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People / Faces In The Crowd

Street Vendor in SW China's Sichuan Wins Hearts with English Fluency

　January 17, 2024

A woman street vendor in Chengdu, the capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, has recently captured widespread attention online for her fluency in English, especially when communicating with foreign buyers.

Xie Hongying, 49, effortlessly bridges the language barrier in her interactions with foreign buyers. With a warm, inviting tone, she often asks, "Which one do you want to buy?" or informs them, "Half a kilo for 12 yuan ($1.69)." One day, while introducing fresh figs, she said the figs were "very delicious."

Originally from Jianyang city in Sichuan, Xie moved to Chengdu in 2012 and became a fruit vendor.

She frequents the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, a favorite among foreign visitors, and various public transit stations after 9 a.m. daily. The end of her workday varies, depending on her business volume. "Apart from figs, I also sell strawberries, cherries, loquats and other fruits," she said.

Xie decided to learn English on her own in 2019 after communicating through body language with a foreign buyer. Her method is simple: looking up words in a dictionary and memorizing the vocabulary. Yet, she emphasizes that the most important thing is to communicate with foreigners often.

"I'm not afraid of making mistakes or being laughed at, and my spoken English has improved rapidly. There were times when foreign buyers helped with my mistakes, and I corrected them immediately," she said.

Now, she is genuinely interested in learning English and actively greets and converses with foreign visitors. "Only by communicating with them can you truly understand how to speak and improve your English. Simply memorizing content from textbooks doesn't always work," she said.

(Source: People's Daily Online)

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