ESL Blogs

I met him in my boss' office. He was sitting in the waiting room when I came. He looked at me and asked me whether I knew when my boss would come. I said that she would come at 9 am because she might do some works at home. I offered him a cup of coffee but he chose a glass of water. He has stopped drinking coffee since few months ago. So I gave him a glass of water. He asked me to sit and accompany him. He asked my name and why I worked in my age. He said I supposed to study not to work here. I told him,I could not continue my study due to finance reason. He said sorry to hear that. I said it was okay. I could pay the fee as soon as I had enough saving. We talked about his life.

Mr. Johannes' life was so hard. When he was 4, his parents passed away. He was left alone with his nanny. And he was betrayed by her. His nanny sold all his parents' properties and left him nothing. He was 5 when one of his neighbors took him and cared him till he was 7 years old and once again he was left alone because the kindhearted neighbor passed away. He had to sleep on the floor in front of stores every night. He ate everything he could eat. From people's pity or leftovers from the trash, he struggled in his life. He forced himself to keep to study. Although he had no money, he kept coming to his school to study. Luckily, his school never charged him. He's never been bath, never changed his clothes. He was very dirty. He had no friends at school. He sat in the back corner of his classroom. He was smelly.This continued till his age was 10.

At 10, he began his life adventure. One day, he was standing beside one of traditional transports when he heard the driver spoke to a foreigner. "May I accompany you, sir?", and the tourist said "No". He never heard that language before. He wondered about what the sentences meant. Then he asked to the driver what was the meaning of his words. The driver looked so proud of his words.He said " May I accompany you,sir?" meant " I ask him to ride my cart". Young Johannes was really happy to know the meaning. He didn't know the correct meaning of that sentence. He wrote on a piece of paper (in fact he couldn't write nor read well), "Mey ai akompani yu ser" means " I ask him to ride my cart". He read the sentence again and again. He was curious to know more so he came to see the driver and asked him to give more sentences. The driver refused him and sent him to his nephew. He said his nephew was a guide. Johannes was very excited to meet Danny, the guide. Danny gave him the correct meaning of " May I accompany you, sir?". He couldn't teach him more. Danny the guide didn't have time.First,he was disappointed but then he decided to ask his teacher, Mrs. Yanny. Shyly he approached his teacher and asked her how to ask someone's name in English. Mrs.Yanny, without looking at him, said," What is your name?". He heard that and wrote on his paper,"Wat is yur nem?" means "I ask someone's name". Then he asked his teacher again how to say his name. The teacher didn't want to be disturbed by his smelly student said, "My name is..", and she told him not to ask about English again. She was a math teacher and English was not the subject at school that time. He didn't mind with the teacher's words. He quickly wrote the sentence, "May nem is Johannes". He had three sentences, "May I accompany you,sir?, What is your name?" and "My name is Johannes". He wanted to practice them. He wanted to speak to the tourist. He heard the tourists were generous people. He was tired of being so poor and lived by people's pity.

The next morning, he met two foreigners. He shook their hand and said," May I accompany you, sir?" What is your name?", "My name is Johannes". The foreigners were so surprised looking at an ugly dirty boy spoke to him. They might be feeling a pity for him. They looked each other then said yes. Then the ten years old boy Johannes walked with them. He was very proud. He was very confident even though he only knew three sentences. He didn't care about how he would say next. They entered a souvenir shop. The owner was very nice to him. He was offered some food. The food he never ate before. He ate the food while the two foreigners sighted seeing the goods at the shop. The shop owner was a fat bald man, he thanked him for taking the tourists to come to his shop and asked him to take more. He promised to give him some prizes. Johannes nodded his head and asked him how to say that something is good in English. The fat bald man said," Good, sir". So He went to approach them and said, "Good , sir". "Yes". " Good, sir". Pointing to some goods, he repeated his words...

To be continued...