An Impressive Anecdote

I was impressed by an anecdote that one of my friends had experienced a month ago. He told me the funny plot when we were chatting several days after that.

? He and I, with several friends, sat around in the dormitory. We had already known some details about his experience from his Moments of Wechat, and asked him to tell us the whole story. He sat on a chair, with his chest on the backrest, and started with an ordinary tone:

? “ You guys know that I ‘ve taken a job as a personal tutor and teach a second-grade pupil. I teach him English. At first I thought it might be difficult for me because I don’t like children very much, but I found it quite easy and I could earn 300 Yuan for each week, which is really profitable so I keep on doing that job.

? “The child I get in touch with is cute and active, but doesn’t concentrate on study. So my duty is to help him with study methods and some difficult homework. You know that basic knowledge of primary school English is easy to handle, however my embarrassment comes from opening questions.

? “That afternoon I went to their house as usual. After dinner, I began to help him with his homework. The kid read his task:’ writing five sentences about your hobbies.’ I thought it was a piece of cake so didn’t take it seriously.

? “Then I asked:’ so what’s your hobby? I can help you with translation if you don’t know some of the words.’ And then”

? “Then you got some embarrassment from that?” One of my friends laughed.

? He rolled his eyes and continued his story:

“ Then the little kid replied in standard Chinese:’ I like playing Ultraman[1], researching on mineral, and playing fangtianhuaji and wuyingjian[2]. Besides, I usually put a lollipop into a basin of water in order to watch the refraction, and I like reading……’ ‘OK. We, uh, we can start from the last one. In English, it’s called reading…’ “

? Laughter had already filled the hole dormitory before he finished and our entertainment ended with amusement.

? The second day, the funny story occurred to me when I tried to do some translation. Surprisingly, I had no clue to translate most of what that kid had mentioned. After searching on bunches of webpages, there were still two obstacles. How to translate “wuyingjian” into English? Shadeless sword? But we don’t have this word in dictionaries. Shade-hidden sword or invisible sword? It may work but is not precise enough.

? All of a sudden, I realized that though majoring in English and having learned a lot about Western culture, I still had a long way to go. The purpose of learning English, for me, is not only writing some papers of essays, but accepting it into my vein, and more importantly, bridging the gap between Chinese and Western culture. Evidently this cannot be satisfied by simply learning words, phrases and grammars, automatically listening to teachers’ guidance or merely finishing daily and weekly homework. Beyond that, forming the eagerness to languages and be greedy for advanced knowledges in the core of cultures. Being diligent, active and most crucially, modest.

? “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” Apple Inc makes these words widely known, and I really understood it from that day on.

1. Ultraman 奧特曼；

2. fangtianhuaji and wuyingjian 方天畫戟和無影劍的拼音