Ron's ESL Blogs

Whenever I mention my high school career with others, one of my classmate, Suri, will always clearly emerge in my mind.  She is not my closest friend, however, Suri is the one who effects me the most in my entire life.  She shows me how to chase and persistent on dreams.  She is the girl who i deeply admire.

when i first came to my class, Suri was the one who impressed me the most, not for her beauty, but her unusual clothes.  She always wore short skirts, high heels, and all colorful outfits that were inappropriate to our age, therefore, she was labeled as an Alien who needed to stay away with.  During my entire freshman, we had never talked.  Nevertheless, the ugly gossip about her seemed ceaseless.  Things got to change after Suri moved to our dormitory accidentally at my second year of high school.

I was so upset when I heard Suri was going to move in at the first place, however, I started to know her and found out she was a nice girl.  Suri told me she wanted to be a singer.  She would do whatever to achieve her dream.  She had attended all kinds of singing competition, thus, she had never won any awards back.  I still remember the first time when Suri sang for us.  It was so amazing.  We became friends after she opened her mind with me and I became her little fan and followed her whenever she participated in the singing contests.  However, it was very hard to be a singer in my country unless you have plenty of money or a good background at that time.  After we graduated, we drifted apart.  I went to college, she was still chasing her dream.  Suri always told me ” If you have a dream, chase it, work hard for it.  Eventually, you will get it.”

I came to the United States a few years later and we lost contact with each other.  However, the last time that I head news from her, she was still doing what we used to do and have not given up.

Suri is a special person in my life who I will never forget.  Her persistence, her striving, always affect my life.  Her words always come up in my mind.  She teaches me how to chase dreams.

My High School Friend Phuong

    I think the best time in our life is the time we were in school. At that time, we don’t have many things to care about. We don’t have to worry about many things in life, we just need to study, and we have a lot of friends in our class, our school. Some friends in school were very special; they made you always remember them even when you are old. One of friend in my high school very special to me is Phuong. She is the one every boy in my class will talk about when they are free or when they eat in school together.

Phuong sat next to me; we are the best friend to each other. We always go out and study together. She is very nice, long curly hair. She has a big mouth, especially when smile, and she smiles all the time. That’s why she has a nick name “Ho”. “Ho” means “show off teeth”. Everyone likes her, special the boy. They like the way she treat with her friends and because she is a beautiful girl.

I still remember, my family was very poor at that time. My mom didn’t give me money when I go to school. We had break in school in thirty minutes. During time break, all of students go out to drink, eat, or buy something in school. I didn’t have money, I sat in class and reading a book. Suddenly, she came and sat next to me, I asked “what are you doing?”, she just smile and said “ I need your help, can you help me to solve this problem in math?”. I said “yes”, and then we solved the problem together. After that, she said “Thank you, I was stuck on this problem for a long time, can I buy you a drink? Please don’t say no to me”. I knew she just tried to find the way to help me and tried to make me happy. After that day, we become best friend, we study together, I help her in some problems she couldn’t do it and she bought me some drink on the break time.

She had a big problem when she was in College. Her family had a trouble on the business. They owned a big amount of money. One of their owners likes her and asked her to be his wife, and then he could help her family. She had no choice, she shared all the thing with me, but I couldn’t help her anything because my family were very poor. Finally, she agreed to be his wife to help her family. However, he didn’t treat to her very nice. He always says she got married with him because of money not because of love. He maltreats her every day, even though she is dutiful to her parents.

I had a chance to see her last year. She was still nice but she lost her big smile. Deep in her eyes, the sadness has been seen even she tried ti hide it. Even right now, she is poor, she is not as beautiful as before, she can’t buy a drink for me, but she is always my best friend and the friend I will never forget in my life. Our life are very difficult now, we have a lot of things to worry about such as house, job, kids, money, health…Having a best friend to share all our thinking, problem, our happy thing is important in our life. I am happy because I have a lot of friend around. However, when I find my school friend contact, I have special feeling, she’s really deep in my mind. I wish we could keep our relationship forever because I knew she can be my best friend, the friend I can truth and share everything.   - Anh Hoa

My High School Friend – Jun Xu
I had a best friend when I was in high school in Guangzhou, China. His name is Jun Xu. He is living in Vancouver, Canada now. We still keep in touch even we are all over 40 years old.
I clearly remember that Jun Xu joined in our school in the second year of high school. He moved from Shanghai to Guangzhou with his parents. Jun Xu was a good-looking tall guy. He was almost a head higher than me. When we walked together, other classmates said we looked like father and son.
At first, Jun Xu didn’t understand Cantonese, you know, in our school we all spoke Cantonese at that time, even we were taught in Cantonese in classes. That was a big problem for Jun Xu. He could speek Mandarin and Shanghai dialect only. So, after school, I needed to explain the main points of the classes to Jun Xu and help him to complete homework. I did lose much time for entertainment after school, but I spent more time in helping Jun Xu’s studies. There was an old saying in Chinese “Teaching is the Best Way to Learn”. We both made a lot of progress in studies.
Jun Xu was a very smart guy. He learned things very quickly. After one year, he became one of the top three students in our class. Furthermore, he could speak Cantonese in daily life, but with a strong accent. He always made me laugh when he spoke in Cantonese.
After having graduated from high school, we both attended the same university and studied the same major. We were classmates again. After graduated from university, Jun Xu went to Germany to continue his studies and I worked in Guangzhou. For the next few years, we hadn’t kept in touch as we usually did. A few years later, I was told Jun Xu married a Canadian nurse.
We contacted again when Jun Xu immigrated to Canada. I am planning to visit him this coming Spring Break.

 Peng Wang is one of the most important people in my life. He was my best friend in high school; we lived in the same bedroom. In my memories, he always studies all night while I slept on his right side. I was gradually used to turn on the lights to sleep. He is an exceptional person, his kindness, hard working and persistence, qualities had a strong influence on me, because these qualities followed me a long time.

 His kindness was expressed by helping poor people in financial matters. We had to buy some fruit as daily food on weekends. When we would go to the bazaar, he didn’t focus on fruit whether they were fresh or not. He just looked at the sellers clothing which had patches and looked in great poverty. He would run to that seller’s stall, and usually let the seller keeps change. I had the habit of charity under the influence of Peng Wang. When I see homeless people, I always want do something for them, even if one dollar helps. My heart grown happy for a long time.

 He is a hard working person, because he kept writing when he was at the school. He always spent him free time on writing. There does not have a computer for typing at that time. He just used a pen to write on paper with articulate words. There are a lot of manuscripts at our bedroom. I looked at those manuscripts, and become surprised that an emaciated boy wrote these papers. One manuscript was stacked rather high and word pround difficult for people to read since it looked so long. that reads these manuscripts could difficult for the people. He perseverance to completed it. He did not came to Beijing, but his aricle published in< Beijing Daliy News>. I knew that this is a reward for him. I tried to write something under the influence of him. Writing allowed me to realize the joy of creation. My college course is ESL. It is difficult for me. I want to relax when I see some difficult problems, but Peng’s spirit encourages me to overcome obstacles.

 Persistence is a perfect word to describe Peng Wang. Writing has become a part of his life, it important was as eating, sleeping and breathing. If any of them part are missing, his life cannot continue. He had a dream of immigrating the United States, where is a free country. He was preparing as an international student, and used a pen to go plan the whole process. Over four years, he opened a door at New York University by a page of perfect eassy. This is best reward for him, yet he achieved this became of his persistance.

 We are keeping in touch right now. I learned about he how to become a great man. If say, everybody’s life was like a book, I would like to write an extraordinary story the same as Peng Wang on my page.

My High School Friend
Everyone must have his or her close friend. In fact, people always mention that “at home there are family members to take care of you or help you, but outside friends instead of your family take care or help you on everything”. So making friends are very important for everyone. Although I have many friends. But my closest friend is called Thanh in my high school in Vietnam.
I know him about ten years ago when I was 17 years old,. Thanh is older than me by two years. he has a good looking outside, his eyes are small like Koreans. He has a pretty nose like the famous singer Andy Lau .He is 6.1″ tall like a model. My friend Thanh is a sunny day. I still remember he always told me 2 sentences ” think before you do something, never give up in middle, finish to the end. Help people to make yourself happy”. He is a person like to help people. He always help old people across the street, buy food for homeless people or give them money. He helps me a lo in homework or money problems. Because my family is very poor. I don’t have enough money to buy books or pay fees for school. He always pays for me.
I am very happy and lucky that I made a friend like Thanh. I will keep a good relationship with him forever. Follow the sentences he said to me, to be successful in my future.