This English course focuses on reading and discussion; its main objective consists in cultivating students’ sophisticated and critical thinking on cultural topics. To achieve this goal, the course is to be run in a bilingual rather than all-English way. While the materials to be worked on are English, the course is divided into two parts: the Mandarin part is meant to introduce and elaborate on cultural concepts, and the English part is to engage students in comparatively intellectual discussions by using those concepts. Therefore, students who expect and demand concentrated training on skills, such as listening and real-life conversation, are not recommended to take this course. The materials pertain to various genres, including poetry, fiction, critical essay, and film. The issues to be explored include (1) language and identity, (2) environmentalism, (3) colonialism and accountability, (4) life/death and technology, and (5) the Holocaust. Students are required to commit themselves to (1) close reading in order to acquire a deeper understanding of the text, and (2) continuous collaboration through teamwork and group discussion in order to test and substantiate their grasp of the issue concerned.