Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / February 2004

This is a sample text for anyone to correct and comment on. But I
specially ask native English speakers to please check it out, and tell
me if my written English is good enough as that of a person whose
mother tongue is English. This is because I am planning to do English
tutorials and my prospective clients want to know if my English is
comparable to that of a native speaker. Thank you very much for the
participation.

Treasure Hunting Yamashita

I was born in the province where Japanese treasures were said to be
stashed during the World War II. It is also the province where many
Japanese soldiers hid and their leader Gen. Yamashita was killed. It
is a mountainous place and the people still believes in family,
community, and helping each other. They are also big believers of God,
to the extent that some believes that everything they do and
experience could possibly be a sign from God Almighty.

This strong belief in signs of God and the abundance of treasure myths
and golden Buddhas lead to the increasing number of treasure hunters.
Everyone who dreamt of a pot of gold will start looking for a treasure
map or conjure one up based on other family member or members' dreams
when no map is found. Then they will start scouting the possible
locations for signs. Some believes that when they are in the correct
place, they would feel something akin to itchiness and
uncomfortability. However, it is also uncommon in the locality that
every family have at one time had a member or members who dreamt of
treasure pots and found nothing when they tried looking for it.

In retrospect, some unexplained dug sites were found where locals
noticed lights in the dark of night and found only some scrap metals
or big plastic drums in the morning. These were said to be the works
of professional treasure hunters with a real map and complete digging
equipments that they only came at night to dig up the treasure and
flew away with it before dawn breaks. Soon enough a local will
suddenly have a good car and a rumour will break out that a jar of
gold coins and artifacts was found and he was the guide to the
treasure site so he was given a car as payment. Add to that, the
treasure hunters are Japanese and are said to be the sons and
grandsons of a World War II Japanese soldier. But nobody really saw a
thing but the lights, and the local with the new car started moving to
another province and in the end, it's just another myth to inspire
local treasure hunters.

Sixty years have passed, several unexplained dug sites, hundreds of
treasure dreams, and the story of the Yamashita treasures still lives
on. Whether it is really true or not still has to be proven. But just
in case it is true, are there still enough treasures to sustain the
dreams of many treasure hunters?