Books?
Took a break earlier, went for dinner with Robert after his IELTS exams. We strolled down to Borders in Melbourne Central to look for some good books to read. He needed something that’s not too intensive, with a stimulating story. It was… extremely tough to find books like that. His level of English isn’t very high, so I had to find something where he could understand at least 70% of what he is reading without referring to a dictionary. Tried to introduce him to David Eddings’ books, but he isn’t interested in fantasy so I had to switch to fiction. Not a strong area of mine. Recommendations from Jonie were authors like John Grisham, but the English level that’s used is too strong a flavour for him. Nevertheless, he remembered a Japanese author who wrote a best selling book back in China, and we got down to searching for it. We finally found the English edition, Norwegian Woods by Haruki Murakami. I even bought the same book for myself, as well as The Rainmaker by John Grisham. After much encouragement, he bought a second book, The English Patient (can’t remember the author, but the book is famous).
Walking back home, we mused on a lot of things. Heck, we often talk about everything and anything that comes to mind. Even with his limited vocabulary, we are able to develop many interesting topics, with me trying to help him on his English. I’m constantly amazed by his tenacity on approaching the language. I, on the other hand, would love to learn Mandarin and Japanese. But unlike him, the need to master those languages is still far from needed, therefore the urge isn’t there. Que sera sera I guess… Will just need a good push in the right direction to actually get down learning them. After all, my girlfriend is pretty good in Mandarin, and I have a solid friend like him who knows both Mandarin and Japanese. The situation then will probably be reversed, with me asking him on advice and him bringing me around to procure good books to read :P Ah well, time will tell I guess.
Kah Wai
