A college student in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has come up with a novel idea to fund his living expenses at university.
Ding Youjian is "selling" his voice by telling stories to children and reading newspapers to senior citizens for cash. Last summer, he did the same thing to good effect, the Chongqing Evening News reported.
A junior in Southwest University majoring in broadcasting anchor, Ding has passed the Level B Test of First Grade in Mandarin proficiency. Level A Test of First Grade is the highest Mandarin proficiency examination, and most China Central Television anchors have passed the test.
People in Ding's hometown Chongqing speak a heavily-accented dialect rather than Mandarin.
Last July, Ding posted a Web message on his university's website, asking if anyone "was looking for a person to tell a story to his/her child or read the newspapers to his/her parents."
Though he charges 15 yuan (US$1.9) an hour, some people - most of them parents - called in for more information.
Liu Mei, who lives in Cuihu Road in Yubei District with a 3-year-old daughter, said her daughter always asked to be told stories before going to sleep every night.
As some stories have been told time and again and she feels sleepy while her daughter is still alert and interested, she thinks it is a good idea to have someone else tell her stories.
Last summer, Ding got requests from four families, two of whom were looking for a story-teller and two to read the newspapers to the family's elders.
One family, with a 6-year-old girl who lives with her parents and her granny in Beibei District, asked him to read story books to the kid.
As the parents often became impatient with the child who always asked them to read the Arabian Nights, the girl gradually became a bit reticent.
Ding read stories for the child everyday between 2:30 and 4:30 PM. The child, who was keen to hear stories and also to make up some of her own, once again became cheerful.
Also, Ding spent two months with a 70-year-old man, whose three children live away from him, reading the newspapers to him.
"A nice voice can bring people music-like enjoyment and let people feel at ease," said Liu Qing, director of the Chongqing Renge Psychological Advisory Institute.
But Cai Yuejian, an associate professor of Education Science Institute at Southwest University, said it was better for the parents themselves to tell stories to their children as this would foster a closer relationship between parents and children. |