F2F Class Notes (Nicholas) [W]

How was your father and grandfather different? Do you have any fears? Why do you fear your father?

Vocabulary

retain – 保留
Even though I took Spanish lessons for 8 years, I didn’t retain any of it.

distracted – 分心
I am easily distracted by music and TV.

single – a man who isn’t married
single – one

double – two
triple – three
quadruple – four

multi – more than one – many
multiple – 多个
multiply – 乘

multi-task – you can do a lot of things at the same time
most people say that girls are better multi-takers than men.
most people say that girls can multi-task better than me.

programmer – 程序员
My brother-in-law is a computer programmer in the states.

extended family – not your closest family – cousins aunts and uncles
nuclear family – your close family – brother sand sisters mother and father

fear – 恐惧 – something that you are afraid of
I have a fear. I am afraid of spiders.
I have a fear of spiders.

strict – 严格
My father was very strict.

make me a single girl – made me an independent girl

Original

I don’t believe fate when I was a teenager. I trusted everything I could do it depended on myself. But after 30 years old, I believe that fate was full of my life and I have to trust and due caution in everything my fate will be better and better.
In our family that was a story about my great grandfather, he was a rice seller in the beginning 20th Century. One day that was a future teller told him you will be rich in the future, but you had made choice in your life . One was if you wanted to be a rich man, you won’t have baby in whole life, that was very important to a Chinese family, especially the family must have own a boy to continue family’s business. The other was you will own many kids in your life but you will be a poor man. He made Choice and he had two wives and ten maybe eleven boys in his family, my grandfather was his 8th son with his first wife. The great grandfather made choice and the family fortunes was declined. Then till my grandfather was 16 years old. He took his package to find job in shanghai to earn his life. That was the fate about our family’s beginning. My grandfather always told us “you were be a honest person in your whole life. That will make you lucky and happiness.” When I was a teenager I didn’t think that was correct.
That was two things in my life changed my mind made me to trust fate. That was a sentence ,”be a honest man will be got more lucky fate in life.” One was about my job, after my graduated college I was hired in my first job. My direct boss was a designer he told me he wanted to take me to his new company. Everything was prepared but he told me“ you should make your budget about this design case and give it to him.” I choice not to do that and thought my job was over. After that the lucky things was happened. I was promoted in 3 years. The another thing was my marriage. I thought I found a right person in an easy way not many complicated experiences. We talked about our future and own the same value. So we have kind and peace life with two family together.

Original

I didn’t believe in fate when I was a teenager. I trusted that I could do everything by myself / I could always depend on myself. But after I turned 30 years old, I believed that fate played an important role in my life and I have to trust fate and do everything with caution so that my fate will be better and better.

In our family we shared a story about my great grandfather, he was a rice seller in the beginning of the 20th century. One day a fortune teller told him you will be rich in the future, but you have to make choices in your life . One was if he wanted to be a rich man, he can’t have baby in his whole life, having children / having babies was very important to a Chinese family, especially a family that must have a boy to continue the family’s business. The other fortune was you will have many kids in your life but you will be a poor man. He made his choice and he had two wives and ten or maybe eleven boys in his family, my grandfather was his 8th son with his first wife. The great grandfather made his choice and the family fortune declined. Then until my grandfather was 16 years old., He took his package to find a job in shanghai to earn a living / money. That was our family’s fate in the beginning. My grandfather always told us “you must be an honest person your entire life. That will give you luck and happiness / That will make you lucky and happy.” When I was a teenager I didn’t think that was correct.

Those were two things in my life that changed my mind and made me trust fate. That sentence ,”be an honest man and you will get more luck in life.” One was about my job, after my graduation from college I was hired to my first job. My direct boss was a designer he told me he wanted to take me to his new company. Everything was prepared but he told me“ you should make your budget about this design case and give it to him.” I chose not to do that and thought my job was over. After that the lucky things began to happen /  happened. I was promoted in 3 years. Another thing was my marriage. I thought I found a good person in an easy way and I didn’t have / need many complicated experiences. We talked about our future and had the same values. So we have a kind and peaceful life with two families together.

Grammar

many times Chinese students have better written grammar
very often Chinese students have better written grammar
usually Chinese students have better written grammar

they had a wedding in American
they had wedding in America
she married an American

was declined
was declining – process over time
declined – what happened

look like serious
he looked very serious
he was a very serious man
he was a serious looking man

Pronunciation

twenty thousand ten – 2010 – two thousand ten – twenty ten