Mid-Autumn Festival Speech

While I was sitting in an empty room at the law school trying to memorize a poem about being far away from home and the Mid-autumn festival a man came into the room and said hello, in English. I replied Nihao (hello in Chinese) he asked me what my name was (in Chinese) and we had a short, very short, conversation in Chinese. Then he switched to English and told me that he thought that maybe his professor was my mother because she had said that she had two daughters and one son, and he had realized that maybe I was her daughter. I replied that yes I was her daughter. We both continued our work, I laboring over “du zai yi xiang wei yi ke” and he murmuring to himself in English.

After a couple of minutes he said something along the lines of “Today is maybe the Mid-autumn festival party. I have to give a speech.” At this point, I, not quite understanding what he meant, though he had asked me to give a speech at the Mid-autumn festival party. He quickly cleared up the confusion then continued, “I think maybe I (emphasis on the I) have to give a speech, and I maybe was thinking you can listen to my speech and tell me if I have any problems with my pronunciation.” I agreed and he handed me two sheets of paper with tiny blue cursive writing on it.

He began, “Welcome Dean, Welcome professors, Welcome students, and especially, Welcome new students” He went on talking about STL (the school) and how it had its flaws but that the students were the ones who were going to improve it. He talked about how you don’t abandon a baby or a child because it is not a grown person yet, and how the students had been called upon to modernize the Chinese judicial system. He said that the school would give the students wings of freedom and power. He recited all of this with a blank expression staring at the white wall behind me. Once he had finished we both returned to our work.

A couple of minutes ago he came up to me again and asked me to pronounce a j then a g. He seemed baffled, but said them correctly. He then wrote “give” and “jeep” and had me pronounce those. He is now trying to understand Isabel’s name. She came in to tell me we are leaving.

Last night at the Mid-autumn festival party, he recited his speech in front of everyone, staring at the white wall behind me.