The Story of Tommy Zhu

A promise made

Dongyang (‘Eastern Sun’) is a small town in Zhejiang province, and it is the place where I spent my first year in China, working as an English teacher for elementary school and high-school students. It was a difficult time, being as it was my period of adaptation to Chinese culture, but it was also the time during which I made my first — and some of the best — friends in this country. Besides, I got to watch firsthand the way that Chinese students forge their worldview as they advance through their education system. In these first 12 months I taught more than 1500 students in the ages of 11 to 18, and coming from very diverse social and economic backgrounds.

One of these students was Tommy Zhu, a lively young boy in his sophomore year in high school. His family was quite poor so he was studying on a full scholarship offered by the school where I taught and lived. With a permanently disheveled look, he was nevertheless very optimistic and very dedicated to his studies, and his English level was rather high compared to his classmates. More than once, he and some other students took me out to visit nearby mountains and temples, so we had a close relation.

One day I heard that, despite the school’s protestations, Tommy’s father had decided to take him back to his village, so he could help in the family business of electric appliance repair, which was going through some tough times. Tommy was visibly distressed but he understood his father’s decision and had already made up his mind to go back. Of course, many of the teachers, myself included, were very sad about this turn of events.
The next day I was taking a walk on the school’s playground, together with one of my Chinese colleagues — also an English teacher- when Tommy came running up to us. He had an apple in each hand and, offering them to me, said this: “Teacher, I come to thank you for all you taught me. I promise you, I will study at night, every night, and one day I will speak English as well as you. I promise!” When he finished, he waited for me to take a bite from one of the apples. When I did, he smiled broadly with that big smile of his, full of stained teeth caused by drinking unfiltered water. And then he walked away.

I often think about Tommy. And I know that somewhere in a village near Dongyang, in Zhejiang province, there is a repairman who can speak English properly, and who by now has probably broadened his horizons.