Ren Xiaoyuan

It was four years ago at Sea World Plaza that I got to know Rob Jones. As I remember it, it was approaching Thanksgiving Day in November.

I was handing out my flyers to get new foreign students for tutoring Mandarin. Jones was on his bicycle and heading home after work. He was just passing by the plaza. I forget why he fell off his bike and landed on the ground. I then quickly went over to him and asked if he needed help. After the incident I learned that he was a teacher teaching at an English training center.

Jones is good-looking, in good shape, friendly, cultured, intelligent, and open-minded. He loves playing football. Knowing that my tutoring was the only way I made money, Jones insisted on paying me after every Mandarin session. I can still feel the fresh air, smell the blossoming flowers of that garden, and even feel the sunlight on my face as we practiced Mandarin walking around that garden.

Jones’ pronunciation of English sounded really beautiful to me. He knew almost no Mandarin at the beginning, so we primarily communicated in English. I would say this was how I picked up my sensitivity to different accents of English.

Jones has other interests, such as running. I had assumed that this was the most boring thing in the world. But after meeting Jones, I actually have been keeping the habit of running in the morning for almost one year! I run 45 minutes or so in the early morning in the park near my house. I never would have expected to do something like that.

Jones was one of my first students to hire me as a private Mandarin tutor. I would say that I didn’t really know the techniques to teach Chinese, even though I had been speaking Chinese since I was born.

Having now had four years of experience in that business, I now know what mistakes I had been making during those earlier days. One of them was that I looked at my watch too much during the class. I also hadn’t created a proper plan before class and gave too much information that was hard for the brain to absorb.

But Jones never minded my faults. He didn’t mind that I did not use grammatical terminology.

Jones is an Englishman who has been a good example for me on how to face life’s challenges and how to be kind, positive, open-minded, and helpful to others.