Just as last year, at the end of March, I received Jean-Pascal Laffaille's Christmas card which was sent last December from Paris. That means the card had toured the world for three months before it reached me in Shanghai.
I didn't want to investigate any reasons behind this delay but opened the envelope with a smile.The card is like a postcard but not exactly the case. The cover photo, looks like some place inAsia, was photographed by a French photographer.(Unfortunately, the caption of the photo was printed in French and I'm all Greek to it.) What surprising me was inside the card——the greetings from Susan, written in CHINESE.
Normally, when Jean-Pascal wrote me an email or sent me a card, he usually put Susan's name ahead of his when he signed his name at last and Susan often did not write anything to me personally. Therefore I was a bit surprised that this time, Susan wrote to me herself, and furthermore, in Chinese. A Chinese idiom thus jumped in my mind——it never rains but it pours.
Susan is English and is in her sixties now. We got to know each other in 2006 in Hong Kong, on the occasion of our company's annual budget meeting. She traveled together with JPL who was Regional? president of the company that I worked with at the time. His management covered Asia and Europe. I was told by my direct manager Susan was JPL's girl-friend.
I remembered once JPL mentioned to me that Susan was learning Chinese, for which I thought perhaps she just wanted to kill time. During our last meeting in Shanghai about two years ago, Susan told me herself and I realized she was seriousin learning Chinese. She said she attended Chinese class twice a week. In my understanding, some westerners are curious about Chinese culture, such as the ancient architecture, clothing, dramas and people. Learning Chinese is a totally different matter, of course. Apart from“Ni Hao”and“Xie Xie”, how on earth are they capable of listening and speaking this difficult language, let alone writing it. Who would want to take the trouble?
For sure, it would be fantastic if we can learn something out of interest like Susan, without driven by success or fame. Susan told me that she loves China and Chinese things as they are so mysterious to her and so hard for her to understand. Learning Chinese made her believe that one day she could read? Chinese books in their original Chinese version instead in translation.
Looking at myself or people around us, we normally learn something not because of interest. We judge and assess first in order to see if it is all worthwhile or beneficial; if not, we'll give up. Young people usually are endowed with good learning skills and they probably can obtain certificates of different qualifications with relative ease, such as language, accountancy, IT operation and a computer programming languages. Without any doubt that these certificates provide them greater opportunities in their career path. While whether they really enjoy what they've learnt is anybody's guess.
What my daughter said to me disappointed me, "I didn't like to study those subjects in the school. I did it nonetheless because I had no choice." I guess this is the main reason that she still has a lot to improve at school.
We were told before that "interestisourfirst teacher." This is because, driven by interest, we will pursue knowledge in order to satisfy our curiosity. Hence I doubt that those earned many certificates really learntas much as it seems. Those knowledge that theyhave practiced might be better mastered. Those not practiced would be forgotten soon. But only those learned with passion will not be forgotten.
I remembered Susan once said, "I love travelling in China, and I wish one day I could communicate with the local people there. I'd like to know them better and hopefully I wish I could read Chinese books one day."
Compare to myself, I felt a bit embarrassed as I usually stop doing something once I don't think it's useful. But one thing which makes me happy and I love to do very often is writing essays. It's perhaps just as much as how Susan likes about learning Chinese. I write because I want to write. I love to do it. I don't care much about how many people would read them, and even I don't earn any income from writing the seessays. I don't fail to enjoy doing it.
We sometimes see those old people who pursue their interest and hobbies, and they travel, photograph, sing, dance and read. They are gray haired but with high spirit. Talking to them as if talking to young people if only one ignores their age. They do sports regularly, surf the internet, communicate with friends and family across the globe through mobile phone apps and they travel every year.
Everytime when I think of these people, I can't help smiling. One of my former Australia colleagues once said to me, "Ageing is not fun, in fact it's full of sadness.”It could be true, especially when you look at your sick parents.
I know we can't predict our passing, and I understand that ageing is not fun when our body is gradually deteriorating day by day until we become very sick. However, when we are still healthy, we should really pursue our interest with passion and enthusiasm, not for anybody else, but only for ourselves. So we won't regret when we leave this world.
Going back to Susan, she is not young any more. Although I know that it's difficult for her to learn Chinese in France as she will have few chances to practice, and it's hard to say when she would be complete to read Chinese books, her determination of studying Chinese is admirable. She is good example for everybody, like you and me who is ageing. Is ageing miserable? Of course not. Look at Susan, she seems fully engaged everyday. She carries out good annual plans including studying, travelling, visiting friends and spending quality time with family members. She does these things because she loves to do. So does JPL.
We will all age one day. How you want to age depends on what you attain, as well as your approach. I shall choose what like Susan has been doing, indulging on something I really like no matter how old I am. Then I'm sure I will be happy everyday.
變老不好玩，但可隨心......
和往年一樣，我在今年三月底收到了Jean-Pascal Laffaille寄來的賀卡，是去年十二月底由巴黎寄出的。所以這封信不知在地球的哪些地方“巡游”了三個(gè)月，才寄達(dá)我手中。
我想不出個(gè)中邏輯，但打開信，卻不禁笑了起來?？ㄆ衩餍牌植皇?。那是一張折疊卡，封面一幀照片像亞洲的什么地方，但是由法國(guó)攝影家拍攝的。（可惜里面關(guān)于照片的說明是印的法語，我一點(diǎn)不認(rèn)識(shí)，心里挺遺憾的。）令我驚訝的是，打開竟然赫然有一行端正的中文字，蘇珊自己寫給我的。
通常，Jean-Pascal Laffaille在給我的郵件或者賀卡中會(huì)把蘇珊的名字放在他的落款之前，而這次，蘇珊親自寫了話，而且用中文。當(dāng)時(shí)我腦海中馬上跳出“不鳴則已，一鳴驚人”這個(gè)俗語。
蘇珊是英國(guó)人，六十多歲吧。我2006年在香港遇見她，那時(shí)我還在工作，是去香港開年度預(yù)算會(huì)議，她和Jean-Pascal Laffaille（當(dāng)時(shí)他是管歐亞的總裁）一起來了亞洲。我的上司和我說過，蘇珊是大老板的女朋友。
我記起JPL和我提到過蘇珊在學(xué)中文，我當(dāng)時(shí)沒有在意，心想這也許就是有閑階級(jí)的人消磨時(shí)間吧。直到兩年前和他倆在上海見面，蘇珊自己又和我說起，我才知她是認(rèn)真的。她說她每個(gè)星期上兩節(jié)課。在我的印象里，有些西方人會(huì)對(duì)中國(guó)文化有一點(diǎn)好奇，對(duì)諸如中國(guó)的古建筑、中式服裝、戲劇和中國(guó)人有些興趣，但學(xué)習(xí)中文，怕是完全不同了。除了“你好”，“謝謝”，他們究竟怎么能聽或者說這種很難的語言，更逞論寫呢。所以，誰會(huì)去自找麻煩?
但是蘇珊學(xué)中文，是很了不起的事情，因?yàn)樗粠Ыz毫的功利性，只是喜歡。她告訴我，她很愛中國(guó)的一些東西，她感到神秘，也很難理解。學(xué)習(xí)中文讓她相信也許有一天她自己能直接閱讀中文的書籍，而不是讀譯本。
回想我自己和身邊的人，大多不是因?yàn)橄矏廴W(xué)習(xí)，我們首先判斷值不值得學(xué)，有沒有好處，如果不值得就不學(xué)。年輕人學(xué)習(xí)能力強(qiáng)，手上證書一大堆，什么語言、會(huì)計(jì)、IT操作等計(jì)算機(jī)語言，在職場(chǎng)也許很有用。但這些對(duì)他們而言是否是真的喜愛，就不好說了。
我女兒說過一句讓我深感失望的話：“我很不喜歡學(xué)校里的學(xué)習(xí)科目，但是沒有辦法還得要學(xué)。”因?yàn)闆]有興趣和喜愛怎么能真正學(xué)好呢？
以前總說“興趣是第一老師”，因?yàn)榕d趣導(dǎo)向而學(xué)習(xí)知識(shí)是好奇心滿足的驅(qū)使。所以我并不認(rèn)為那些證書一大堆的人一定真正學(xué)好了，能用上的知識(shí)還行，用不上的很快忘了。只有真正喜愛的才忘不了。
我記得蘇珊曾對(duì)我說：“我喜歡來中國(guó)旅行，我希望有一天我能和當(dāng)?shù)氐娜藗兘涣鳎嗟亓私馑麄?，希望直接讀中文書?！?/p>
對(duì)比自己，覺得慚愧，學(xué)東西十分功利，但凡沒用，就不碰。只有一事例外，就是樂滋滋地寫下一堆沒有什么用處的文字，還樂此不彼，這個(gè)和蘇姍學(xué)中文是一樣的。我寫只是想寫、愛寫，所以不太計(jì)較。沒有多少人讀，不來錢也沒有讓我停下筆來。
我們有時(shí)看到一些老人，他們有自己的興趣愛好，旅行、拍照、唱歌、跳舞或是閱讀。雖然頭發(fā)全白了可精神高漲，你和他們聊天，若不提年齡，就是一個(gè)年輕人。他們定期鍛煉，上網(wǎng)沖浪，用各種手機(jī)app和世界各地的朋友或家人交流，還每年旅行。
每次我想到他們，就微笑起來。我曾經(jīng)的一個(gè)澳洲同事和我說：“變老真是一點(diǎn)都不好玩，只有悲傷?！边@是真的，尤其看到病重的父母。
我們無法預(yù)測(cè)哪天會(huì)離開這個(gè)世界，明白一天天變老真不是件愉悅的事情，因?yàn)榧◇w在一天天地退化、衰敗，也可能病重。但是當(dāng)我們還有健康的時(shí)候，我們要做一些自己真正喜歡的事情，只為自己，而不是別人，盡量在離開的時(shí)候不留很多遺憾。
講回蘇珊，她也不算年輕了，在法國(guó)學(xué)習(xí)中文不容易，因?yàn)闆]有什么語境，很難說什么時(shí)候她能閱讀中文書，但她依然是令人羨慕的，她是你我及每個(gè)正在變老的人的榜樣。變老悲慘嗎？當(dāng)然不是，看看蘇珊，她每天都忙得不亦樂乎，每年都定好計(jì)劃，學(xué)習(xí)、旅行、拜訪朋友，和親人一起共度寶貴時(shí)光，她做這些只是因?yàn)樗龕圩鲞@些事情。JPL先生也一樣。
我們遲早都會(huì)變老，但想要怎樣的結(jié)果取決于我們?cè)趺聪朐趺醋?。我想像蘇珊一樣，不管多老，都從心做些真正愛做的事情，那樣，每一天都是快樂的。
