Students making mistakes (London / Paris)

Student in Paris has been missing lessons here and there for various reasons (health, etc.), and is starting to forget more and more of her Chinese (and English since she moved back to Paris because of Brexit).

As she’s 78, I think it’s already remarkable that she should want to be carrying on at all with the gruelling routine of learning Chinese.  I’ve always said, “It’s attitude, more than aptitude, that counts.”

During last week’s lesson, as she was discovering more gaps in her Chinese, she started to apologise.  

My attitude about students learning Chinese is that unless they’re taking an exam, in which case they’ll just have to knuckle down and get on with it, what’s most important is for them to enjoy the learning.  

With this student, the most elderly in my current small clutch, it’s even more important that she should not be reminded yet again of her failing memory.

So, to help lift her out of her depression about this, I said to her, “If students don’t make mistakes, I’ll be out of a job!”

She laughed — long and loud.

(London / Paris, 2022)

True charitable spirit: 01 (London)

I teach Mandarin and English at a north London Chinese community centre, the Islington Chinese Association.  It’s not just a place for (mainly old) people to get together and socialise, join in the activities (qigong, taiji, ping pong, karaoke, Cantonese opera, Chinese card games), eat in the canteen.  They also organise away-tours: pre-Covid, they’d go to Europe; now, they only go to other parts of the UK.  

What’s admirable is also that they run counselling sessions for alcohol and drug addicts (all non-Chinese, as it happens).  So, it’s not just a place that serves the Chinese community, but the community at large.  

It’s a place with a truly charitable spirit.

(London, 2022)

True charitable spirit: 02 (London)

The Friday kitchen team at the Islington Chinese Association is a different group of people from the Tuesday to Thursday one. 

The assistant is Bobby whose wife is a volunteer at the reception on Fridays.

Yesterday there were two ladies I’d never seen before: a younger one (40s? 50s?) with an older one (70s? 80s?). Not sure if they’re related.

At one point before lunch was served, I saw that the old lady was in tears. (She was earlier talking to Bobby’s wife when she got in, talking about something unhappy by the looks of it.) 

Bobby, in spite of being needed in the kitchen as lunch was about to be served, kept consoling the old lady, saying sympathetic and supportive things, “Let’s go for a cup of tea later, OK?  Don’t dwell on it, OK?”  He's a big man, but he was so gentle with her.

It was the way he was handling her that moved me: so kind and caring.

(London, 2022)

True charitable spirit: 03 (London)

The Friday cook at the Islington Chinese Association is a lady called Hou jiě (Sister Hou). 

During the wild garlic season, I was picking wild garlic regularly and giving bunches away to people, mostly the ones at the centre, including Hou jiě. 

One Friday, I went in with another lot of wild garlic, and offered a bunch to Hou jiě.  She said, referring to her assistant Bobby (whom I’d not spoken to before — I’d only seen working him around the kitchen), “You’ve already given me some.  He hasn’t had any yet.  Give them to him.”  So altruistic.

I then went out to the reception and offered some to the reception volunteer.  As I was filling a bag, Bobby came out and said, “She’s my wife, you’ve already given me some, so let someone else have this lot.”  So kind and generous.

It’s such a caring place.

(London, 2022)

Genes skipping a generation (Beijing / London)

I’ve been asked to tutor a very bright six-year-old boy in his schoolwork, mainly because he has trouble focusing.  

James’s maternal grandma is from Yunnan in S.W.China, and has been learning English with me on and off.  James was born here in London, has an English father, goes to an English school, has English friends, doesn’t speak that much Chinese, yet bizarrely pronounces some of his English words just like his maternal grandma. 

Grandma will consistently do the Italian insert-a-vowel-after-a-consonant thing, so “did” comes out as “didda”, “bought” as “boughta”, etc.  James does that too, though not on the same scale.

Grandma pronounces “sport” as “si-port”, “spring” as “si-pring”.  Ditto James.

Yet grandma doesn’t really speak much to him on the phone as her English is still hardly good enough to make sense (although she’s been gaining confidence and trying harder and more often), so it can’t be that.

It was grandma who’d recommended me for the tutoring, saying to James’s mother, “I know the very person who can discipline him!”  So, I’ve been reporting back to her on James's progress (his marks have improved at school).  

On the subject of his English pronunciation being just like hers, I offered this explanation: “I’d heard that genes skip a generation, so it must be that!”

PS: (from googling) “...the expression or manifestation of genes — traits — can skip generations under some circumstances.”

(Beijing / London, 2022)