In Memory of Premier Zhou Enlai

By Wang Fengxin （王逢鑫）

In Memory of Premier Zhou Enlai

By Wang Fengxin （王逢鑫）

【编者按】每年3月5日是周恩来总理诞辰纪念日。周总理一生为国为民鞠躬尽瘁；他虽然日理万机，但一直牵挂我国的文化教育事业。本文即为北京大学王逢鑫教授根据自己的亲身经历写的一篇对周总理的英文回忆。

1970年11月7日夜间，王逢鑫老师与北大其他师生代表一起来到中南海，受到周总理的亲切接见，王老师非常详细地记述了与总理见面的点点滴滴。周总理本人精通多门外语，当晚他面对面与师生代表交流如何学习外语以及如何改善高校外语教学方法等，令在座师生收获满满，深受鼓舞。周总理对外语学习的指导现在读来仍不过时，相信广大读者读后亦能受益匪浅；这是本刊刊发本文的目的，亦希望借此纪念周总理。

On the wall of my study hangs a framed portrait of Premier Zhou Enlai， which overlooks my writing-desk.

Every time I look at his portrait， my mind will fl ash back to the unforgettable night when I saw him with my own eyes. It was nearly ten years ago in Zhongnanhai where he used to live and work.

The teachers and students of our class were fortunately offered an opportunity to visit Zhongnanhai on November 7， 1970. We went there by bus.

At 9:30 p.m.， we got to Premier Zhou’s meeting-room. Just as we sat down， we heard a leading comrade say， “Premier Zhou is having a talk with an important foreign guest. After the meeting he will be here to see you directly.” We waited and waited. We kept staring at the entrance by which he would come into the room.

At 11:30 p.m.， the happy moment came at last. As Premier Zhou appeared at the entrance， we all stood up ad applauded him.

As soon as he entered the hall， Premier Zhou waved his hand at us， asking， “Have the teachers come?” While he was walking towards us， he said，“Teachers， you have been working very hard. You have done a good job.”He said it twice. What he had said warmed us up at once， giving us con fidence and strength. Just then， I said to myself， “As a teacher of English， I must work harder to train more quali fi ed graduates for our motherland.”

Taking his seat， he motioned the teachers and students of English to come and sit nearer to him. We sat by his side and could see him very clearly. Taking up a name-list， he began to identify our names with our faces. Each of us told him our names， age， native places and a brief personal history. When he called me， I stood up at once. He waved me to sit down to answer his questions. I told him where I had learned my English and how long I had worked as a teacher of the English language.All the time he was listening with great attention. Occasionally， he took some notes while we were speaking.

When Premier Zhou found one of us teachers was from northern Jiangsu Province， he smiled and said， “Oh， you are also from northern Jiangsu. We are from the same place. How did you manage to overcome the dif fi culties in pronunciation and learn your English?” Hearing this，we responded with smiles and no longer felt nervous. It seemed as if I was at home and talking with my own father.

The Premier continued， “I’m sorry I couldn’t go to your class this afternoon. My doctor told me about your English teaching. Still I want to sit in on your class myself and be a pupil and learn from you.”

Then he asked our students to read him a text. Putting on his reading glasses， he looked at our textbook. He listened to each student very attentively. When a student read like this: “What are those? They are weapon”， our Premier stopped him immediately. “You are wrong there，”interrupted the Premier. “You should have read ‘They are weapons’.You have forgotten the ‘s’ after the word ‘weapon’.” Then he helped the student to correct his mistake just as a teacher did.

When a student from Hunan Province was going to read the text， our Premier stood up and went up to the student. Cordially， he said to the student， “You are from Hunan Province. People from your hometown can’t tell the ‘l’ sound from the ‘n’ sound. You should pay great attentionto your pronunciation. Now try to read my name: Zhou-En-Lai.” At fi rst the student didn’t dare read it. The Premier assured him with a smile，“Don’t be afraid. Just follow me and read like this: Zhou-En-Lai.” We were all deeply touched. The student started to read his name. Then he read the text. After the student had fi nished reading the text， our Premier turned to us teachers， “Ah! He really can’t tell ‘l’ from ‘n’. How do you help your students like him to note the difference between the two sounds and pronounce them correctly? Pronunciation is an important basic skill. Once a student has formed a bad habit in pronunciation， he can’t correct it. To make the students pronounce correctly， you teachers must ask the students to pay close attention to pronunciation and work hard at it. Chairman Mao has often asked us to work hard at the basic skills.”

After that， Premier Zhou read a sentence to us and asked， “Is my pronunciation correct? Please point out my mistakes and help me correct them.” We all knew that our Premier had a very good mastery of French，for he studied in France when he was young. But we were surprised that he also had a very good command of English pronunciation， which was perfect. As a leader of our Party and country， he was so modest as to ask us ordinary teachers to help him in pronunciation. We were all greatly moved by his modesty.

Then he asked a student to say “black” and “white” in English. Our textbook didn’t include those two words. There was only the word “red” in it because “red”， both the colour and the word itself， had been so indiscriminately used by the ultra-leftists and was then generally acknowledged as the symbol of “revolution”. Naturally our students could only say “red” in English. Our Premier asked us， “Why don’t you have words like ‘black’ and‘white’ in your textbook?” As I was one of the compilers of the textbook， I stood up and answered him， “We wrote this book some months ago. When we wrote it， we didn’t dare put in words like ‘black’ and ‘white’ because people thought they were symbols of ‘reaction’ or ‘counter-revolution’. We were afraid that people would criticize us for teaching these words.” After I fi nished my answer， the Premier said with a bitter smile which I would never forget， “The world is made up of myriads of things， which have differenthues and shades of colours. In one of Chairman Mao’s poems， he used the names of seven colours in one line: red， orange， yellow， green， black， blue and purple.” His remarks were actually a sharp criticism to the ultra-leftists.This freed us from the tight control of metaphysical thinking.

In the course of the meeting， Premier Zhou asked our students something about history， geography and other background knowledge. Of course this was the weak point of our students who were actually primary school graduates. In these chaotic years， courses such as history，geography and biology were taken out of the curriculum. Book knowledge was said to be full of feudal， bourgeois or revisionist rubbish.Classroom teaching became unnecessary because it was， according to the ultra-leftists， out of touch with society， practice and physical labour.The most important form of study was “open-door schooling”. As a result， the quality of education was greatly reduced. It was not strange that our students were almost ignorant. When our Premier asked one of the students， “Where is Chile?” The student thought for a moment， hesitated and then stammered，” It is， in， in， in Europe.” Premier Zhou said， “You are wrong. It is in Latin America.” Then he asked another student the second question， “Where is Italy?” The student answered immediately，“It’s in Europe.” Premier Zhou was happy to hear the correct answer and said， “You are right. Now I’ll ask you another question. In Italian history there was a very bad man. What’s his name?” The student failed to give the answer. A student beside him said， “Mussolini.” He knew it because he was fortunate enough to have just happened to see an Albanian fi lm which was one of the rare foreign fi lms frequently shown at that time. In this fi lm there appeared a caricature of Mussolini， which was so funny and ridiculous that it made a deep impression on the student.

Premier Zhou said to us， “As a student of foreign language or an interpreter or a translator， one must have a profound knowledge. He must know what is happening in the world. The teachers must teach the students how to read the map of the world. Our great leader Chairman Mao has set us a good example. He often reads the map. To read the map is an important basic skill.” Now I remember after I came back to the uni-versity that night， I didn’t go to bed directly. Instead I wrote a new text about how to read the map. It is now Lesson Fourteen in our Textbook One: “A Map of the World”.

Premier Zhou said to us， “A foreign language is a tool in the three great revolutionary movements of class struggle， struggle for production and scientific experimentation. A language student can’t only learn the language itself. That is far from enough. When he leaves school and goes to work in society， he will need a wide range of knowledge. He must cover a lot of books and have a good mastery of knowledge at school.”

Premier Zhou asked us， “Have the students learned any English songs?” We told him they had just learned the ABC Song. He asked the students to sing it. We all sang it loudly. He asked us to sing it again.When we were singing， he sang after us and clapped his hands to the beat of the song.

He talked with us from 11:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. The meeting lasted four hours.In his talk， he asked us to train our students in three basic skills: skills in political ideology， foreign languages and cultural knowledge. When he talked about the basic skills in foreign languages， he said， “We mean a language student must have a good mastery of basic pronunciation， basic grammar and basic vocabulary. The teachers must train the students in fi ve basic skills: skills in listening， speaking， writing， reading and translating. In this way， we’ll make our students qualifi ed for our socialist revolution and construction.”

At that time our Premier was 72 years old. And he was not in good health. But he was in high spirits all the time. Although he had worked hard the whole day and the whole evening， he didn’t show any sign of tiredness. This meeting has always remained fresh in my memory.Since then， we have often talked about what he taught us on the reforms of foreign language teaching. We have always tried hard to follow his teachings in our work. And we have often asked our students to study diligently and conscientiously as Premier Zhou taught us.

The reminiscence of our meeting with Premier Zhou will always be an inspiration and encouragement for me in my life. (March 24， 1979)■