位春岭
年過七旬的徐奶奶自学了包括英语、法语、韩语在内的11门外语,并且大多数都达到了能够进行日常交流的水平,令人赞叹不已。
Videos of 77yearoldXu Xiuzhen,who speaks different languages with foreignerswhile working at a scenic spot sellingwater, postcards and headdress flowers,have brought her instant fame.
Xus village is located at the base ofMoon Hill, a popular tourist destinationfamed for a moonshapedhole at the summit.She has been working as a tour guideand vendor (小贩) in Yangshuo, a countyand resorttown in southern ChinasGuangxiZhuang Autonomous Region since 1998,when the area became famous for foreignbackpackers and organized tours.
Xu, who dropped out of junior schoolin the third grade, began to learn differentlanguages in order to attract more foreigncustomers. Xu said she would convert wordsin any language into Chinese charactersbased on their pronunciation and thenmemorize them. Repeating the words in herhead before going to bed and immediately after waking up has given her fluency inbasicconversationswithforeigners,shesaid.
Over the past two decades, Xu hastaught herself 11 foreign languages, includingEnglish, Spanish, Japanese and Korean.In addition to making her incrediblypopular, her linguistic prowess has made iteasier for her to communicate with foreigntourists. Xu has also become one of thebusiest tour guides in Yangshuo. Her reputationdraws a large crowd of tourists everyday, especially foreign visitors, who cometo meet the multilingual guide out of admiration.
“More and more foreign tourists arecoming to Yangshuo, and I hope they willfeel at home here with my help,”she said.
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What should we learn from Xu according to the text?