Peter 1 and Peter 2.

Due to not so much to do, as I mentioned in my last post, I have been looking through some of my old computer files. I have about 20 or 30 discs that have got photos on them, most of which I have already transfered to my computer, but others that need sorting. Amongst these discs I found one that I had forgotten about for ages.

We lived in China for some time teaching English and at our first university was a student with, what is for Chinese students, an outstanding ability in writing. He wrote some really good stories. When someone learns a new language the first thing is the listening, then they copy what they hear so next comes the speaking. After that they learn to read the letters of the alphabet, and once they have those, and some basic grammar, they start to write. But for Chinese students, writing well in English is a very difficult thing to master. The grammar is all back to front to start with. In English you would say, 'have a happy day'. In Chinese you would say 'day day happy', or as they would actually say to us, 'happy every day'.

So for us to find such a good writer was really exciting. Not only that, but he had a bad accident when he was young, and his hand was blown off, so he only had one hand, the left hand ending at the wrist. To compensate, he made sure he learned things very well. He was also very good at drawing. So he put on a display outside the canteen one day with some of his drawings.

His name was Peter, so my Peter was Peter 1 and the student was Peter 2. Everyone knew them this way. My Peter taught Peter 2 for writing. One day my Peter told the class they would have to write a book over the next few weeks. There was horror on their faces! Write a book they gasped as one, except Peter 2. He set out over the next few months to write a book. Every week at his lesson he would hand in the next chapter in his book to be marked. He eventually finished the book just as we finished the year, and I edited it and gave him a copy on a disc as a gift. I actually kept everything he wrote, and I still have it all on disc.

I have kept in touch with him over the past few years, he is now working in an international trade company using his English every day, talking to customers all over the world. I am getting him to re-edit his work now that he is a bit older, and I just might see if I can do something with it. I think I'll investigate getting it published, even self published, and maybe into the Xinhua book shops. That'll keep me busy for a while on top of the other writing I do. I wish there was some way I could type while I was sitting on that dratted exercycle though!