By Nie Xiqian

On the evening of November 25th , although the weather was a little bit cold, students as well as Mr. Martin Stannard and Ms. Linda J. Visner came early to the English corner held in the library.

Martin talked about the experiences when he was young. He left home when he was 19, got a job and never asked his family for money ever since. Martin became a backpacker in his free time and went traveling with his friends to lots of places, such as France, Spain and North Africa. One student asked if he met some difficulties on his way, he replied “of course, when we were in the south of France, it’s too hard to get a ride because of the heavy rain. So we put the tent under the tree and decided to stay there for one night. Fortunately, we got a ride in the next morning.” “That sounds like an adventure for me.” One student said. “Actually, that was part of our lives.”Martin added, “I also met many nice people on my trips. That’s great.”

Meanwhile, Linda said her mother had begun to learn Spanish recently. She was also trying to read Spanish novels as well as watch Spanish TV series, which were quite easy for her because the Spanish characters were similar to the English ones. The students were so excited and everyone wanted to share the obstacles they encountered when studying a new language such as the grammar of French and the vibrato of Spanish. Linda even taught students how to pronounce vibrato and students tried their best to make it. Students were very curious about why Linda came to China. She explained “I want to create a good language environment for my son to learn Chinese well. Whatever language you study, the best way is putting yourself among the native speakers. It is really helpful.”

In the English corner, Students have improved their oral English, communicated more with foreign teachers, got more information and acquired a lot of extra-curricular knowledge.