Dorothy, the Twitterbug

Once upon a time, in some relatively unknown corner of the world, lived an interesting young woman with an interesting perspective!

All she ever wanted to do was to share this perspective with the world. She finally decided it was a good idea to work on her English, it seemed to need a bit of improvement! She felt that if she did this, more people would understand her when she spoke.

Dorothy thought over it for a while. She knew her English was passable for someone who grew up in a country where most people spoke Chinese. She knew most English-speaking people could understand her, but what if she had something important to tell them? Some way in which she could influence them to change their lives, and way of thinking, at least just one person?

Dorothy analyzed herself. She felt that she was much better at speaking the English language than she was at writing it. She also realized that she could work on her use of tenses and grammar. She also felt her spelling and diction could use a little work.

Dorothy attended all the free online English language courses she could think of. By now she definitely felt her English was coming around! Dorothy had made a prediction, that she would soon be writing about everything she observed and liked about the world! Maybe then she could make a few English-speaking friends she thought to herself.

The more time Dorothy spent on the internet, the more she learned. She did not waste her time watching movies or playing games. Dorothy worked hard on herself. Dorothy slowly became aware of the true power of Social Media. She was now completely aware that social media could be used to communicate ideas, thoughts even feelings.

Dorothy was an intelligent young lady who started to use all the social media apps on her phone like they were the tools of an artist. She was now regularly posting content on Facebook.

Even though Dorothy did not speak wonderful English earlier, the more people she communicated with, on the internet, the more her English started to improve. She also learned about new trends in Fashion, Makeup, and Lifestyle in other parts of the world.

Dorothy was indeed very keen on using the new vocabulary that she was so enriched with. One day a friend from a local Christian youth group called on her mobile phone. Dorothy, who normally only spoke Mandarin answered gleefully.

“Helloo…,” Dorothy said in a high-pitched voice almost with a hint of melody.

The friend was obviously surprised. She was a little taken aback that Dorothy was actually speaking in English. She was also a little excited, so she continued to talk to Dorothy in Mandarin as she usually did.

The conversation continued until the friend asked Dorothy how her English skills were suddenly improving, she had never heard anyone greet her with that much style and brimming confidence! She wondered how Dorothy of all people was starting to sound so fluent in English and who was teaching her to speak so well.

“I learned English using an app called Cake that I downloaded from Google Play. I also did a few English courses that I downloaded from the Internet.” Dorothy said again, sounding a little polished almost, and answering again with a sing-song accent.

The friend was very impressed. She implored her friend to help her learn to speak English as well as she did. They spoke for close to an hour, and Dorothy did not tire of saying something or the other that sounded fancy, something new that she learned at her recent attempts at English courses every now and then.

Dorothy was very pleased with herself. Dorothy was very impressed that her friend was also impressed. Dorothy now decided she would try to impress someone else. Maybe it would work. Again!

Dorothy was now an excited adventurer online. Every time she went on Facebook, she posted something she learned from the English-learning app. She even managed to search for and find an excited community of English lovers who were just as she was. They all seemed to be interested in learning to speak the English language.

One day Dorothy met someone who seemed like a nice man at a Supermarket. It seemed to be the perfect time to try the experiment she had earlier tried out with the friend she had tried to impress on the phone.

“Helloo…,” she said with a hint of melody as she had done earlier with the old friend.

The seemingly nice man who was busy buying fruit, close to the frozen section stopped for a second and was visibly impressed. Dorothy knew that by the look on his face. She waited for him to say something.

“Helloo…,” he answered with the same tune.

Dorothy was NOW really impressed with herself this time. Saying something in English in a fancy accent seemed “all together nice” when speaking to a close friend. But to get a reply like that, and the guy looked RICH. Dorothy felt a pulse.

Perhaps, learning to speak English would help her with a lot more than she thought.

Dorothy personally thought she was getting somewhere. As time passed by, she learned to speak a few more phrases that seemed interesting to her like “Oh, Really!” and “Right!” She also learned that these phrases could be used as replies to questions people asked in the English language.

Again, the old friend called Dorothy on her mobile phone for updates. The friend inquired about Life in general and about how things were. She then asked about how Dorothy was doing with her English lessons.

“I am doing fine” came the ardent reply, and again with a tune

.

The friend kept her ears peeled. She was again impressed! She wanted to ask her more. The friend only spoke in Mandarin, and whenever Dorothy said these things it excited her.

“Darling, I have to go. I shall call when time permits!” Dorothy said like she was born speaking English.

The friend was even more impressed and was obviously thrilled to hear anyone from her locality speak English that well. Dorothy felt like playing this prank she thought was cute on everyone she met. She did this on and often.

She felt encouraged enough to take her English learning to all new levels. She practiced more fiercely online and looked at her Dictionary more often. She felt that her vocabulary was improving. She even made more than a “couple” of friends online. She now had a fan following.

Finally, it so happened that there was another person walking down the street. Dorothy decided to play her English-speaking prank again. This time it was on a blind guy who seemed to be going nowhere in particular, because he was after all, blind. The poor man just wanted to cross the road.

“Helloo…,” she said again, in what had now become her characteristic melodic tone.

The guy was not only blind but he was also deaf. Dorothy was apparently worried as to why he was taking so long to reply.

Dorothy looked at him closely, almost examining him to see if he really was blind. She went up to him and said “Have I seen you somewhere before”

The blind guy did not reply. Dorothy then said something she had learned in one of her free online English-speaking classes. “My life has been quite a tale of events, quite a story of swings and roundabouts,” she said in one long gasp, without breathing.

“Where did you hear that!”

This time someone did hear it, but the blind guy was not the one speaking. It was another eloquent well-spoken individual close by who felt like complimenting her on a good day.

“What does it mean?” she asked the stranger who had spoken. “I know I said it…But I really don’t know what it means” she replied. Because honestly, she did not know what it meant, and perhaps this time, she had taken the prank too far.

The man was impressed! He understood immediately that Dorothy was not a native speaker of the English language! But thankfully he knew what the peculiar phrase meant.

“Swings and Roundabouts means simply, a situation that has both advantages and disadvantages!”

“Oh Really!” she said in a melody that was unwitting.

“Right!” the man said. Dorothy was both amused and startled when he said that the way he did because she had heard it before in her English class. Wasn’t this prankster having fun?

Dorothy had definitely heard these phrases before and could relate to ALL of them. The funniest thing about communicating in any language, Dorothy observed, was that sometimes when people don’t have the words to say something, they communicate with their eyes and their gestures.

Believe it or not, Dorothy spent enough time studying English and made a number of friends who spoke as well as she did. Believe it or not, She is now learning French. For someone who once only spoke in Mandarin, she has come a long way. She has learned a few French phrases that she speaks with aplomb.

“Parlez vous Francais?” someone said to her in proper French.

“Oui!” she replied like she was born speaking French.

The man was very impressed.

Years later, Dorothy was officially someone who could speak Mandarin, English, and French too! She is now actively posting about whatever she loves in all three languages on Twitter as well! Dorothy is now a Twitter bug! Better believe it.