I have been very lucky to make many trips to China. Though I have had some trouble with the language, I have never had a problem I couldn't solve. As a native English speaker（土生土长的说英语的人），I can go almost everywhere in the world and find someone to communicate with. I never thought that someone who speaks only Chinese would have a lot of trouble in my country.

Recently, the King family that I had met in China moved to Canada. I met them at the airport. My wife and I made meals for them and showed them around where we live. Everything seemed to go smoothly for the first two days as we looked for a car for them, showed them the way to different stores and the nearest city, Victoria. Mr. and Mrs King had a two-year-old son and soon we became Nainai (grandmother) and Yeye (grandfather). We were having a good time but we didn't realize Mr. King can't speak English.

Luckily, Mrs. King can speak very good English. Many people with Chinese background live near us. In fact, none of them speak Chinese. Mr. King can't even buy a mobile phone without his wife's help. He can't talk to me, of course. By the third day, he felt lonely and worried. And on the fourth day, we decided to take them to a large Chinese community.

Now, we often visit them and they visit us too. Sometimes Mrs. King would still like to live near us but Mr. King cannot. I feel bad because he seems very nice and smart but I can't talk with him. It seems that neither of us will learn the other's language because of our ages, maybe we will never have a friendly conversation. But we will think of each other as friends.

    Meiyu, born in 1995, is from Turkey (土耳其). She is the youngest child of her family. After high school, many people learned English or Japanese, but Meiyu decided to learn Chinese in university. She learned Chinese for four years in Ankara University in Turkey, and got her name Meiyu there.

    Meiyu fell in love with Chinese after going to university. She became more interested after she knew more about Chinese history. She graduated (毕业) from Ankara University in 2017. Since then, more Chinese have been visiting Turkey. The trade between the two countries also needs Chinese-speaking people. "Speaking Chinese means more job opportunities" said Meiyu.

    Now Meiyu has been in Wuhan, China for about two years.Besides going on studying Chinese, she shows great interest in Chinese kung fu as well, so she spends her free time on kung fu training with her coaches. Not only can kung fu help improve (改善) her health, but she is also interested in the history and culture behind it. Meiyu said, "The more I know about China, the luckier I feel to have been here. But the truth is that fun and pain go together in the process of learning."

    In the future, Meiyu decides to go back to Turkey to teach more students to learn Chinese.

A couple of months ago, I made a promise to myself. I put some money in my wallet with the purpose of giving the money to the person in trouble.

Months passed, and as my daily life got busy, I was unable to keep my promise. Whenever I opened my wallet and saw the money, it reminded me of my promise. and I would feel a little disappointed because I haven't taken action. The voice inside told me that I should do something soon.

Today, while walking to work on a busy street, I passed a blind old lady with her hand out on the corner. Seeing her aged face and sightless eyes, I stopped at once. What a poor old lady she was! All of a sudden, I remembered my promise and the money lying in my wallet. I took out the money from the wallet and bent (弯腰) down to her level. Gently, I took her hand, placed the money into it, and closed her fingers over the money so that she could feel it and understand my action. The lady nodded her head a little bit.

I felt like I had achieved something. I kept my word to help someone in need! It was really a small act but especially a meaningful one! You will never make it if you don't take the first step.

A Trip to Shanghai Disneyland Park