Recently, the story of a middle-aged¹ Chinese rag-picker went viral online. With a keen interest in English, the 44-year-old woman has been teaching herself English for over 20 years, and can now read English newspapers and translate English novels.

近日，中国一位中年拾荒者的事迹在网上走红。由于对英语有着浓厚的兴趣，这位44岁的女子坚持自学英语20多年，现在可以读英文报纸，翻译英文小说。

Yuan Yinghui was born in a village in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. She began learning English in junior middle school and has been passionate² about it ever since.

她叫袁英慧，出生于中国东部山东省青岛的一个乡村。她在初中时开始学英语，自那时起便对学英语充满了热情。

Yuan enrolled³ in a vocational high school in Qingdao at the age of 17, majoring in clothing, in which she later found herself utterly⁴ uninterested.

17岁时，袁英慧考入青岛市的一所职业中学，学习服装专业，后来她发现自己对这个专业不太感兴趣。

As her classes seemed dull, and more importantly, there was no opportunity to learn English, she decided⁵ to drop out of school in her second year to dedicate all her time to English study.

由于课程比较枯燥，最重要是没有机会学英语了，她在第二年就肄业，专门去学习英语了。

Almost everyone around Yuan disagreed with her decision. Her parents hoped that she could keep her mind on her schooling⁶ so that she could find a decent job in a garment factory. People in her village judged her. Eventually, Yuan left home and lived a life on her own.

袁英慧身边的人几乎都不同意她的决定。她的父母希望她能踏踏实实读书，毕业后在服装厂找到一份体面的工作。村里的人也对她评头论足。最终，袁英慧离家出走了。

Though life after leaving home was difficult and unsettled, Yuan never gave up on her passion for English. Except for living expenses, she used almost all of her salary to buy English materials.

尽管一个人的生活很艰难，居无定所，可袁英慧从未放弃过对英语的追求。除开生活开支，其他的钱她都用来买英语学习资料。

Since she wanted to spend a significant amount of time learning English, as soon as she had saved enough money, she quit her job and devoted⁷ herself to self-learning, sometimes for several years at a time.

由于她想有大量的时间学习英语，一旦攒够了钱，她就辞掉工作，全身心地投入到学习中，有时一次学几年。

Listening to English news, attending English Corner activities held at colleges, reading English magazines, Yuan used every resource available in an attempt to enhance her English skills.

听英语新闻、参加大学里举行的英语角、阅读英语杂志，她利用一切可用的资源来提高英语技能。

This continued until 2016, when Yuan became afraid that holding down a job might force her to give up on English entirely⁸. So, in May 2016, she decided to become a rag-picker to allow herself more study time.

这种情况持续到2016年，当时她感觉找到工作会让自己完全放下英语，因此在2016年5月，她决定做一名拾荒者，这样就有更多的时间学英语。

Last year, Yuan translated The Lost, an English crime novel written by Roberta Kray. She finished the translation in five months, with the translated text handwritten in six notebooks.

去年，袁英慧还翻译了罗伯塔·克雷的英文犯罪小说《追踪者》。她在五个月内完成了翻译工作，翻译的文字写满了6本笔记本。

"I told people I could read English newspapers, and they thought I was lying because I only went to middle school," Yuan told local media.

袁英慧在接受当地媒体采访时表示：“我给人们讲我可以读英语报纸，他们觉得我骗人，因为我才只初中学历。”

Being asked why she remained so passionate about English for so many years, Yuan explained that she wanted to make her life meaningful, and she doesn't regret her decision.

当被问及为什么这么多年来她一直对英语充满热情时，袁英慧解释说她想让自己的生活变得有意义，她并不后悔自己的决定。

"I would make the same decision if I were given another chance at life," said Yuan, disclosing that she wishes to become a translator and settle down in the future.

袁英慧说道：“如果再给我一次机会，我也会做出同样的决定。”她表示希望自己能成为一名翻译，将来能安定下来。