Until now, every time I think of that article and my father’s experience, i would still feel a bit sentimental. If there had been someone who owned enough capital to work with my father at that time, i believe with my father’s brain and talent, my family would be much better than it is today. Therefore, sometimes we have to admit that reality can shatter a person’s dream. However, not until the last moment shall we give up our dream easily. Instead, we should spare no effort to come up with the right solutions to tackle it. Actually, the reason why i would think of this issue is that some of my students in the BEC class sent me text messages telling me, “Dear teacher, i am eager to register for your grammar course this summer because i learnt from your class that my grammar is very poor and needs to be improve urgently. However, due to my lack of money, i have to give up this time .” Seeing these text messages, i replied to them, “My class will begin for sure regardless of the number of students. So if you have no money, you can take classes first and pays it back later. Or if you really have no money in the future, you do not need to pay for it because i treat you as friends. Once you are determined to learn, do not give up so easily.” Finally, one student promised me to come while others have not replied yet. But not matter what their decision is, i will not feel the least regretful as their teacher and friend because i have tried my best to help them.

From my perspective, if you really want to learn something, do not give it up because of lack of money. If you want to go abroad to study, which needs almost half a million, and you have no money and do not want to borrow such a large sum of money from others, i think it is acceptable. But if you just want to learn a language or an employable skill and give it up because of money shortage, then it is unacceptable in my eyes. Why not think about some ways to solve this money, like borrowing money from your friends or classmates? Why not beg your teacher for payment in installments or even delaying your payment? To put it to an extreme, why not use your credit card or borrow loans from banks? I have mentioned a young man who is working in a factory in Baoan District in one of my previous diaries. He only earned a bit more than 2, 000 RMB a month, but now he is striving for his dream in my class. He has studied for nearly a month but has not paid his tuition fees due to lack of money. He had tole me clearly about this issue before he took classes and i did not urge him to pay. Every week he had to traveled a long distance in the metro from Baoan airport to my home in Luohu District to take classes. When i saw him sweating all over his face in front of my door, i could not help admiring him to the deepest of my heart!

Many people give up studies because of money, but they have not got the realization that they need studies more than ever because of their poverty. Without studying, how could you change your fate? The final result may be that you are always short of money . I have been long holding a view that you can save money in every aspects in your life but not in your study. I used to save every penny when i was studying abroad and bought everything as cheap as possible. When it came to textbooks, i would never thing about saving money but bought it without the least hesitation even though it might cost me almost 70 Euros. My classmates might borrow my books to copy, but i thought it to be time-consuming and would easily get some pages lost. Besides, it was because i knew that the book was bought at a high price that i would try my best to finish it, while my classmates might put it away after flipping through a few pages. It is the same with studies. When you use a lot of money trying to learn a language or a skill, and the money was earned with your hard work or was even borrowed from others, would you give it up easily? For a rich student and a poor student who spent the same money for a course, will their attitudes towards the course are the same? Definitely not! And i can claim for sure that the poor student would study harder than the rich student.

Moreover, from my students’case i also see a common problem in our society: when coming across difficulties, the first thing popping up in our mind is not to think about how to try them, but to give up. Giving up is our instinct and needs not be taught, but it is by no means what we need. Many people would feel headache when meeting a small problem and then amplify the problem to find an excuse of giving up. Actually what we need to do is not fearing the problem but trying every means to solve it. If we fear it, it will be amplified by us unconsciously and we would get defeated in the very beginning. This common wisdom can also apply to our study, life and work. When you get addicted to this habit, no matter what you do, you will not succeed, because everything you do will have its own problems, whether small or big.

What is dream? Dream is what we are thinking and desiring. But if we want to turn our dream into reality, we need unyielding bravery and perseverance. If we fear difficulties and give up easily, then our dream will only remain as a dream.