Wilde Children Tears

So for Regina's (one of my students, a 13 yr old girl) lessons, I often prepare a short story or fable. This week, I picked one a bit different than the norm for us. I chose Oscar Wilde's The Nightingale and the Rose. As you can see, the language is a bit difficult for a junior high taiwanese student. However, I thought it would be good to expose her to a different writing style than the academic stuff she's used to, and it would be a good change of pace for her not to have to worry so much about exactly knowing every word and just enjoy the read-through. It's a sad story, especially for someone who didn't understand/appreciate the more ironic aspects of it. As such, while reading aloud of the nightingale's painful sacrifice, I could see the tears start to form in her eyes (truth be told, I wasn't exactly dry myself) and slowly drift south. Her turns reading were especially painful, as her slow and deliberate reading added a whole new layer to the sorrowful language. After reading through it, we discussed it briefly...and it became quite clear that, although many of the words and the language was unknown to her, she had a quite clear understanding of the plot and the ideas involved. She went so far as to briefly rant about the shallow views of the girl and how it relates to her environment in her school and culture.
What was astonishing to me was the great example of the power of expression, even when comprehension is limited.