Last night, an elderly gentleman and I got on the elevator in my apartment building at the same time. Seeing that his hands were laden with grocery bags I asked him "which floor?" He looked at me, grinned, and then said in English "Five." I pressed 5. I then asked him if he knew English. "Only a little," he replied (in English), He leaned towards me, as if to let me in on a big secret and said (switching back to Chinese) "my five year old son has an English tutor and I like to listen in." Then he threw his head back and laughed just as the door opened on his floor. All smiles, he got off, turned towards me and said (back in English), "bye bye!"
It reminded me of a great Chinese proverb: 活到老，学到老，(huo dao lao, xue dao lao), which means "live til you're old, learn til you're old." I like that.
