داستان کوتاه

Everyone An Artist – Mini Story

Hi, this A.J. and welcome to this month’s Mini Story lesson. Let’s get started.

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There’s a man.

Is there a man or is there a woman?

Well, there’s a man. I just told you there’s a man.

Of course, obviously there’s a man but where is this man? Is this man in the United States? No, he’s not in the United States. Is this man in South America? No, he’s not. I’ll give you a hint. He’s somewhere in Asia.

Where is the man? Is he in Japan?

No, he’s not in Japan. He is in Hong Kong.

What is this man’s job? The man is a cook. He’s a very good cook. You could call him a chef. A chef is a well-trained cook. It’s a higher level of cook. A cook is anybody who cooks food for money. It might be fast food or it might be very nice food, but a chef is the idea of being more professional, making nicer food, usually making more money.

Wing Chun is his name. He lives in Hong Kong. He’s Chinese. His name is Wing Chun and he lives in Hong Kong.

What is his job? What is he?

He is a chef.

He’s a chef and he works for a very wealthy man. Who does he work for? For whom does he work? Amalie Rothschild is the name of his boss. Rothschild is extremely wealthy.

When we say wealthy, that means very, very rich. Someone who has $1 million dollars, we might say they are rich, but someone who has $50 million or more or a billion dollars or more, we’d say they are wealthy. You can say they are rich also but wealthy has the idea of very, very rich.

Is Wing Chun the chef – the cook – is he wealthy?

No, he’s not wealthy.

Who is wealthy?

His boss is wealthy.

What’s his boss’s name?

Rothschild. His boss’s name is Rothschild.

Why does Wing Chun work for Rothschild? Well, of course because he gets paid very well.

Does he make just a little bit of money or does he make a lot of money working as a private chef for Rothschild?

He makes a lot of money. He makes a lot of money working for Rothschild.

Why is it important for him to make a lot of money? Is he addicted to drugs and he needs to buy lots of drugs? Well, in fact no. He is not. No, the reason he particularly needs a lot of money is to help his daughter go to school in America. Wing Chun’s daughter goes to school at an American university and it’s quite expensive.

Is the tuition at his daughter’s university cheap or expensive?

The tuition – the university fee – is quite expensive at the university in the United States where his daughter goes to school.

That is why Wing Chun needs to make a lot of money, so he works as a private chef for the very wealthy man, Amalie Rothschild. He makes a lot of money but there is a problem. In life there are always problems. His particular problem is that Wing Chun hears bad things about his boss.

What kind of bad things does Wing Chun hear about his wealthy boss? Well, he hears that he is in fact a gangster. There are many rumors about Amalie Rothschild. That he’s a banker but that he’s also a gangster and that he does bad things and illegal things.

Does Wing Chun know for sure – sure means certain – that Rothschild his boss is a gangster?

No, no, he doesn’t know for sure. Not for sure. Wing Chun only hears rumors. He hears people talking – rumors and innuendo.

An innuendo is a kind of rumor. An innuendo is something that is said indirectly, not directly. An innuendo is usually negative. It’s kind of like gossip a little bit, but it’s more subtle than gossip. It’s less direct.

People might say oh yeah I heard that he makes a lot of money and nobody knows where he gets it. That’s an innuendo. If someone said that about Rothschild, they’re not saying directly that he’s a gangster or that he’s doing something illegal but they’re hinting at it.

They’re kind of saying it in an indirect way – innuendo.

Does he hear a lot of innuendos about Rothschild, his boss?

Yes, he does. He hears a lot of innuendos, a lot of rumors that in fact his boss is a notorious gangster.

Notorious means famous for a bad reason or maybe a scary reason. What does Wing Chun do? Does he quit his job? No, he doesn’t quit his job because he needs the money to pay for his daughter’s college tuition. What does he do instead of quitting? He just puts his head in the sand and keeps on working every day.

It’s a common idiom to put your head in the sand. He puts his head in the sand. You can imagine an ostrich – you know the big birds that walk around. They put their heads in the sand. This kind of has the idea of being an ostrich. I think in many countries they have some kind of sentence or a saying like this phrase – put your head in the sand.

It means to just ignore everything, to just not see things, not hear things and pretend everything is okay. Usually you’re trying to avoid seeing or hearing something bad.

You’re just trying to ignore it all, pretending everything is okay. That’s what it means to put your head in the sand.

Who puts his head in the sand?

Wing Chun. Wing Chun puts his head in the sand. He ignores the rumors about his boss because he needs the job so that he can pay for his daughter’s tuition.

By the way, where is the house? Rothschild’s house is at the top of Hong Kong Peak. In Hong Kong there’s a central island that has big tall buildings, and in the middle of the island is a peak, a mountain that’s right up to the center, and then on top of that mountain there are a few buildings and a few houses of very, very rich people.

Rothschild lives at the top in a large mansion, a large house on the top of Hong Kong Peak. One day while working at the house, Wing Chun the chef sees some tough-looking guys unloading boxes of art and pottery and even a pair of nunchucks in a glass case.

What does he see the tough men unloading?

Well, at Rothschild’s house and Wing Chun sees them opening and unloading boxes of artwork and pottery and one more strange thing.

What was that strange thing?

A pair of nunchucks in a glass case.

What are nunchucks? Well, this is an English pronunciation of a Japanese word.

Nunchucks are kind of a martial arts weapon. They look like two short sticks connected by a rope.

You hold one of the sticks in your hand and then you can swing the other one. The rope goes from one stick to the other stick. You swing them around. You’re holding one stick and you hit people with the other stick. It’s attached by a rope. Remember Bruce Lee? He had a movie where he used the nunchucks. I believe they’re an Okinawan weapon originally. That’s what I’ve read.

Anyway, he sees a pair of nunchucks – this kind of martial arts weapon – in a glass case.

Wing Chun doesn’t think anything about it. His boss is rich. Maybe he’s just collecting some art, but the next day Wing Chun reads in the Hong Kong newspaper that Bruce Lee’s special – some think magical – nunchucks were just recently stolen.

What was recently stolen?

Bruce Lee’s magical nunchucks were just recently stolen.

What does Wing Chun think? He thinks for a moment, could they be the same, the ones I saw yesterday? He’s still in denial and he kids himself that it’s just a coincidence. To be in denial means that you refuse to see the truth. It means the truth is in front of you but you refuse to accept it. You refuse to see it.

Was Rothschild in denial?

No, Rothschild was not in denial.

Who was in denial?

Wing Chun.

Wing Chun was in denial about what?

He was in denial about the nunchucks. He said no, I’m sure it was just a coincidence. Those aren’t the same stolen ones.

Of course a coincidence is something that just happens by chance. There’s no connection between the two. So, he kids himself. To kid yourself means to fool yourself.

It kind of means lie to yourself. When you kid yourself, it means you lie to yourself.

Wing Chun is in denial and he says no, they can’t be the same. He kids himself. He says I’m sure it’s a coincidence, it’s okay. Then he goes back to work again, working and working but still kind of in the back of his mind he’s thinking a little bit, wow that’s a strange coincidence.

Finally a few days later while working, he stumbles upon a group of tough-looking gangsters beating up a man in the garden courtyard of the house.

What does Wing Chun see one day?

He sees some tough-looking gangsters beating up a poor helpless man in the courtyard garden of Rothschild’s house.

Does he see men playing poker?

No, he doesn’t see men playing poker.

What does he stumble upon?

He stumbles upon gangsters beating up a man in the garden.

To stumble upon something means to kind of find something or see something by accident. He wasn’t looking to find them. He wasn’t trying to find them. It was just an accident. He happened to walk out into the garden to relax for a minute, and he saw the men beating up the other poor man. He stumbled upon it. Accidentally he found this.

Of course to beat up means to hit, to punch, to kick – all of those things. So, he stumbles upon tough-looking men, obviously gangsters, beating up another man in Rothschild’s garden.

One of the tough-looking men looks up and sees Wing Chun and says “beat it,” Wing Chun runs back to the kitchen. When you say beat it to somebody it’s a command. Hey you, beat it. It means go away. It means leave now. It’s slightly rude. You say this if someone’s bothering you. There are lots of phrases like this in English. You can say get lost or go away, but you can also say beat it.

It has the same meaning. Beat it means go away. If someone’s bugging you on the street, you can say beat it if you want to be a little rude and you really want them to leave. So, the gangster says “beat it” to Wing Chun.

Where does he run back to?

The kitchen. He runs back to the kitchen.

He’s shaken up.

Is he shaken up or is he totally calm and relaxed?

No, no, no. He is shaken up.

Why is he shaken up?

Because he realizes that the rumors are true. His boss really is a gangster.

What does shaken up mean? What does it mean to be shaken up? You have to be careful with some of these phrases, these two-word verbs, because they can have different meanings depending on the situation.

When you’re talking about an emotion like this – to feel shaken up, to be shaken up – then it means to be upset, usually because something unexpected and bad has happened. It’s kind of a negative feeling to be upset.

Let’s say you get in a small car accident. Let’s say you’re driving a car and you hit the back of another car. No one is hurt. Everything’s fine but you’re a little shaken up. It just means you’re kind of stressed out and upset by the sudden shock of the accident.

Why is Wing Chun shaken up?

He’s shaken up because he found these gangsters beating up this man.

What does he realize?

He realizes that Rothschild, his boss, is in fact a gangster, a bad guy.

Wing Chun finally sees the light. He finally sees the light and he quits his job.

Does he see the light or does he stay in denial?

He sees the light.

To see the light means to suddenly understand, to wake up and to understand. Oh, I see the light now. It means I understand everything now. To see the light means to see the truth.

Who sees the light finally?

Wing Chun finally sees the light.

He sees the truth about his boss and when he finally sees the light, when he finally sees the truth, what does he do?

He quits his job. He finally quits his job.

But then he has another big problem. He’s unemployed and he has to pay for his daughter’s tuition. Another bill is coming soon and he has no job, so he gets very stressed. He’s kind of shaken up by the situation again. It’s shocking to him. It’s surprising to him. It’s upsetting to him.

He’s shaken up but he has to get money for his daughter’s tuition, so he goes searching for jobs, searching for a good high-paying chef job in Hong Kong. It’s tough. Lots of people are trying to get the good jobs.

He searches and searches and searches. He applies for job after job after job. He goes to job interviews, interviews, interviews and then he gets more and more stressed, more and more stressed, more and more stressed because his daughter’s tuition is coming soon. He has to pay for it.

He searches and searches and searches, and he’s getting stressed out. He’s sweating.

Did I make the right decision, he asks himself. Maybe I should have stayed working at Rothschild’s. Finally he finds a new job. He gets a job on a dinner cruise boat in Hong Kong Harbor.

Where does he get a job?

On a dinner cruise boat.

There are boats in Hong Kong Harbor. At night usually they sail around. They have motors, I guess, but they sail around the harbor. It’s like a little restaurant and a kitchen on a boat. Tourists especially will go onto these little cruise boats and eat dinner, and they can get a nice view on the water. So, he gets a job as the chef on a dinner cruise boat.

Where is the dinner cruise boat?

It’s in Hong Kong Harbor.

It pays well and Wing Chun is very, very happy because he finally has a safe, reputable job.

What kind of job does he finally have?

Well, he finally has a safe, reputable job.

What does reputable mean? Reputable means it has a good reputation. It’s very similar to respectable. Working for a gangster, for example, is not a reputable job. That’s disreputable – the opposite meaning. It’s kind of not respected.

Maybe you don’t want to tell people that you work for a gangster. It’s kind of a bad job.

Maybe you’re connected to a criminal. It’s not reputable. You get a bad reputation from that kind of job.

A reputable job is the opposite of that. It’s a job with a good reputation. Maybe not in America but in some parts of the world being a doctor is a reputable job. Some people still think it has a good reputation. In some parts of the world being a business executive is a reputable job. It’s seen as something that’s very good and positive. In some parts of the world being an artist is a reputable job.

Who finally has a safe and reputable job?

Wing Chun. Wing Chun finally finds a safe and reputable job working on a dinner cruise boat in Hong Kong Harbor, so he’s able to pay his daughter’s college tuition again and everyone is happy.

That is the end of our Mini Story for this month. Have a great month. Listen to the Mini Story each day for I’d say at least 10 to 14 days or something like that. In the VIP program, I expect you to do a little more repetition than maybe Power English learners do or other people do. It’s a more advanced course.

Get that repetition as much as you can. It’s okay during the month to listen to other things too.

Listen to newscasts. Do the movie technique. Listen to my podcast or whatever, but get that repetition of the same high frequency English again and again and again. That’s what will give you better speaking ability.

Your speaking ability will come from the repetition of the most common English. It’s not about more and more advanced vocabulary. That doesn’t really help your speaking. It will help your reading. It can help your understanding certainly.

It’s not bad to have a good vocabulary, but the point is if speaking is your goal, then what you really need more of is repetition, repetition, repetition of the most common high frequency English.

That’s what the Mini Story is about. That’s what this whole program is about. As a VIP member, you should listen to these audios every day as much as you can. If you can do it for the whole month, that’s great. You can add in the bonus lesson in the middle of the month too, and then you can add in other stuff as well.

Just get a lot of repetition. That’s where the power comes from in this program. All right, I will see you next time.

Have a great day. Bye-bye.