I suggest that from now on, our honorable expert use English language for all the following posts. And I*ll try my best to use the English version of my replies. I think, avoiding the use of Chinese language in expression of all the thoughts itself is an evidence to better show the power of a second language if mastered to some extent.
In this bar, we have a barmate Joyfulrabbit. She is from Boston, USA. I enjoy reading her writting, because she never speaks Chinese! haha. She is very nice and warm to me, also quite patient in replying other barmates. I think, I*ve learnt lots from her, in particular the uptodate expressions and knowledge in the western. After all, what I leanrt is a sort of old version of English language and I cannot get well informed in such an environment.
【这是我的经过准备书面发言的第一部分。直接拷贝过来的,不知道版面好不好?】 The title of my talk: Episodes at the Retirement Village -------------- Written by 关靖华 (1)On July 1st, XXX Retirement Village, where my wife and I have been staying since lastJanuary, held the Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony for its second stage construction.Many guests from 富阳 and 金色年华 were invited to attend the Ceremony. After the ceremony,I saw a foreign gentleman sitting in the lobby by himself. Since most people there can’t speakfluent English, I came close to him and chatted. After conversing with him, I got to know hisname is Steven Cuveliar from Huntsville,Texas. His card shows that he is an AssociatedProfessor of Criminal Justice and Director of Digita lTechnology Initiatives at the Sam HoustonState University. To be continued
(2)On the same day after lunch, I met a young college student named XXY, who was then a sophomore student majoring in Foreign Relations at 宁波 Nottingha University. For enriching her vacation life she came to the RetirementVillage to work as a volunteer at the reception desk. As she intends to考研 in the future, so she’s keen to improve her English. During our dialogue, I told her about my current research work. When I started to introduce to her the radical 水 in simple English words, to my surprise, she responded that she had read a book also carries the saying that letter w at the beginning of some English words are equivalent to the Chinese radical 水 or 女。 She promised to give me the book’s title after she returned to宁波. At the end of last August, through email she informed me the title was 雅思9分密码---词汇 written by 何满. Soon, I borrowed the book from the Public Library. It’s a 16开 book with 368 pages. Currently, I’ve been reading the book, as well as 马秉义、邓万勇’s books on English vocabulary to make up the deficiencies of my research. 【to be continued】
(3) About a former member of our Spoken English Club: Most of the members here know Mr.蒋纬, who was one of the leading members of our Club about ten years ago. As he has to take care of his wife, who is 4 years elder than him, around 2008 Mr.蒋纬 stopped participating in the activities of our Club. However, from time to time our Club members, including myself, still keep in touch with him. Last June, after consulting with me and the exploration of their daughter, Mr. and Mrs.蒋纬 moved to XXX Retirement Village. They were glad to join the community here. And soon Mr.蒋纬 presented two documents to me. One was the first part of his memoir and the other one was a notebook. An event in his memoir worth mentioning was during his teenage he and scores of Chinese young men were unfortunately caught by Japanese armed force and the invader would make them do hard manual labor. When the captives were forced to march to another town under the supervision of only a few Japanese soldiers, 蒋 was smart enough to grasp a rare, narrow (勉强的) chance stealthily (偷偷地) left the poor marching crowd and successfully escaped from the misfortune. The notebook was his personal minute book (会议记录薄) for our Spoken English Club during 2003 to 2005. Though the cover of the book seems worn, the contents in it were precious. A proverb in the book states: Life is too short, to be little. Its Chinese translation reads: 人生苦短休计较。 【后面还有一个结尾。As it*s in Chinese, I won*t copy it to this post】
A serious remark..... Ladies and gentlemen: The new generations doubless are equipped with better soft/hardwares than the elder, and they have more spare time, if they like, for English learning and practicing. I may assume that if they stick to their course of learning and struggling endeavours as they do today, then at least some of them will, in 30 years of such a long path, will achieve skills and intelligence on a comparable level with our honorable poster! Thanks, clap now!
TXS for all the comments from dear Moore. And TXS for giving me the title HONORABLE POSTER. You may noticed that there is an Elder Spoken English Club in Hangzhou. We meet every Saturday morning, except the cold winter and hot summer days, in a meeting room to improve our spokn English and update our knowledge. Besides, sometimes I watch English program over China Central TV Service. BTW, one of my former American teachers in Beijing before Pearl Harbor (1941) was named Miss Alice Moore. More coments from other barmates will be welcomed.
@MooreYuan Thanks for notifying me this heated forum. I am amazed that everyone expressed himself/herself so well though with possible few flaws. But who cares? I am impressed by your efforts and enthusiasm/passion to learn English. Honestly, a very few Americans can speak a second language as well as you do. Pay my respect to you all! Happy Halloween!!
我很欣赏 Moore Yaun 前几天在 #19楼 的 留言: I always ask the question that the oriental people are contaminated with a similar smell that seems easy to detect, including the big guy who married a wife 60 plus years younger. 这个不指名的批评很到位!很有价值!