Frank the English student

As a result of teaching primarily seniors this semester, most of my classes ended much earlier than others. I used some of that time to take the trip to Hong Kong, but still have had plenty of free time recently-and wasn’t traveling yet. So, one night, when accompanying 真真 to sign up for the IELTS test, I had her ask the secretaries if they needed a foreign teacher. I quickly had a nice part time job preparing students for the speaking session of the IELTS exam.

The class went easily enough, it was pretty similar to my oral English class. I had to do a little research about the IELTS test, as I was given no information about the test or class goals, which didn’t surprise me at all. Most of the students taking the test were recent high school graduates or college seniors who were planning to study abroad in Australia, Canada, or the United States (in order of preference). There was one student, English name Frank, who was quite different.

Frank’s English was markedly worse than any of the other students-but his enthusiasm was unparalleled. His weak English gave him trouble following my rule of English only, and he did come to class fairly tipsy one night (because had taken one of the high school graduates out to make him a man: aka drink 白酒). When he spoke, it was easy to see him struggle to find the right word, but he never relented and always spoke-rather yelled-as if scolding a child. With every other word he would aggressively thrust his forefinger to his listener-commanding the attention that his slow speaking pace didn’t.

Frank was married with a son, which he would often talk about adoringly during conversations, always prompting laughter from the other students. His mistakes with pronoun gender agreement (a very common mistake for Chinese people) further emboldened the others’ chuckles. Of course, this just made Frank’s finger wagging more severe and his speech more spirited. Frank worked as an electrician. He wasn’t native to Changzhou or even to the greater Yangzi River Delta (China’s richest and most developed region). Rather, he came from a town in the mountains of Anhui, the poorer, less developed, and occasionally derided province west of Jiangsu. As he so vehemently explained, he had come to Changzhou as a migrant worker, making his way up the ladder, working to provide for his wife and son. He wasn’t spoiled and “lazy” like the rest of the students, who he saw as children of rich parents who gave them “everything.” What he lacked in vocabulary breadth he certainly made up for in directness. I can’t say that I disagree with his estimations, but it was pretty funny to see him say these things to the rest of the students and see their reactions. Frank was taking the general (non-academic) version of the IELTS in hopes of gaining a work visa for Canada. It was a riot to see him continually boast about how great his mission in taking the test was-ensuring a better life for his wife and son. More comedic were his assertions that I “must smoke” because “all real man smoke.” I politely told him I didn’t agree. The one other thing that made Frank so entertaining was, despite his limited vocabulary, his ability to really string out his answers. With every answer, I could tell that Frank had a set of ideas that he saw fit to state, and he wouldn’t be stopped without seeing the job through. I’m not too confident of Frank’s ability to gain the score he needs to qualify for the visa, but I don’t doubt that a low score will deter him-perhaps if I go back to the IELTS school he’ll still be there, working on his English while waving his finger at other “lazy” “rich” spoiled students.