F2F Class Notes (David) [W]

Finish correcting the student’s article Gao Kuai Zi

Gao Kuai Zi (=Spin chopsticks)

Do ghosts exist in the world? I don’t know. I want to talk about some things happened in the countryside when I was a child, and maybe someone would say those were superstitious behaviors.

I want to talk about some things that happened in the countryside when I was a child. (when using a clause to describe a noun, use that, or who, or which to start the clause).

I was born in the Xiao Sun village, a very small one located in Jiangsu province. There were four kids in my family, includes three boys and one little girl. So my parents were under a strong pressure, especially it was in the beginning of the 1980s. they didn’t have more time to accompany with us and enough money to see a doctor if one of us got a fever. Even it was not only about money but also it depent on how they thought about the fever this time. it meant that they thought maybe one of died ancestors ‘ghost is coming back.

I was born in Xiao Sun village, a very small one located in Jiangsu province. There were four kids in my family, including three boys and one little girl. So my parents were under a lot of pressure, especially since/because it was in the beginning of the 1980’s. They didn’t have enough time to accompany us or enough money to see a doctor if one of us got a fever. It was not only about money, but it also depended on what they thought about the fever each time. It meant that they thought maybe a deceased ancestors’ ghost is coming back.

if I got a fever and didn’t get better for a long time, maybe one day my mother and grandma would take out eight chopsticks and tied each two heads of them to another two heads.

If I got a fever and didn’t get better for a long time, sometimes my mother and grandma would take out eight chopsticks and tie them together in two sets of four, tying them at the top to make a “V” shape.

They asked me to blow the heads of chopsticks once and put them standing up on the ground. Then they would say something to the chopsticks, such as “big ghost or small ghost, are you here, please get into the chopsticks if yes. So you can tell us something if you want to say.”

After one moment, they took these chopsticks up and gripped another heads of all of the chopsticks into each of them two hands.

My grandmother or mother would ask many questions to the chopsticks and spin them several times, instance “where do you come from?” “who are you?” “are you Grandpa?” ”Why you come back?”. My grandpa died long time ago, maybe at my father’s nine years old. The chopsticks answered every question by showing a direction or spinning different numbers of revolution or shaking heads.

Some time they blamed the chopsticks, perhaps my grandpa, that “why taking your grandson ill? He is just a baby? Do you miss us? Or you need money?” after they recognized that the ghost was my grandpa. Then they would make a promise to see him and burn some money for him. They also asked the ghost to promise leaving us and make me better and bless the whole family to be in heath and in safe. After that, they ended the activity.
Next day, my parents would take me to visit my grandpa’s grave, putting some food in front of the grave and burning some money and praying. It was not real money, it was yellow paper made from straw. usually I would be recovered in a couple of days.

It is only for a child because children are weaker that adults, so ghosts can make them sick easily. I asked my mum and my grandma several times that whether they spun the chopsticks, but the answers were always NO. the chopsticks spun by themselves, it meant the ghost did.

Pronunciation

superstitious – super-s-tih-shious

ancestor – AN-sess-ter

Vocabulary

deceased – adjective, used to describe someone who has died

ex: my deceased grandmother, a deceased relative, a deceased friend

emphasis – how you show what the most important part of something is