Virtual China '98

Markin Grou

April 26, 1998

Day 1 -2

Tim Harms and Jeff Chen

April 26, 1998

Tai Shan

While we were wandering on the streets of Tai Shan, bumped into a local man coming home from work. He rode a scooter bike accompanied by his wife on the back. We had just finished watching men by the river cooking shellfish. We got off our bikes and started talking to him. It was pretty easy communicating with the man and his wife because he spoke fairly good English. It was amazing how he could speak English so well since he had been educated at least 15 years ago in Mainland China. This kind of education is not usually found in China because they commonly don’t teach English. However, we did have some help from some Cantonese translators.

Us: Where do you live?

Him: I live in Tai Shan city.

Us: Do you have any children?

Him: Yes I have one six-year-old son.

Us: What do you do for a living?

Him: I work as a life insurance salesman for the government.

Us: What does your wife do for a living?

Him: She works as a teacher at a children’s school.

Us: Where did you learn how to speak English?

Him: I learned from school and the radio.

Us: What is the television like? Do you get any channels from Hong Kong?

Him: We get many channels. Some are from Hong Kong.