In this period, Robert was working hard to improve his Chinese. He had been putting in a lot of effort, memorizing a large number of idioms, verses, and good words and phrases.
However, he was merely mechanically remembering these words and the situations they were used in, unable to apply them flexibly.
For example, Robert initially intended to use the idiom "meeting an old friend in a foreign place" to describe the chance encounter with Yang Ping in Saudi Arabia.
But in his excitement, he ended up blurting out a whole sentence.
The idiom "standing in the snow to seek instruction" was what Robert had in mind to express his respectful student-teacher relationship with Yang Ping.
Robert knew the phrase had this meaning, but didn't know how to use it, so he just blurted it out bluntly.
In recognition of Robert's dedication to learning Chinese, Yang Ping gave him a big thumbs up.
