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For their exam topic, my students needed to interview a married couple and tell their love story using past tense. Keep in mind that my students' parents and aunts and uncles would have all met in the mid-1980's -- mid 1990's.
A student decided to talk about a celebrity actor and actress. When I asked how she interviewed them, she replied that she found the information on the internet. I explained that since she didnt' follow the instructions, I would take off a few points. She replied that she had misunderstood me. I pointed out that it was clearly written in her book as part of the questions they were assigned. She looked sad and sat down.
The next pair of students stood before the class. One gave a brief introduction (less than a minute) that I later learned was his story. His partner's turn came and he proudly began to talk about Zhou Enlai.
I really want to know how he got that interview.
One of my weaker students was telling the story of his cousin romancing his now-wife. On their first date, they went out to eat. He was very romantic. He even pulled out her chair.
The student then gave me a big grin and thumbs up.
One student told us about his cousin and her husband. They met in an elevator.
One day, when she was a high school student, a new neighbor family moved in across the hall. To be helpful, she held the door open on the elevator while they moved some big things. She and the boy were on one side of the boxes, his father on the other.
They became friends as their families became friends. Two years later, they both moved away to college. (I got the sense this was before everyone had internet access.) They lost touch unless they were at home.
One day, her father announced the family would sell the home and move. She begged him not to. How else would she be able to talk to the neighbor boy? Her father finally agreed.
Then, she got a text message. It was from the boy. He wanted to meet.
And the rest is history.
A girl liked playing online role playing games. (They are really popular in China.) One day, she was playing and her character was nearly killed by another character in all black clothes. Then, suddenly, another character stepped in and saved her. She was quite grateful.
She and the new boy started talking online everyday. They became internet friends and it grew to stronger feelings. But since they lived a few hours from each other, they never met.
But the girl knew that online wasn't the same as reality, and ended the relationship. She decided that it was better than falling more in love with someone she'd never met.
The boy messaged her and asked if they could meet. She agreed. The date went well. Then she said good-bye and felt sad.
The boy pursued her. Two years later, he moved to her city and bought a house. He wanted to be with her. (Leaving your hometown is still a big deal in China.) She agreed and they've been married for a few years now.
One day, a young man walked into his local library. At the checkout desk was a beautiful girl. The man immediately decided she was more important than his original purpose. He had to get into line and talk to her, but he didn't have a library card. He grabbed the first two books he saw and got in line next to her. He asked her if she could help him check out the books since he had no card. She agreed, and then he walked her home.
One day, a young woman was biking to work when suddenly her bike broke. Nearby, a handsome man fixed bikes. She took her bike to him, and he easily fixed it. While he was fixing it, they chatted and he learned that she took the road everyday to and from work. From then on, everyday, he waited on the side of the road to meet her.
A man and a woman went on a date. The boy was very shy and really liked the girl. He really wanted to kiss her but was too nervous. The woman really wanted him to kiss her, too. They stood, awkwardly, not sure how to end things. Finally, they both closed their eyes for what felt like an eternity. Both were hoping something would happen. Suddenly, the woman sighed, exasperated. The man looked confused. "Why didn't you kiss me?" he asked.
"I can't kiss a stupid man," she replied.
He took the hint and managed to get a second date.
A practical jokester and his friends were bored and decided to play a joke on a passerby. As luck would have it, the next passerby was a beautiful woman. Unluckily, she didn't think the joke was funny. He tried to smooth things over, but she wasn't buying it. The next day, he tried again. Eventually, they fell in love and he asked her to marry him. She said yes, theorizing that life with him would never be dull.
A man walked into a shop to buy a dress shirt. The shop had many choices, too many, even. He asked the pretty salesgirl for some help. She helped him find a shirt of nice quality that fit well and was a pleasing color. He bought it and left.
The next day, he was so impressed with the shirt that he went back to buy another. And another. And another.
A student told a story of his parents' first date in the 1980's. It went well, and after walking in the park, the man took the woman to the Guangzhou Hotel.
"What?" I said, shocked. This isn't the kind of thing you tell your teacher and classmates. "They went to a hotel??"
Suddenly the student understood my confusion and horror. "No, no, no! The Guangzhou Hotel has a nice canteen!"
In China, mobile phones are pay as you go. When you run low on money, you simply add money to your phone's account and keep going on as normal. The nominal monthly fee is deducted each month, and each call or text message is subtracted from the account.
There are several ways to add money to a phone, but one of the most popular is at the ATM. Simply put in your ATM card, select that you want to send money to your phone, enter your number and the amount, and you're done. The whole process takes less than a minute.
One woman's cousin decided to top up her phone this way, but she accidentally entered the wrong phone number! So she called the person whose phone she'd accidentally topped up, hoping they'd be kind and top hers up, too. They ended up talking for a while. And then again later. Eventually, they decided to meet and they fell in love.
A student's grandfather and his parents met with a matchmaker. (This was pretty common.) She gave him directions to a house and told him to talk to the young woman who lived there. So grandfather set out to meet the woman who might become his bride. Eventually, he came to a house and knocked. A pretty girl lived there and invited him in. The drank tea and chatted quite easily. A few hours later, his mother came by to see how things were coming along. She stopped suddenly at the house. "Why are you here? You're supposed to be at the house down the road!" Grandfather had gone to the wrong house. But since the two of them were smitten with each other, he told his mother he would rather marry this woman instead.
A student told the story of his parents' meeting. He even acted it out, constantly changing positions with his (silent) partner and changing voices for each character. They held hands and also acted out a proposal. I thought his friend was going to die of embarrassment.
The student's mother was named Juliet and things got a little strange at points in the story. Afterwards, I asked if he had really interviewed his parents, was the story true?
"I may have changed some things," he said with a grin.
One male student dressed up a bit and even had a new haircut for his presentation. His friends teased him about it a bit. While he was in the middle of telling his love story about his parents' meeting in the library, a mobile phone starting ringing loudly. <br style="color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" />He quickly realized that it was his phone in his bag. His friends quickly tried to turn it off, but not before everyone was laughing.
A student was telling the story of his father's surprise proposal at KTV. But the student was nervous and misspoke.
Instead of saying, "Will you marry me?" he said, "Do you remember me?"
Two common ways people seem to have met:
Frequenting the shop where someone special works and chatting them up
Offering to share umbrellas during a downpour outside the library
One of the questions the students needed to answer was why the couple decided to marry. This was one answer:
"Then she was pregnancy so they decided to get married."
That's pretty straightforward.
My favorite story of them all was about a girl's parents. Times were hard and food was still a concern for many. Her father, the eldest, dropped out of high school to help support his siblings. He worked while they went to school. A pretty girl in his class was impressed by his actions. He was obviously very devoted to his family. But also thought it unfair since he was the smartest boy in the class.
So every day she visited him at his new job and told him what the teacher had taught them that day. This continued for a while. Not surprisingly, they fell in love.<br style="color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" />After he passed the college entrance exams, they got married.
The most incredible story of them all:
The student's grandmother's family was very poor when she was a child. They lived in Hong Kong. When she was old enough, they sold her in Shenzhen.
A man came to SZ and somehow they met. He thought she looked "wretchedness." So he took her with him to the city of Foshan.
There, she met his wife and became his second wife.
And that's how they fell in love.
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Albert
non-member comment
This was great. I can't get enough of these stories.