not support the idea of school striking and they said that if I were to do this I would have to do it completely by myself and with no support from them.
On the 20 of august I sat down outside the Swedish Parliament. I handed out fliers with a long list of facts about the climate crisis and explanations on why I was striking. The first thing I did was to post on Twitter and Instagram what I was doing and it soon went viral. Then journalists and newspapers started to come. A Swedish entrepreneur and business man active in the climate movement, Ingmar Rentzhog, was among the first to arrive. He spoke with me and took pictures that he posted on Facebook. That was the first time I had ever met or spoken with him. I had not communicated or encountered with him ever before.

Many people love to spread rumors saying that I have people ”behind me” or that I’m being ”paid” or ”used” to do what I’m doing. But there is no one ”behind” me except for myself. My parents were as far from climate activists as possible before I made them aware of the situation.
I am not part of any organization. I sometimes support and cooperate with several NGOs that work with the climate and environment. But I am absolutely independent and I only represent myself. And I do what I do completely for free, I have not received any money or any promise of future payments in any form at all. And nor has anyone linked to me or my family done so.
And of course it will stay this way. I have not met one single climate activist who is fighting for the climate for money. That idea is completely absurd.
Furthermore I only travel with permission from my school and my parents pay for tickets and accommodations.

My family has written a book together about our family and how me and my sister Beata have influenced my parents way of thinking and seeing the world, especially when it comes to the climate. And about our diagnoses.
That book was due to be released in May. But since there was a major disagreement with the book company, we ended up changing to a new publisher and so the book was released in august instead.
Before the book was released my parents made it clear that their possible profits from the book ”Scener ur hjärtat” will be going to 8 different charities working with environment, children with diagnoses and animal rights.

And yes, I write my own speeches. But since I know that what I say is going to reach many, many people I often ask for input. I also have a few scientists that I frequently ask for help on how to express certain complicated matters. I want everything to be absolutely correct so that I don’t spread incorrect facts, or things that can be misunderstood.

Some people mock me for my diagnosis. But Asperger is not a disease, it’s a gift. People also say that since I have Asperger I couldn’t possibly have put myself in this position. But that’s exactly why I did this. Because if I would have been ”normal” and social I would have organized myself in an organisation, or started an organisation by myself. But since I am not that good at socializing I did this instead. I was so frustrated that nothing was being done about the climate crisis and I felt like I had to do something, anything. And sometimes NOT doing things - like just sitting down outside the parliament - speaks much louder than doing things. Just like a whisper sometimes is louder than shouting.

Also there is one complaint that I ”sound and write like an adult”. And to that I can only say; don’t you think that a 16-year old can speak for herself? There’s also some people who say that I oversimplify things. For example when I say that "the climate crisis is a black and white issue”, ”we need to stop the emissions of greenhouse gases” and ”I want you to panic”. But that I only say because it’s true. Yes, the climate crisis is the most complex issue that we have ever faced and it’s going to take everything from our part to ”stop it”. But the solution is black and white; we need to stop the emissions of greenhouse gases.
Because either we limit the warming to 1,5 degrees C over pre industrial levels, or we don’t. Either we reach a tipping point where we start a chain reaction with events way beyond human control, or we don’t. Either we go on as a civilization, or we don’t. There are no gray areas when it comes to survival.
And when I say that I want you to panic I mean that we need to treat the crisis as a crisis. When your house is on fire you don’t sit down and talk about how nice you can rebuild it once you put out the fire. If your house is on fire you run outside and make sure that everyone is out while you call the fire department. That requires some level of panic.

There is one other argument that I can’t do anything about. And that is the fact that I’m ”just a child and we shouldn’t be listening to children.” But that is easily fixed - just start to listen to the rock solid science instead. Because if everyone listened to the scientists and the facts that I constantly refer to - then no one would have to listen to me or any of the other hundreds of thousands of school children on strike for the climate across the world. Then we could all go back to school.
I am just a messenger, and yet I get all this hate. I am not saying anything new, I am just saying what scientists have repeatedly said for decades. And I agree with you, I’m too young to do this. We children shouldn’t have to do this. But since almost no one is doing anything, and our very future is at risk, we feel like we have to continue.


And if you have any other concern or doubt about me, then you can listen to my TED talk ( https://www.ted.com/…/greta_thunberg_the_disarming_…/up-next ), in which I talk about how my interest for the climate and environment began.

And thank you everyone for you kind support! It brings me hope.
/Greta
Ps I was briefly a youth advisor for the board of the non profit foundation “We don’t have time”. It turns out they used my name as part of another branch of their organisation that is a start up business. They have admitted clearly that they did so without the knowledge of me or my family. I no longer have any connection to “We don’t have time”. Nor has anyone in my family. They have deeply apologised and I have accepted their apology.