Taiwan's oldest primary-school student, 95-year-old Chang Tien-chun (張殿君), graduated yesterday, proving that one is indeed never too old to learn.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) attended the graduation ceremony in Hsinchu's Min Fu Primary School (民富國小) and presented him with an award to honor his zeal for learning.
Three years ago Chang was still illiterate when he started attending the adult-education evening classes at Min Fu school. He says he started taking the classes because he felt he was "losing face" every time he saw his granddaughter -- more than 80 years his junior -- reading or writing.
When asked if he wants to go a step further after graduation by, for example, learning to speak English or studying at a junior high school, Chang jokingly replied: "I'm too old. Everything depends on whether Yama [the King of Death] allows me [to study]."
Never skipping a single class, regardless of the weather, Chang was always clutching an umbrella as his "crutch" and always had a magnifying glass in his bag during the "three happy years," as he calls it.
According to Chang, it's really difficult to study when one gets his age, because bad memory and poor eyesight makes it hard, physically. "But I can calculate numbers in my head very quickly so I always got full marks in math."
On the other hand, music lessons are his big headache. "I simply cannot sing a tune at this age," he said smilingly.
Chang was born in Shandong Province (
Chang said that making new friends is what he loved the most about the classes. "Among my classmates were the beautiful Vietnamese, Indonesian and Thai brides [of Taiwanese men]."
The diligent grandfather says that he greatly enjoyed the days of learning and that he would have liked to go to school every day.
RSS