Shengliver’s Note: Friendship blossoms on the Web.

Richard is my learning buddy. With a buddy by your side, you would not find learning boring. A buddy would be a fountain of sympathy, encouragement and inspiration.

Student Days

Born in the early 1970s, Richard is one or two years Shengliver’s junior. His hometown is in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province. A hamlet boy, Richard followed the life course most rural children in China do, and he was luckier. Having ascended the education ladder up primary school, middle school and high school, he finally made it to a college in Nanjing, the provincial capital.

Richard majored in the Chinese Language and Literature for higher education. The discipline bored him for the teachers there were a mediocrity. To keep himself alert, he had to down two strong cups of tea before sitting down to a dry lecture. Without the caffeine counteracting the effect, the lecturers would have been more potent than a sleeping pill.

First Jobs

Upon graduation from college, Richard could have filled an opening at a middle school in his hometown as a Chinese language instructor, but he gave it up. It was popularly believed that a teacher earned meagre salaries and that no sensible lassie would marry a schoolmaster, and the truth was so. Instead of becoming “an engineer of human souls”, Richard tried all kinds of jobs in Yancheng City. I reckon he worked at different departments of the local government.

While employed as a civil servant, Richard realised how complicated the world was. Had he been a teacher, he would not have bothered about the networks and connections which Chinese society is rife with. Upon reflection, he wrote in his diary, “Were I a teacher, I would stay pure and probably naive.” At his different positions, he tasted red tape and all the corrupt aspects of local government, first-hand. Around festivals, he was obliged to visit his superiors and pay his respects by presenting them with expensive gifts. Otherwise, he would find himself picked on by those calculating bosses in his daily work later on. “I hate it,” Richard cried in the heart.

Having suffered a string of setbacks in his home city for some years, Richard made up his mind to quit his job with the government. He would venture out on his own and be a freelancer.

Take-off

The destination he set his mind upon is a developed town called Taizhou in Zhejiang Province. The city was teeming with private enterprises. A bonanza for small businesses was already happening when Richard set foot there.

To make a living at the new town, Richard tried his hand at various jobs in the beginning. He started by doing advertising and promotion for some firms and companies. Graduated in the Chinese Language and Literature, he was well versed in the craft. He created articles and contributed them to the local media to help sell his clients’ products. This beginning was hard, but his new career took off, really.

Almost simultaneously, he started to be a tutor. He offered private Chinese lessons to school children in the evening and on the weekend. It was a difficult time. One tempestuous evening, a raging typhoon on the way, he had to pedal a rickety second-hand bike, against high winds and heavy rains, to a child’s home to give a lesson for no more than 20 RMB yuan an hour.

While offering his Chinese language tutoring, he noticed that the number of people, children and adults alike, who were learning English, was huge in town. Richard was smart. He believed that he would make a fortune were he able to teach English. But his academic discipline had been Chinese in college.

English Studies

In his spare time, Richard took up English studies earnestly. He tackled New Concept English (a series of four English language course books by British textbook writer, L G Alexander) first. Foundations laid, he started to watch CCTV 9, the English language channel from China Central Television. When his family were sound asleep, Richard the breadwinner was burning the midnight oil, watching and absorbing the shows on the telly.

In time Richard’s perseverance paid off. He made tremendous progress in his English studies. No sooner had he posted an advert in the classifieds in the local paper for his English lessons than students swarmed to his class. He even did translation and interpretation for local businesses. Apart from those jobs, some evenings he gave English lessons to the employees of a company as part of their on-the-job training programme. The climax came when last year, he participated in the preliminaries of the CCTV English Speaking Contest organised at the city level. He came out first and was subsequently sent as the local representative to the second round of competitions held in the provincial capital, Hangzhou.

Firmly Established

Richard has firmly established himself by teaching English and doing jobs related to the language. A man of integrity, Richard has won trust of his trainees and their parents. The good reputation spreads by word of mouth. Hence, his coaching business has grown by leaps and bounds over the years. There has never been a shortage of students who are willing to pay for his lessons.

Running his studio and workshop in town, Richard is his own boss. He is no longer such a victim of bullying and unfairness as he was when he was working in the government back in his home city, Yancheng. The freedom and the independence his endeavour earned him in Taizhou have convinced Richard that he is on the right track and that there is no going back.

The Encounter

Geographically, Richard is located in a small town in Zhejiang Province; Shengliver in the mountains in northwest Hubei. How did their paths manage to converge then?

It was the Internet that brought us two together. I was speaking English as a volunteer speaker at a learning community on Sina UC in 2007 when one evening Richard took the mike and our chat went off. We learned about each other’s family and career. We shared views on Chinese society and the world. We encouraged each other to work on and never to give up. The truth is that we found we two had so much in common that we clicked straight away.

When Richard happened upon my English blog, Shengliver’s Garden on MSN Spaces, he devoured it, which surprised me. On the mikes, we talked over the blog entries, and the familiarity he showed with the contents impressed me. He even quoted some sentences from the entries. At times he found spelling errors and inconsistencies in my writing. He sincerely pointed them out in his email, and I corrected them following his advice. He was not fault-finding. Instead, he hoped that my blog would be better and improving. His attitude towards Shengliver’s Garden strengthened the writer’s resolve to keep the blog neat and tidy. I have been extra careful with the language quality since my encounter with Richard.

Richard recorded our English conversations using a utility of the learning community. And this inspired me further. When he was free, he would re-listen to the conversations on his PC. If he happened to find it was hard to make out a word or a phrase I uttered, he would send the audio file to me by email and ask me to listen and help check out the item. A word I used in a chat—inquisitive—is still fresh in my memory. He failed to place the word in the recording and emailed the audio file over to me. After reviewing the clip and typing the sentences out in a Microsoft Word document, I forwarded the transcript to him.

Richard and Shengliver progressed side by side in the virtual world. Looking back to those halcyon days and reflecting upon all the efforts I have made over the years to learn and use the language, I cannot but be touched by this friend.

Some time later, a friend in his town came across me online. She told me that every Friday evening an English corner is on at a flat rented by Richard. Richard is the organiser. The learning buddies where he is based get together and practise speaking English, face to face, in this weekly slot. What a learner!

Inspiration

All of us exist in the real world. We have to make a living for ourselves and our family. We take responsibility for society by doing our jobs well. We are not supposed to seclude ourselves from the physical world, by staying solely in the virtual world the Internet has created, by gaming, chatting or blogging. However, the Internet or the virtual reality can play a positive role in changing the way we live, work and learn. While many guys are said to be abusing it, I will draw upon the shared experience with Richard and integrate technology further into my worldly being.

Richard and I have not met for several months. Our paths crossed and then diverged. We are now going our separate ways. We have our individual lives and careers to look after. Hopefully both of us will lead positive productive existences where we are.

One issue we often debated in English was why China needs more entrepreneurs. Numbed by bureaucracy and apathy in the public sector, I am aware of the role that average Chinese, like Richard and me, can play in changing Chinese society for the better. Richard, a freelancer, has the power to say no to injustice. I am still employed in the public sector. I do not plan to go freelancing in the near future. While holding on in the public sphere, what ways should I stick to? Should I succumb to forces that I deem bad? Can my individual effort make a difference? Shengliver will bear the answers in mind and fight on.

Thanks, Richard.

PS

Should Richard happen to read this entry and find any details inaccurate or misrepresented, please let me know. I would correct them.