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Oh my god! How could a cleaner speak good English?
Oct 21, 2013 22:09
  • BBQQ
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I was totally shocked when I watched this piece of video on the internet. A cleaner in Beijing was interviewed in English. The cleaner claimed that he read many works of Shakespeare, such as Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear and Macbeth. How can a clean speak good English?

Actually, he is a retired English teacher in Zaozhuang, Shandong Province. He once studied at a foreign language institute and then became an English teacher at a middle school in Zaozhuang. After retirement, he decided to do something to kill time. He went to Beijing and became a cleaner on September 4, 2013.

Last edited by BBQQ: Oct 21, 2013 22:14
Oct 22, 2013 22:58
#1  
  • CHERRY07
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Good English? After listening to him, I doubt how he becomes an English teacher.
Nov 18, 2013 04:53
#2  
  • HAWAIIMIKE
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There is a great story online, can't recall where I read it, about an expat who lived in Beijing was walking down the street with a Chinese neighbor, a business fellow, when a street cleaner came up and started chatting to them, uninvited, but polite. The businessman put on airs and shoo'd the cleaner away. The expat however stayed nearby as the businessman walked off. He talked with the cleaner, only to find he was very well versed in Chinese classic poetry. This went on. Long story short, the cleaner had moved to Beijing specifically so he could study and orally perform classic Chinese poetry! It's a great story.
Nov 18, 2013 19:39
#3  
  • BBQQ
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Wow, that expat discovers a great poet on the street. What happened to them? They must be good friends now.

This street cleaner looks like a man in Louis Cha's novel Demi Gods and Semi Devils. There is a monk in the novel. He just cleans the Shaolin Temple everyday. Nobody knows that he is a great master of Kung Fu until he beats two top Kungfu men just in a second.

What if the street cleaner didn't speak to the foreigner? His talent for poetry might not be discovered.
Nov 23, 2013 18:52
#4  
  • WANHU
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[quote=CHERRY07,507716]Good English? After listening to him, I doubt how he becomes an English teacher.[/quote
To me he's really good. I am indeed have poor English as I am never an English teacher. Anyway the video clip reminds me of a retired English teacher I met in Guangzhou. We were visiting his son, who is a businessman. My friend, a senior lecturer by profession kept on thanking this retired English teacher but the latter didn't say anything. I told my friend, you don't say "thank you". When I said "sank you" the old man replied, "not at all!"
Wan
Nov 27, 2013 00:40
#5  
  • BBQQ
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He is a good English teacher not for his English but for his teaching skills. I think that his students must earn very high marks in the exams. That's the most important standard for judging whether a teacher is good or bad.
Nov 27, 2013 05:17
#6  
  • WANHU
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Dear BBQQ, passing in the exams doesn't mean a person is good (especially in communication). Even English native speaker may fail in his English exam but his spoken English is excellent. I do not know the standard of English in China so I dare not make any comment. From my observation, I know I need to brush my English better to be at par with them.
Wan
Nov 29, 2013 00:49
#7  
  • BBQQ
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Wan,

My English teachers in junior middle school seldom spoke English. They just taught us to remember words and recite conversations. When I entered senior middle school, I met an English teacher who had post graduate academic degree. I was shocked when he made an introduction at our first English class. He had his own teaching methods. Each week, he played an English song and analyzed the lyrics together with us. Also, he asked us to write diaries in English. He spared some time to revise our diaries.

And duty report was a must. He didn't ask us to recite conversations on our English books. Instead, he asked us to retell a piece of Chinese news report in English.

He was the best English teacher I had met.

Nov 30, 2013 14:31
#8  
  • WANHU
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You're lucky to have good English teachers. I have none except for books, journals and occasional movies. Realising my handicap, now every Wednesday we try to make it a day of English. Even minutes of the meeting should be done in English if such a meeting is convened on Wednesday.

We have our fun. Some of us are trying very hard to find appropriate words to air our opinions, but most of the time they remained in our heads.

Wan
Dec 9, 2013 21:04
#9  
  • BBQQ
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It seems that we have the same problem. We always translate our mother language to English before we speak out. Our mindset is still based on our mother language.
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