as a young boy and began practicing with English speakers in the Hangzhou International Hotel. Ma's grandfather served as a security guard during the Second Sino-Japanese War. At the age of 12, Ma bought a pocket radio and began listening to English radio stations frequently. For nine years, Ma rode on his bicycle every day to work as a tour guide of Hangzhou for foreigners in order to practice his English. He became pen pals with one of those foreigners, who nicknamed him "Jack" because he found it hard to pronounce his Chinese name. When Ma was 13 years old, he was forced to transfer to Hangzhou No. 8 Middle School as he kept getting caught in fights. It took two years for Ma to enter an ordinary high school, and he only got 31 points in mathematics. In 1982, at the age of 18, Ma failed the nation-wide Chinese college entrance exam, obtaining only 1 point in mathematics. Afterwards, he and his cousin applied to be waiters at a nearby hotel. However, his cousin was hired and Ma was rejected on the grounds that he was "too skinny, too short, and in general, emanated a bad physical appearance." In 1983, Ma failed his college entrance exam again for the second time. However, his mathematics score improved, with Ma managing to obtain 19 points. In 1984, despite strong opposition from his family to persuade him to give up, Ma remained steadfastly determined as he decided to take the college entrance examination for the third time. This time, he scored 89 points in the mathematics section. However, the expected amount of marks as eligibility entrance requirements for prospective university undergraduates was standardized as five points above Ma's score. Since the enrollment target for English majors was not met, some English students had the opportunity to be promoted. Ma was promoted to the undergraduate foreign language major by Hangzhou Normal University. After entering Hangzhou Normal University, Ma became to excel in his academic studies and was consistently ranked as among the top five students in the foreign language department due to his extensive English-language skills. As a result of this, Ma was elected as the chairman of the student union, and later served as the chairman of the Hangzhou Federation of Students for two terms. In 1988, Ma graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with a major in English. After graduation, he