(Written by Andrew, a boy in Shanghai, when he was six)
I wish my dead grandpa alive.
I wish a baby brother for me
I wish lots of food for everyone
I wish peace everywhere in the world
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WELCOME.....This blog is for: 1) Chinese who want to improve their skills in English and 2) all others who want to share experiences they've had traveling in China.....I've been tutoring mainland students by computer for years.....They send emails weekly and I return edited versions......It's all free......In the process we've learned more about each other - our similarities, our differences.....So be brave and send a comment about the articles and photos you'll see here and then send some of your own.....Don't worry about the grammar; it can be smoothed out, and when the piece is ready, it'll be published right here. Hope to hear from you soon. (jgron_34209@yahoo.com) If, on the other hand, you'd like to Learn Chinese Online, click those three words. Mr G.
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Friday, April 27
Thursday, April 26
A Boy Learns More About His Father
by
storiesfromchina
on Thu 26 Apr 2007 01:04 PM AKDT
(Written by a friend in Shanghai) I have seven grandchildren and all of them speak English. Two of them who are living in China, however, speak Chinese very well, and so we have many conversations.
When my granddaughter went to a friend’s party with her mother, my grandson and I had time together. He showed me all his toys, and there were so many that I immediately remembered how few toys his father had had when he was the only son in our family in Shanghai. I shared that memory by saying, “You are lucky! You have a lot of toys, but your father didn’t when he was your age.
He thought about that for a moment and then asked, “Why? Didn’t you like him?”
“Oh, yes, of course, we loved him very much, but we just didn’t have enough money to buy toys.”
“What did he get?”
“We wanted him and his two sisters to read so we gave them children’s magazines and books. One of the books was called “One Hundred Thousand Reasons Why”
As I was talking, I saw that one of his toys was a soldier crawling on the carpet, and it looked just like one that I had bought long ago. I picked it up to see to get a better look at it and told him that I’d bought one just like his.
That interested him, and he said, “And you gave it to my father, didn’t you.”
“No, it was a gift to his cousin. It was very expensive at that time, and I just didn’t have enough money to buy two, so I bought him a water gun.”
That made him feel sad so to make him smile again, I told him the story of the water gun.
“I bought it because it was cheap, and I didn’t think anyone would get hurt. Your father was very happy to have it. Our apartment wasn’t as big as yours. I think that both of the rooms of our apartment could have fit in your living room, and it was crowded with furniture so he didn’t have a good place to play.
“One day he was trying to find out how far the water would shoot out of the gun and he aimed it at the window in the kitchen. To his surprise, the water went through with such force that it continued on through the window of the neighbor’s house next door. They lived just opposite us and their window was a little lower than ours.
“The woman who lived there was very angry and came to our apartment. I wasn’t home, but the nanny who was taking care of the children apologized, and when I arrived I took your father and the three of us went to the neighbor’s place and apologized again.
“He learned a lesson from all that. It’s really not good to hurt other people or make trouble for them while playing with toys.”
My grandson had listened to the story with great interest, and then said very seriously, “I wouldn’t do that. How old was he? Was he about six or seven?”
“Probably five.”
He smiled and said, “It wasn’t good that he did that kind of thing at five. I wouldn’t have done it even when I was four.”
I was proud of him for feeling that way and said, “You are a sensible boy.”
He’s a seven-year-old right now and acts much older
Here is another incident that happened later that tells me that he’s still a little boy:
Every Sunday night he has to go to bed before nine o’clock, as he will have class the following morning. One of the Sundays when I was there, my son had finished his office work and wanted to spend some time with me to discuss what he was working on. He didn’t want to disturb his son who was about to go to bed so he came into my bedroom and closed the door.
My grandson was curious about what we were doing and asked his mother. She told him that we were just talking. That didn’t satisfy him, and he said, “Why can’t they talk in the living room?”
She explained that we didn’t want to keep him from sleeping, and his response was, “They could speak in soft voices.”
That made his mother laugh, and she felt she didn’t have a good answer, but she said, “You like to act like a spoiled child with your mother, and maybe your father wants to do the same thing with his mother.”
“Oh, now I understand”, he said, and he opened the door to take a look at his father talking to his mother, and then happily followed his mother to his own room.
In his mind, adults are apparently much like children.
Tuesday, April 3
Getting Acquainted Exercises During College Orientation
by
storiesfromchina
on Tue 03 Apr 2007 05:40 PM AKDT
(Written by a cost accountant in Shanghai) Though I received my degree years ago, I’ve returned to college for a special course that I described in last week’s email. The new term began last Saturday when we were all logged in and classrooms were assigned.
A Mr. Zheng turned out to be the instructor in charge of our class, and he spent the first few minutes explaining the Mpacc program and giving us other information we would need.
He then distributed sheets of paper on which we were asked to draw something related to our personal characteristics. We were then to add thoughts about what we hoped to accomplish in the class or our impressions of the college.
Many in the class hadn’t drawn anything in years, so the request wasn’t received with enthusiasm. We had five minutes to finish the assignment.
I chose to draw a sketch of people playing in a beautiful garden and wrote that I hoped we’d all have a happy time while studying at the college.
Each of us were then asked to stand, introduce ourselves, and show our drawings to all of our new classmates.
It turned out to be a good way to eliminate standoffishness, as we all learned a little about each other and friendships started to bud.
The opening ceremony was held on Sunday afternoon with a very interesting speech by the college president.
It was followed with a game in which we were divided into six teams with 16 students on each team. All of us were listening attentively when the name of the game was announced. It was called “Falling Backwards Without Looking”.
Each member of our team would have to take a turn at standing on a podium about 1.6 meters high. At the back of that person, the members of a team would form two lines facing each other with arms extended to the shoulders of the opposite person. The arms were to provide a cushion that would catch the falling student. As each student mounted the podium, they were to have enough confidence in the opposite team to fall backward – keeping the body stiff – and landing in the arms that provided the cushion.
The team catching falling students was to communicate with them as they stood on the podium so that they would build enough trust to fall backwards. It was an exercise in the importance of communication and teamwork.
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