奇速英语

98岁老人西湖边“飙”英语走红

Recently, a video of a 98-year-old grandpa speaking English with foreigners by West Lake became popular online. In the video, the white-haired man talked confidently, which won many praises.

The grandpa is Zhou Panlin. He joined the English corner by West Lake seven or eight years ago. Every weekend, he takes a bus and then an electric bike to get there. The trip takes about two hours, but he enjoys it. “I don’t want to stay at home all day. I want to meet people and be part of society,” he said.

Grandpa Zhou started learning English in middle school. After retiring, he worked as a translator for many years. He even helped translate documents for the Hangzhou Metro project. Now, he still reads English books every day and spends his afternoons talking with foreigners at the English corner.

When talking about learning English, Grandpa Zhou said, “First, you must like it. If you’re afraid of it, how can you learn it well?” He believes interest is the best teacher. He also encourages people not to give up learning because of age. “It’s never too late to learn English, a new skill, or anything you want to do,” he said with a smile.