感恩回顾
The following content is an excerpt from Dr. Li's grateful retrospective on his legendary life.
以下内容摘自李博士传奇人生的感恩回顾。
Back in 1950, I was here all alone, in a strange new country with a brand-new language, and no relatives. Thankfully, I was given a job sweeping floors in a Lockheed hangar on Saturdays, and the pay fed me for a whole week. Another part-time job paid for my room. When I graduated with honors from flight mechanic’s school, I applied to MIT! Friends and teachers laughed at me. One of my Chinese schoolmates even used the Chinese saying: “A lazy toad wants to eat the meat of a heavenly swan!(懒蛤蟆想吃天鹅肉), You’ll be lucky if you can get into Glendale City College!” One of my teachers even said about MIT: “Bob, you don’t know where it is and you cannot even spell Massachusetts!” Miraculously, I had the last laugh!
回想起1950年,我一个人来到美国 — 对于当时的我而言,那是一片完全陌生的国土,在这里我孤身一人,无依无靠,既没有亲戚,也不懂得当地语言 — 英语。 谢天谢地,我得到了一份周六在洛克希德机库扫地的工作,工资足够我维持生活一个星期。 另外搞了一份兼职工作,足够支付我的房租。 当我以优异的成绩从飞行机械学校毕业时,我申请报考麻省理工学院(MIT)! 朋友和老师都笑话我。 我的一个中国老乡校友甚至用了一句中文谚语:“A lazy toad wants to eat the meat of a heavenly swan!(就是在嘲笑少年罗伯特,你小子简直就是 懒蛤蟆想吃天鹅肉)! 如果你能考上格伦代尔城市学院(Glendale City College),你就很幸运了!” (格伦代尔城市学院 属于三流的职业技术学院) 。