Meeting on a bus

Warren and I were on a bus heading back to our flat, we had been to the capital for the day. Buses in China allow quite a lot of room for standing patrons and as such in the middle of the bus is standing room and only one row of single seats. I was sitting on one of these opposite the second door towards the back.

At one stop, I noticed a young woman get on the bus and swipe her bus card, I resumed people watching out of my window and then I heard a voice asking "Vicki? is that you?" I turned to face this person and she smiled and said "It is you!" I agreed that I was indeed Vicki and she went on to tell me that I had taught her in high school and she graduated in 2007. It must have been 2006 that I was her teacher as the students did not have foreign teachers in their final year as they were too busy studying to get a place in college.Back the school was not a University.

Nine years ago, what a memory! Chatting with her I discovered that she herself was practicing to become an  English  teacher, she was doing her final prac before getting her qualification.

As "our" school was a vocational school, students could go on to become qualified but it took a little longer so she had graduated from high school done four years at college then onto Uni.

She laughed and said that she always remembered that she had to say please when asking for something, I apparently had held back on giving her and others a worksheet until they asked properly. They would just say "I want/need a paper" I would insist that they say "I want a paper please" then and only then would I give them what they asked. She said it was a good lesson in using English correctly as it is not usual in Chinese to add that little magic word of "please". She also said that she makes sure that her students use Please and Thank you when they are using English.

All too soon her stop came up and she had to get off, she thanked me for teaching her and waved Goodbye.
We taught so many kids while were in China and we have only kept up with a handful of them, it was nice to meet one just out of the blue. I cant believe that she recognized me after nine years!After all, I am nine years older, now wear glasses, greyer and 20 kgs lighter.