When she was young, her family had a farm that was situated
on the land where my apartment building is located. They pretty much lived hand to mouth, and
never had actual money. Ling Ling has
often said to me that her attitude in life, which was probably fostered in her
early years, is that she has to depend upon her own hard work to live. That was certainly true when she was young. They ate what they grew, and had no one else
to help them if they couldn’t grow enough.
They lived off their own sweat and hard work.
When she reached middle school years, her parents didn’t
have the U.S. equivalent of $2 to spend for her school tuition, so she wasn’t
able to continue her education. Instead,
she began working on the farm alongside her parents. She didn’t have time to play or study,
because there was always plenty of work for her to do. If she didn’t help, their family would have
less. So she worked from the time the
sun came up, until it went down at night.
Once, her family decided to go visit some family members in
a nearby city. Of course, anyone who
lived in the city was well off. While
they were visiting, these older family members offered them some books that they
didn’t need anymore. Ling Ling said she
took about 15 pounds of books with her back to the village.
Their family didn’t have electricity, and they didn’t have
the money to buy oil for a lantern, so Ling Ling’s reading was limited to what
she could do by the light of the moon, or the light of the fire in the
fireplace. She said that one time she
was leaning so close to the fire that her hair got singed! But she loved to read the books that she had
been given. She only had an elementary
school education, but could read fairly well.
You have to remember that reading Chinese isn’t like learning an
alphabet. To be truly fluent in reading
Chinese, you really need to know 2 to 3 thousand characters. She only knew what she had been taught in
elementary school, but was able to read fairly well.
Imagine Ling Ling’s delight when I told her about the
encyclopedia set we had when I was growing up.
She thought that sounded wonderful!
And it was, but I wonder how many of us really appreciate the
opportunities we have to read and learn.
She still reads today, and also always tunes in to the evening
news. Even though she couldn’t continue
her formal education, she continually tries to increase her knowledge of the
world. With the internet so available to
me, it makes me think about the many opportunities I have, that I maybe don’t
appreciate.
3 comments:
I remember the set of Childcraft (I think) encyclopaedias we had. One volume was a fascinating collection of biographical stories. The period in Sam "Remember the Alamo" Houston's childhood that he spent with Native Americans stuck in my mind.
Learning 2 to 3 thousand characters, would certainly put me off learning Chinese!
The more we have, the less we value things.
Post a Comment