Jane
By: Amy
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Words Checked: 5516 Words in Oxford 3000: 95%
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Contents
Chapter 1 Who’s Jane? .......................................... P.5 Chapter 2 Worry-Free Childhood.......................... P.12 Chapter 3 Little Jane In Elementary School.......... P.17 Chapter 4 Busy Life In Junior High ...................... P.27 Chapter 5 Half Foreigner....................................... P.35 Chapter 6 Jane’s Future ......................................... P.56
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Summary Jane is a little girl who has dark skin and always smiles. Her mother is from a rich big family. Her grandfather was a successful businessman. Her father is from Pintung. They had a romantic love story and had Jane. There were a lot of interesting matters happened in Jane’s life. You will see clearly what has happened in Jane’s childhood, elementary school, junior high school and now doing her college years. There are sadness, love stories, challenges, and experiences about Jane. It might be a little boring, but you will see how a little girl faces each situation that appears in her life. 4
Chapter 1
Who’s Jane?
Jane is a little girl who has dark skin and always smiles. Jane is a happy girl because she is the only child in her family. Her parents love her as a only one treasure in the world. She can always get whatever she wants or do whatever she wants to do. In Jane’s world, nothing is impossible. However, there is one thing that bothers Jane a lot. People always think she is a native person because she is dark. Every time she has to explain. “You are from Taitung? Which race do you belong to?” “Race? What do you mean?” “You are a native person, aren’t you?” Jane is tired of this kind of conversation. 5
Jane’s mother is from a big family which was once very rich and will-known in the city because her father earned a lot of money when he was still alive. She usually tells Jane about her father, Jane’s grandfather, whom Jane has no impressions about because he died when he was very young. He was a businessman who did his business very successfully. During that times, he was just like most fathers, which means he was very serious so children wouldn’t be dare to talk to him. However, he treated them very well on the other hand. He gave them the best living quality and newest affairs. Therefore, they always had things which others didn’t have. “When the radio was 6
still rare in other families, we had already had a television. Grandpa also hired a driver to pick us up from work or school. Once when a typhoon appeared, the driver took us to the beach to watch the waves. Grandpa was very mad about that.” Jane’s mother said. She was the youngest girl of other children from the ”major” wife (Jane’s grandfather had had two wives) so he treated her even better. “Soon after my birth, your uncle also appeared in this world. Grandpa thought it’s me who brought your uncle to our family so he loved me more than other children,” She continued. Jane’s grandpa bought her a car and let her buy everything she wanted. The car was what caused 7
the love story of Jane’s parents. That’s another story which Jane’s mother also tells her often. Jane’s father was from a very little Hakka (a name of a race) village of Pintung, a county in the very south of Taiwan. He came to Taitung, where they are living now, right after he graduated from his five-year college. They first met at the badminton court in his company. He was deeply impressed by Jane’s mother when he saw her, but he was too shy to talk to her. Once, he secretly washed her car. One day after she hadn’t been to the badminton court for a long time, they met again at the beach. Jane’s mother was living near the beach. 8
“Hey, are you the girl who often went to our badminton court? I haven’t seen you for a long time. Why haven’t you been there these days?” Jane’s father was surprised. “Oh! It’s because I have been busy lately.” “Please go there when you have free time, ok?” That was the first conversation they had. Before long they had fallen in love. After they had been dating for seven years, they decided to get married. Then Jane came to the world a year after. Jane was a troublesome baby because she always cried in the middle of the night and slept during the day. “At first we hired a baby-sitter to look after you, but she said 9
you didn’t sleep at night. She was annoyed so she begged us to bring you back home. Daddy and I had to hold you in our arms in turns. The only way to keep you quiet was holding you in the arms and walking constantly. You cried right when we sat down,” Her mother said so like a complaint. Jane’s parents had made a deal that they only wanted to have one child. That’s why Jane was so lucky to be an only child although she had always wanted a brother or sister when she was little. “Mommy, why don’t I have a little sister or brother? All my friends have brothers or sisters,” she wondered. 10
“Silly girl, you will know that it is a great affair. Nobody would rob your toys or fight with you. You are the only baby Daddy and I love.” What Jane’s mother told her was true. She is now pleased that she can have everything at home. She is satisfied to be an only child.
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Chapter 2 Worry-Free Childhood When Jane was three years old, her parents sent her to kindergarten. There was a class system called “Yoyo” class. It was for children under four years old. She didn’t want to go because she wanted stay with her parents. On the way to kindergarten, she kept crying and screaming. She thought thus her father would deal with her and take her back home but she failed. When they got to the kindergarten, Jane stayed closely with her father. She was afraid that her father would go away if she wasn’t with him. However, her father still left when she went to the bathroom before the noon break. She cried loudly and kept asking 12
questions. “Why hasn’t my daddy come back?” “Daddy has to work. You stay silent and daddy will be back soon.” “Why does daddy work so long?” she asked after five minutes. “He will come back soon if you behave well. So you just sleep now and after you wake up, you will see your daddy,” The teacher answered her patiently. Nevertheless, the situation didn’t last very long. Before the rest of the day finished, she became familiar with friends and teachers in the kindergarten. She played happily with other children and expected 13
the next day coming again. She started to love to go to kindergarten. Jane was very busy when she was only a little child. Her parents wanted her to learn many different talents. For example, she had learnt mental calculation, folk dance, piano, draw and roller-skating. She had talent classes every evening. She was happy about that because everyone admired her for she was a talented girl. She participated in many mental calculation competitions, piano competitions and speech competitions. Every time she presented well. There are a lot of medals and cups at their home. Her parents were proud of her. 14
Jane had to go to two schools when she was five years old because her uncle arranged a better kindergarten for her but one ended at noon everyday. She had to go to the former kindergarten after the one in the morning. Teachers liked her because she was docile. She was chosen by the teacher to be the exemplary child. She always hoped that it was not because her uncle was the headmaster of that school. She didn’t have much confidence at that time. Unfortunately, Jane broke her elbow once when she was playing. She just wanted to show the teachers how well she could play with the equipment. Being too proud, she fell down from a very high place. The 15
accident forced her to stay in the hospital for two weeks and made it unable for her to act like others for two months. She didn’t like the hospital because there was many medicine, injection and operation. Also because of the accident; Jane lost the freedom to play with the equipment. When Jane graduated from kindergarten, the award she got was the award of the county magistrate, the best award of all.
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Chapter 3 Little Jane In Elementary School Jane went to elementary school when she was six years old. She was very excited when she put on her uniform on the first day she went to school. She had expected to wear the uniform since she saw other older children wore uniforms. Her mother took a picture of her for memory. Her aunt took her to school. “Look at the black board, when is the school ended today?” Her aunt asked each question carefully. “Eleven o’clock.” “Good. Go and wait at the school’s front door 17
when school is over. I will pick you up there.� Nonetheless, the beginning of her elementary school was not as good as she expected. The boy sitting next to her kept glaring at her and treated her unfriendly. Jane had started to be afraid of school until she met many friends and gradually got familiar with school life. At first, she usually forgot to bring her hat which was a part of her uniform. She was usually punished for that. Sometimes she wore the wrong clothing. She wore the sports clothing when others wore uniforms and wore uniform when others wore sports clothing. She herself didn’t realize it but her 18
cousins who went to school with her everyday did. “Where is your hat?” “My hat? Oh, yes! Where is my hat? I did bring it with me. I think I have left it in the car.” During her first examination in elementary school, the first examination in her life, she did a super great job. She only lost ONE score in all the subjects. The following examinations were also like that. She never received any total grades or low scores. “I want to call you “299” in the future,” Her father told his friends. “What do you mean?” 19
“Because every time she gets 299 points if the total score are 300.” She would still get 399 if the total points were 400. Her parents were usually angry about that because the point was not lost because she couldn’t do it but carelessness. When Jane’s first grade was almost reach the end, something bad happened. One day, her father caught a phone call and became very worried. “What happened?” Jane’s mother asked. “Dad had a car accident.” A serious car accident had happened to Jane’s grandfather. He was very badly injured. His spinal 20
was hurt. The doctor said her grandpa might not be able to walk. At that time, they often went to Pintung to take care of him. When Jane had to go to school, she had to live with other relatives. Jane was little and not sensible. She was very happy to go to the hospital because whenever they went to the hospital, their parents would take her to McDonald’s. She didn’t have any sadness or anxiety for the condition of her grandpa’s injury. “She is eating happily.” said her grandpa looking at her when she was eating. He loved her and was happy to see Jane. Each time when she went to see him, he became much better. Luckily, he recovered and started to walk again. 21
During the third and fourth grade, she joined the school orchestra. They had to perform a show whenever their school held big activities, such as athletic competitions, flag-raising or graduation ceremonies. She always felt proud when she played her instrument because she thought everybody was looking at her. Once the teacher wanted her to try the job as the conductor but someone else volunteered. When Jane was in the fifth grade, she had a strict teacher. Actually, she was a nice teacher but just too strict. Sometimes she treated them very nicely and with humor but sometimes she yelled at them or gave them heavy physical punishment. 22
“What a mess? Did I teach you to hand in assignments like this?” she said and throw out all the books from the second floor window. “Why did you correct it? Did I tell you to correct it?” she said giving Jane a slap. “What a poor grade!!! All of you half crouch and hold your chairs above your heads……” Jane was afraid of going to school. She cried almost everyday before going to school because she had no idea whether her teacher would be nice or fierce in the day. Luckily, there was a motivation for her to go to school. She met her first ideal boy in her life. Everyday she wanted to see the boy so she wasn’t 23
afraid of going to school anymore. They even went to a three-day-trip together with the science club. Jane first held his hand during the trip. They stayed happily together for about one year. However, everything changed six months before they graduated. They boy changed his attitude toward her. He said Jane was too dependent. He didn’t like Jane to be with him all the time. Jane wanted to save the situation. She got a chance when the boy had to leave school for three days for a competition. She asked him to call her everyday when he wasn’t at school. However, he only called once. “Why didn’t you call me yesterday and the day 24
before yesterday?” Jane asked disappointedly. “Rubbish!!! Do you think I have so much time?” he answered rudely. Jane was shocked, depressed and decided not to talk to him again. They became totally strangers and hadn’t talked to each other until they saw each other again in the driver’s license training court six years later. “Are you…Jane?” Jane nodded. “You moved, didn’t you?” Jane asked him. “I called you but it said the number is out of used.” “Yes, I moved to my mom’s house.” “My coach must have told you many things 25
about me, hasn’t he?” “Yeah, a little. But I’m not interested because I know everything about you.” Jane thought she could become his friend after the unhappy matter had passed, but he still chose not to contact with her. Jane was very upset about his decision. She then joined the school chorus because the orchestra teacher wanted to reorganize the orchestra, and they were not wanted. Jane found that she was happier in chorus. At least they had participated in a competition, not only performed shows in school.
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Chapter 4 Busy Life In Junior High As Jane didn’t pass the exam to attend neither the music class nor the art class in the best junior high school, her parents let her go to a new school which had just been established. The education system was much more different from the traditional one. There they had ten mathematic classes, ten Chinese classes and ten English classes every week. They took away some unimportant subjects, such as housewifery, history, geography and social science while they had some strange courses like cadence, body-building and English conversation. They were not supposed to be found in a formal junior high school’s schedule. Many 27
parents discovered the problem that the new education system wouldn’t do their children any good. When a change-president incident happened, many parents of almost one third of the students decided to transfer their children to other schools. There was a school, which the president was willing to set up an individual class for them. They felt very uncomfortable when they went there the first day because all the students in the school heard this news and were curious about them. The crowd jostled outside of their classroom. They felt like they were animals in a zoo. They always cried together at the beginning in the new school. They spent a long time getting used to the life 28
in the new school. Jane was unlucky. One semester later, the president said they didn’t have enough money to continue the class, so they had to be separated into many groups. This group joined class one, another group joined class two and that group joined class three. Jane felt crazy about that. She didn’t like new circumstance. After she got familiar with the new class, Jane joined the wind band. She was interested in playing flute and she played very well. She was one of the students whom the band teacher liked most. Once in a flute competition she won second place. They same 29
competition for groups, their wind band also took second place. They were satisfied because first place was taken by the music class of the best school. Actually, they thought they were better than first place. They thought it was because the group was from a music class, so the judges gave them a higher score, only one point higher than them. They rejoiced with wild excitement and wrote on the black board “What are they proud of? Only one point higher than us. INFERIOR!!!� When Jane was in third grade, she had to drop out from the wind band to prepare for the big exam for high school. Her class teacher arranged small tests 30
for the morning self-study period everyday. She didn’t want to go to normal high schools. She knew the stress in the normal high school would bite her down. She was interested in language so what she wanted was a five-year-college which provide professional education in languages. Her parents agreed. However, Jane needed a high score to attend the college. She went to an omni bearing cram school. It was a hard time for Jane. Everyday after she came back from school, she needed to go to the cram school. The time she came home from cram school was sometimes ten sometimes eleven. After cram school, she still had to do the homework or prepare for the test the next day. 31
She felt she would pass out anytime. A new motivation appeared. She fell in love with the tutor in her cram school. The situation was difficult. They couldn’t let others know they were dating. Otherwise, both of them might get kicked out of the cram school. Jane thought it was fine to tell her best friend because she was not concerned about the cram school. Unfortunately, her friend carelessly slip her lips. She didn’t know that the tutor didn’t want others to know about him. “James, Jane loves you.” She called the tutor’s name loudly when Jane was talking to him on the phone. 32
“Who’s that? Why does she know my name?” sounding a little angry. “She is my best friend. I think it’s okay to tell her about us.” “I thought we had made a deal that we wouln’t tell anyone else, don’t we?” “I……” Jane couldn’t explain. She just wanted to share her feeling. She didn’t like to hide secrets in her heart. There was an one-minute silence. “Hello?” he broke the silence. “Yeah, I think it’s enough for today. Bye.” That’s the end of their love. 33
Jane continued studying hard. She deeply wanted to attend the college. She wouldn’t let anything influence her. She made it. She got the permission to attend the school even though she didn’t get a really good score. In other words, she had to overcome the difficulty that she had to leave her hometown, her family, her friends and all the familiar things for a totally different place.
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Chapter 5 Half Foreigner Before Jane started her college life, her parents sent her to Boston for one month. This was the first time Jane had studied abroad. She always did great in English during junior high school. She thought she would use English well in America but she didn’t. Almost everyone in her group was better than she was. She was ashamed of herself when she took the test. She couldn’t even use a complete sentence. She could only answer “yes” or “no” when the teacher asked her about her learning English. When the teacher had them discuss in class, she just sat there and listened to others. What happened? She could speak English well, 35
couldn’t she? She had determined she would improve her English a lot when she went to college. A week after they got there, a group of French set foot on also. Jane and other friends were a little unhappy with those French students because they thought everything had been in order and the French students would disturb them. When the French students arrived, they were dumb. The boys were tall and handsome and the girls were pretty with excellent figures. Compared with them, Jane and her friends slowly lost their confidence. At first, the French students were unfriendly. They were cold when Jane and her friends talked to 36
them. The next day, the teacher held an activity. He gave each person a piece of paper with a few questions and asked them to ask other students who had different nationality, which meant the Taiwanese students could only choose the French students and the French students could only choose the Taiwanese students. This activity allowed them to get to know more about each other. “You were born in July? So was I.” “How to say “good-bye” in French?” “Sorry, I didn’t catch that. Could you please say it again?” They became good friends after this activity. 37
Jane noticed a lovely boy. He was like a famous movie star. He didn’t talk a lot. “Hey, what’s your name?” Jane asked him shyly. “Pierre.” “Pierre? How do you spell that?” “P-I-E-R-R-E.” “How old are you?” Jane’s friend asked for her. “Sixteen.” Jane liked Pierre, but she didn’t know that her friends told him about that. He started to talk to Jane voluntarily. “Hey, what are you doing?” 38
“Nothing. I’m trying to add money into my laundry card, but it doesn’t work. How about you?” “Skateboarding. Wanna try?” “No way. I will fall down and die.” “No, you won’t. I will teach you.” On Jane’s birthday, all of them held a birthday party for Jane in a pizza house. Everybody said “Happy Birthday” to her. Some said it in Chinese, in French, in English and others in Japanese. They even sent her a special present. They told Pierre to sit next to her. “Hi. How old are you?” Pierre took off a cigarette as he sat down. 39
“Fifteen……Hey, don’t smoke. It’s bad for you,” Jane took away the cigarette from him. “Oh, no. Just this time, please. For your birthday.” “OK, just this time.” “How old are you?” the leader of the Taiwan group asked Pierre. “Sixteen.” “Wow~” everybody laughed in an uproar. This was the happiest birthday for Jane. One day, Jane’s friend, Cindy, called her. “I’ve got something to tell you.” “Yeah?” 40
“I told Remy to ask Pierre if he likes you. He said he thought you were a good girl but he likes tall girls.” Jane understood. She was little. She wasn’t the one Pierre wanted. Soon he had a girlfriend in their group. The girl was almost one meter and eighty high and very beautiful. Jane was very, very sad. She cried all the time. She didn’t eat, didn’t go out and didn’t go to class. All she did was crying and being in a daze. Somebody touched her back the next day when they were going to a mall. Jane turned her head. A French guy pointed at Pierre. “Why did you cry yesterday?” trying to pretend 41
nothing had happened. “Go away. I don’t want to see you,” Jane replied kiddingly. “You said you don’t want to see me?” “Yes.”
“Could you please take a picture with me? For memory,” He asked. They met in a convenient store in the mall. He bought a camera. Jane was surprised, but she knew it was not like what she had thought. The day they left the French students, Jane kissed Pierre on his cheek and said, “I love you.” Afterward, Jane couldn’t forget it and kept crying for 42
two months. Her mother always said she was stupid. She met Pierre only a few days in America. How could she love him so deeply? After Jane came back to Taiwan, her college life began immediately. The first year was ordinary. Her studies were not too good, but not too bad either. She hadn’t been familiar with the city life. She often took the wrong bus. She brought the wrong textbooks. Everything else was fine. To make her life substantial, she volunteered to do many things. In the Praying Ceremony which the school always holds for the first year students, she led her classmates reading the words. Everyone on the scene was impressed by her 43
because she had added much affection. She also joined the Flute Club. She had a performance with her Flute Club members in a cafĂŠ on Christmas Day. It was embarrassing because her music score fell down while she was performing the show. She joined many activities in the first athletic meeting. She ran passed three people so her team was permitted to be in the semifinal. People screamed and shouted. She was considered a goddess. She enjoyed the screams, clapping and being admired. After that moment, she has been proud of herself. The day before the College Student English 44
Proficiency Test, Jane went to Taipei for a piano competition which was held by her favorite piano player- Eric Chen. She was very excited and crazy when she saw Eric. She was afraid that she would make a fool of herself. Being too nervous and not having had enough time to practice, she showed very, very badly. When the contestants took the book for him to sign, he didn’t talk to her. Jane was a little angry about this because he talked to others enthusiastically, such as “you played very well but I think you were too nervous, weren’t you? Next time you will be better,” Jane thought, “how dare you to ignore me? Anyhow I am one of the contestants and 45
your loyal fancy. At least you can say something like “you still need improvement” or something else.” Because of this bad sentiment, Jane got a super low score on the CSEPT. Jane was very busy during her second year. She accepted a job as the art designer in Folk Rock Club. She had to make a lot of posters for their activities. Whenever they had activities, she had to decorate the place. She liked the busy life because she thought that IS college. She could play guitar well after a winter-training in Kenting. She played guitar with her partner in a big concert held by their club. She had a lot of fun in the concert. 46
She and her classmates were excited when they won the champion ship of the tug of war. They vowed to win when they lost in the second war during first grade. All the teachers and students were shocked because they had only two boys in their class. Their teacher said it was because they were united. After the second year ended, Jane went to Seattle. This time her English was much better. She talked smoothly during the conversation. Her class teacher said her pronunciation was as good as his. She was placed into high-level classes with many people whose English were even much better than hers. She learnt a lot and her English also improved a lot. In the 47
language center, she had more friends from many different countries, Japan, Columbia, Italy, Korea and Switzerland. Every time when they had to do group assignments, the teacher would arrange students of different nationalities in a group so they could only speak English. During the days in Seattle, they went to some famous places, such as Space Needle, Woodland Park Zoo, Rose Garden and Pike Place Market which is the birth place of STARBUCKS. They even went to Safeco Field to watch a baseball game between the Mariners and the Twins. She was excited when she saw the famous Japanese player, Suzuki Ichiro. Americans were so crazy about 48
baseball. She also liked the outlet mall. There she could buy some famous brands at low prices. The day after they finished the course in the language center, they went directly to Canada. Jane didn’t like Canada. Most of her memories were just on the bus. But she loved the ice sheet on the Rockie Mountains. They threw snowballs and put snow in others cloths. Jane was so chagrined that she left her camera on the bus. She felt remorse about that. After Jane came back to Taiwan, she had gained three kilos. The high calorie American food made her face looking round and fat. Jane was poor in the third year. She liked a 49
teacher who was already married and had a child. She had to pretend that she just ran into him. She was really an innocent girl. She usually thought the teacher would give up his family for her. She wrote everything about him in her diary. When she went back to those memories, she cried or smiled like a frenetic. Except for that, she also had to face her worst subject, history. History was difficult for her. What they had to study was foreign history. It’s even more difficult. Sumer, Assyria, Cubitt, ancient Greek, ……Jane was mad when she studied these kind of stuff. She always complained to herself, “Why 50
do we have to study this? Will the executive ask us what Sumerian usually did during an interview? No, he won’t.” She didn’t understand why her classmates could do so well in this subject. No matter how hard she studied, she could only get a low score. At the beginning of the winter vacation, she went to a small village in the mountains with her club members to help poor native children. They were all exhausted because the children never got tired. When they hardly had time to take a little rest, the children would ask them to teach them how to play guitar or play with them. “What’s that?” they hadn’t even seen a digital 51
camera. “Take me to the store.” “Will you come here again?” “No, I won’t, because I don’t have to join any clubs when I am a fourth year student.” “Why? Did your president tell you this?” “No. It is just a school policy.” “Was that made by your president?” “No. It’s made by school.” “Play basketball with us.” The children even went to their room in the evening. They had to “force” the children to go home at ten o’clock. They seemed to spend all of their energies during those four days. Jane had a nice teacher during the third year. 52
The teacher contacted with them often. She always held many activities. Once they had a class celebration. They bought a lot of pizza, chickens, cakes and drinks. They sang. The teacher made a film of their class. They screamed and cried when watching the film because they were touched. They loved their teacher very much. When the third year ended, they were reluctant because they didn’t want to leave their teacher. They knew she wouldn’t stay with their class. That summer vacation Jane stayed in Taiwan. Her mother sent her to a driver’s training center to learn to drive. The course lasted for a month. That’s 53
why Jane couldn’t go abroad this time. Although she didn’t go abroad, she went to many places in Taiwan. She went to Taichung and shopping with one of her cousins. She went to Taipei twice. The first time was boring after they went to a native village called Smagus for two days since there was a typhoon. She and her cousins could only stay home and watch films. They felt their eyes were nearly blind because they watched films all day. The second time was much more funny. They went shopping for a whole day. Jane bought a bank of clothes because the cloths were very cheap. The next day they went to a water world. 54
They experienced many kinds of water slides and got seriously sun burned. They also went to the fun fair with Jane’s boyfriend. They got all wet because somebody shot them with a water gun when they played the little boat.. Her cousin came to Taitung twice. This summer vacation was full of going and coming. Jane loved it.
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Chapter 6 Jane’s Future Now Jane was in the fourth year of her college. She had expected it for a long time because she thought she could wear casual clothes. However, she found that it was not funny in fourth grade. Her life was full of tests and papers. It’s becoming a hard time for Jane. She is afraid that she would fail. She has started to go to cram school to prepare for her university exam. It’s a busy year. There are more challenges in the following years. She has got ready to face all the difficulties.
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