Stories

Last Tuesday my assigned homework was to write a story. This is a fairly common assignment, because it allows us to practice using the vocabulary and grammar structures that we are learning in class. Our teacher usually gives us the topic, and then we write the story and read it the next day in class. Tuesday's topic was the Olympics, which didn't have anything to do with the lesson's new vocabulary, but since China's gearing up for 08-08-08, I didn't think much of it.

So Tuesday night, I wrote a story, and trying to be a little creative, I wrote about the Mini-Olympics that my extended family had one summer in Miami. I didn't put much time into it, but used it to review my characters, writing as many as I could remember in the story.

Wednesday when I went to class, instead of reading the story, our teacher wanted us to give it to her to read and correct on her own. Strange, I thought, but dismissed the thought and gave it to her to check over.

On Thursday, I received my little story back with some corrections on it. As I was looking back over it, my teacher explained that there was a writing contest, and she was wondering if she could enter our stories in the contest! I couldn't help but laugh, picturing Chinese judges reading through other university student's stories about the Olympics, and then reading my story, confused as to how a 2nd grader's story got mixed in with the rest of the stories! Well, actually, a 2nd grader's level... that might still be giving myself too much credit. Here's a translation of what I wrote:

"When I was a child, I went to Miami with my family to visit my grandparents. My uncle lives in South Korea, but he and his wife and daughter were also there. Including me, all together there were 13 or 14 people. My grandparents live near the ocean, which we think is very fun. We thought of having our own Olympics. The first competition was the long jump. When it was my turn, I thought: If I run a little farther, and if I run a little faster, I will be able to jump a greater distance. So I continued to back up towards the ocean. Finally, I entered (fell) into the ocean because I couldn't see it, since it was behind me! My uncle decided I lost the long jump."

Wow. To think of that story being read along with other stories in a writing contest about the Olympics! When I told my brother that story, he told me not to cross my fingers in hopes for a victory. No kidding!