This morning when I was changing oil for my car in our parking lot , chatting with one of my neighbor who is also a Chinese, a tramp-like guy in rags stopped by the roadside nearby. He suddenly walked towards us and said " 你们讲国语吗？ “ . As my quick mind , this guy must come for my donation of a penny. " What can I do for you , sir ? " I am almost ready to give him a quartor and let him go because baggars might use some broken piece of frendly Chinese to get close to people. " 不，不，我听见你们讲国语，我很高兴。”。
I was shocked that he could speak such fluent Chinese which most of the Americans cannot . Then I asked him where he learned Chinese . He said that he learned it in the U.S.A. and he had learned Chinese for more than 20 years. " Why do you learn Chinese ? " I asked . He said " because it is such a profound culture , I really like it . " Looking at his shabby rags, I asked where he was living . He said " 我是一个露宿者。” “我喜欢这样的生活方式”。 “不要这样审判( he really meant " judge " ) " . I corrected his mistaken usage of " 审判” into “ 判断”。 He corrected his mistake immediately. He also shared with me some things about 老子's theory of " 道” . He told me he was learning "杨式太极拳“ with an American nearby ， too. Even though he had still many problems, his Chinese was excellent and he had known a lot of things about Chinese culture.
I submitted my name card to him and told him I am teaching Chinese in Santa Cruz Adult School. He was astonished and asked me ：＂　多少钱？ “ 。" Well, since you are in such situation , how can I charge you ? " I said " I might help you with a little bit Chinese every now and then when you passed by and when you really need it. " . He told me he was a writer and he was writing some poems . He showed me his stuff from his humble bag . Yah, he was still intelligent in his mind. I said " You are a profound person , too. You are acting like Thorou, the American literature transcendentalist, who quitted from the reality and chose the life in a hut by a rural pond ." He is such a figure who is humble in his material life but rich in his spiritial world.
Actually, in my opinion, his living style is absolutely unacceptable , but I do respect him for his knowledge of literature and enthusiasm of learning Chinese language . I am now wondering " Can only this kind of people know how to learn Chinese well ?"