Click Here to Subsribe to the 'The Vance Report' Feed His name is Junior. He does not look remarkable; he is short with glasses and sports a buzz haircut. His lunch, which he carries to school every day is also unremarkable. It usually consists of mostly rice and vegetables which a little meat scattered here and there. Junior is one of my adult English students in China.
For Junior, our English training center is a home away from home. He is there every day often from sunrise to sunset. Sometimes, when I arrive at work early, I see him standing outside our training center door, reading his English out loud and waiting for the school to open. He smiles at me as I pass by but his lips never stop moving as he practices English.
Junior is not rich; our training center is not cheap. Junior also has to pay for his university tuition which is not cheap either. During his two month holiday, he signed up at our school with the goal that he would learn as much English as he possibly could before he had to go back for the Fall semester. He does not go out to expensive dinners. He does not sing at KTV. He does not go on short vacations. He is always here at our training center talking to foreign teachers and practicing his listening and speaking skills.
“My life this summer has been English,” he tells me when I run into him at a local supermarket. He is buying a snack before evening classes. “I go home at 10 and I still study English.”
Junior has the best English in the training center; his English was just average two months ago. He is a testament to what happens when a student has a burning passion to learn English. He converses well in culture,politics, and almost any other topic that you can think of. His improvement has been amazing.
“We do not have any magic,” I always tell prospective students who are visiting our training center. “The foreign teachers here can help you but most importantly you have to help yourself.” Just like Junior. I wish him well and hope that his enthusiasm for learning English will open up other worlds of opportunity for him.
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