Learning English from Blockbusters

Recent Stanford MBA Grad Jason Jianyu Tu was born in 1989 in a small village 125 miles south of Xian--in what he termed a sixth-tier city--meaning, "there's a very slim chance you can be successful." (See post one.) His parents, well aware of this, searched for ways out of this small village, and eventually found a path to Xian. (See post two.) The big city of Xian--although only a hop, skip and a jump away--was like a different planet, with buses and fast food and a really tough school. (See post three.)

Although Jason was discouraged, and said he “gave up" on his school work, he still did well enough to remain in the top class.  But something inside him had snapped. He was no longer interested in racing to be at the top of the class, no longer interested in studying math and science every waking moment. In fact,  he decided to learn something that had always interested him: guitar.

“My parents were not exactly okay with it. But I attended a boarding school so they didn’t know. By the time I attended high school, I played pretty decent. I started playing in a school band. I got into American rock music. Rock and blues—60’s, 70’s, 80’s. Do you know Jimmy Hendrix?”

Additionally, at night, when the dorm master called ‘lights out,’ and all Jason’s dorm-mates pulled out their emergency flashlights to continue studying, he pulled out a small DVD player to watch movies.

buying the latest blockbusters

“There were knock-off DVDs in China you could buy for 2RMB. My family was pretty poor, but my roommate had this small portable DVD player that I’ve never seen anywhere else. I borrowed this DVD-player and watched a lot of Blockbusters.”

Jason tried to mimic the accents. “When I first came over (to America) they thought I had a Brooklyn accent. “

But I’m getting ahead of the story.

(To be continued. Next: Following his Dream with No Clue How to Get There)