Wheel

Walking back to the FLEC Building from eating lunch at the cafeteria, my Korean friend and I were chatting about the weather and our classes, when out of nowhere I heard a male voice say - less hesitantly and more urgently than normal, "Excuse me." As department elections are being held soon, more than one Korean student has stopped me to tell me who to vote for, so my initial response was to look at him, nod and keep walking while pretending I was trying to understand who he was telling me to vote for.

First, "Do you speak Korean?"
"No."
"Do you speak English?"
*faint smile - thank you for not assuming!* "Yes."
"Well, my English is very bad, but I have a favor to ask...Are you busy now?"
"Well...actually, yes."
"Oh, well. Um, I really need a favor."
"Uhh..."
"My favor is, I have a presentation I need to give, and I need someone to look over it."
Oh, I can do that. Probably a paper he has for his English class...no problem.
"Ah, well I will be busy until 5."
"Where will you be after 5?"
"In the building right behind you. Do you have time at 5?"
"Yes. Where...?"
"Oh, go in the main door, and straight ahead there is a room. The sign above the door says Global Lounge. I'll be in there."

By the time 5 rolled around, the 4 hours of sleep I got last night were seeming like a smaller and smaller amount, and I had dozed off in the corner. When I work up, I saw him sitting with a nervous-looking lady, probably a bit older than me. He introduced her as I sat down, handed me some papers, and pulled out his phone. He asked me if I could read it out loud as he recorded it, to improve their pronunciation and phrasing, as this was an extremely important presentation.

Not exactly sure, but I think she was trying to get a job as a teacher, or develop a research program, at another college. And her research was in the field of dental diseases. I'm not 100% sure I pronounced all the words correctly, and more than once I had to reread something. Nonetheless, they were extremely grateful. It took me 6.5 minutes to read the presentation, and after that I spent another 5 adding the handful of articles they had left out. All in all, it was an extremely well-written and grammatically correct paper. I felt honored to be able to help them!

They were extremely thankful.

He pulled a Starbucks drink out of his coat pocket, and told me he'd bought it warm for me. Then asked me what other compensation I wanted. I laughed and told him, "Well, I am just a student now, but in a year I will be trying to go to graduate school, and then maybe someone will help me like I am helping you. So it's ok!" "Oh...really??" "Of course! nice to meet you and good luck! Oh, and thank you for the coffee, I was really tired!"