When the author was riding a train from Beidaihe to Beijing, he did not have the normal seat but settled in the dining car. There he met a man or in another words, a man approached to him. The man was wearing an official look cap and a white jacket. The author found out later that the man was a railway guard. The man smiled to him then sat opposite to him and talked. So they began a all night talk. The railway guard did not understand a word of English. Meanwhile the author did not understand what the guard said either. But the guard had enough patience. He drew pictures and wrote Chinese characters for the author. Gradually the author got the sense that he got the patterns of Chinese and could understand some of the talking. What amazing.
       A few days after his return to Beijing, he attended an oral and a written test for the new students held by the institute. He got a good pass with the oral test, his written test was not that good though. This result baffled those examiners. He was assigned in the intermediate class rather the beginner’s class. Since the train trip, the author was well on the path to learn Chinese. He applied himself and made effort. After six months, he had already mastered Chinese. How nice the railway guard was. Maybe he just wanted to kill the time. Maybe he wanted to keep an eye on the writer(just joking). He did a big for the writer’s Chinese without knowing.
       I have always been thinking about this question. Is it easier for a Chinese to learn English or a foreigner to learn Chinese? I think that the most basic and important skill of a language is listening. And listening English for Chinese student is the most difficult.  English is far rapid than Chinese. A person who was used to fast speaking is easier to slow down to listen to low speed speech. On the contrary, a person used who was used to slow speaking is difficult to listen to fast speaking. So I think that foreigners learning Chinese is easier than Chinese learning English .