Chapter 492 His last name is Li, and his name is Chad
Liu Wangxue took Du Yunxiang, Cha Cha and Anding to the studio. The first place they passed on the way was Tao Huayu's house. Tao's mother was carrying a few small food bags and stopped a few passing children to give them small biscuits.
These children had all been seen in the threshing ground last night. Two of them received cookies first. When they turned around, they saw Liu Wangxue, Pengpeng beside her, and Xiaoci in her arms. They ran over like a gust of wind to greet them, and then looked at the blond-haired, blue-eyed little boy holding Guagua with great curiosity.
The boy's name was Xiao Tao. He was a chubby boy who was not shy when meeting strangers. He asked Cha Cha directly, "Are you a foreigner too?"
Before Chacha could respond, the kid next to him named Haohao answered first: "He looks the same as Richard. He must be a foreigner. He won't understand if you ask him that. You should ask in English."
The "Richard" that children refer to is Richard.
Taojia Village has never had a history of foreigners visiting the village, and everyone has only seen this kind of blond and blue-eyed white man on TV. Therefore, when Richard suddenly appeared in the village, it really caused a sensation, and even people from the neighboring village came to see what was going on.
When Richard first arrived, almost every household in the village talked about him after dinner.
Everyone knows that the old village committee is now a branch of the big company founded by Boss Du in Hai City. It is not a good idea to disturb people at work, so no one has nothing better to do than to go over and take a look.
It doesn't matter if everyone doesn't go. The people inside will have to come out eventually, right?
For example, Tao Jiahong and his mother who work there are often visited by villagers to chat and ask questions. There are also two chefs in the canteen. Sometimes the kitchen is short of seasonings, so they always have to go to the village store. When they meet people on the way, they will also be asked some questions. And the staff of the studio can't always stay in the office or dormitory. When the work is not so stressful, they always have to go out for a walk, and they will also be asked some related questions.
The villagers had no ill intentions, they were just simply curious.
Aren’t people from Country M said to be very rich? Why would he come all the way to their small village to work?
Can he speak our language? Can he understand what we say?
I heard that people there eat beef and milk. Would he be able to adapt to the food here? Would he have trouble adapting to the local climate?
How old is he? Is he married? Does he have children? Would his parents agree to his coming?
What is he like? Is he easy to get along with?
…
There are countless problems, some of which are unexpected.
Some people even went to Tao Huayu's house to ask Tao's parents, because they thought Tao Huayu had a good relationship with Du Yunkai - which was not a good thing, because the old village committee directly asked Tao Huayu to do the renovation, and his brother-in-law's cakes were also sold there - so they thought Tao's parents should know something.
How could Tao's parents know, so they waited for Tao Huaxin to come back and ask her. Tao Huaxin was not a gossipy person, she also knew that the villagers were just new to it, and after the novelty of the past two days wore off and they got used to it, they would be fine, so she didn't say much.
When others were asked questions, I answered what I could, and I just laughed off the questions that were unclear or sensitive.
Richard would usually wander around the village when he had nothing to do. Since he didn't speak the language, he would bring Jin Zhaofei or others with him on the few occasions he went out.
The first time they went out for a walk, Jin Zhaofei said he wanted to go to the village store.
The store is located near the village primary school. It is not big, but it has a wide variety of goods and looks very old. Jin Zhaofei and his friends had been there before and found many snacks from their childhood memories, so they said they would take Richard to try them.
Along the way, Jin Zhaofei became Richard's spokesperson. When he was asked what Richard's name was for the umpteenth time, Jin Zhaofei blurted out a Chinese name for him: "His last name is Li, and his name is Richard."
The older generation of villagers had never learned English, so they could not remember an English name. They would ask once they remembered it, and if they could not remember it at all, they would refer to it as "that foreigner". Now the name "Richard" was much easier to remember. After Jin Zhaofei said it, the name seemed to have wings, and everyone in the village, young and old, knew it.
Richard is an easy-going person, so he accepted this meaningless Chinese name. It sounded similar to his English name anyway, so it was just a transliteration.
Just as Tao Huaxin predicted, after a few days, the villagers got used to it and when they met the foreigner on the road, they naturally called him "Richard" and asked him "where were you going" and "have you eaten?"
Richard has learned some very simple daily expressions from Jin Zhaofei and his friends, and will take the initiative to greet the villagers - the purpose is to practice speaking. Occasionally, when he meets some children singing the 26 English alphabet songs, he will help them correct their pronunciation.
Speaking of English, there is a small episode.
Although foreign language teaching has become popular in rural areas, the effect is not very good. The reason is ultimately the lack of teachers.
Take Taojia Village for example. There is only one primary school in the surrounding villages. From first to sixth grade, there are two classes in each grade, and the total number of students each year is just over 300 at most. Some families with slightly better conditions or who attach enough importance to their children's education will send their children to good schools in town or elsewhere.
There are not many types of classes that children in the village take. There are only three main subjects: Chinese, mathematics and English. Other subjects such as music, art, physical education and natural sciences are mostly arranged on the timetable for the sake of appearance, because some schools cannot even recruit teachers for these courses. In most cases, the main subject teachers have to take on multiple duties.
The reason why we can’t recruit teachers is very simple: the place is remote and few people are willing to come here.
Several main subject teachers of Taojia Village Primary School either came here with a sincere desire to teach and educate people and eventually stayed, or they themselves left here and returned to contribute to their hometown after completing their studies. Now these teachers are already quite old, so the principal applied to the Municipal Education Bureau, hoping that it could transfer some fresh blood, especially English teachers.
The principal also visited other schools. They were all rural primary schools. The latest in other schools started to popularize English in the third grade, but their children were only in the fourth or fifth grade and started to learn the 26 letters. If they go to middle school in the future, they will lose at the starting line! The application was submitted, and the Education Bureau also paid attention to it. Soon, there was fierce competition for several quotas in Taojia Village Primary School. At the beginning of the new school year, new teachers also came. But who would have thought that these teachers were all those who failed to get into the regions or schools they wanted, and used this place as a stepping stone. When the time came, they immediately applied to leave.
The principal may be angry, but a forced melon is not sweet, so he can only let people leave. Let them leave. After all, there are so many students graduating from normal colleges every year, and he doesn't believe that he can't recruit those who are really willing to stay here.
In the next school year, the principal's own son graduated from a normal school and volunteered to come back to teach mathematics. Then two young people passed the civil service exam and were assigned to teach Chinese. But the English teacher had never been hired, but it didn't matter much. These college students had learned English to some extent, so they had no problem teaching elementary school students. So these three young teachers, in addition to teaching their own main subjects, were also responsible for English classes for grades one to six.
After a while, the principal used some connections to introduce an English teacher to the school through acquaintances, and hired one using school funds.
This teacher graduated from a local university with a bachelor's degree in English. His family had always wanted him to take the civil service exam, but he failed after two years of trying. So he decided to find a job here and study while working. In fact, he wanted to escape the suffocating atmosphere at home.
This English teacher is rather shy and wears glasses whose lenses look quite thick. His salary is calculated based on teaching hours and it varies every month, sometimes more than 2,000 and sometimes less than 2,000. However, he is very happy here.
After taking classes for half a semester, he told his family that he wanted to stay in Taojia Village as an English teacher, but his family disagreed and wanted him to take the civil service exam. He had no choice but to take the exam three times, but still failed.
After the results came out, his family thought that his work distracted him, causing his results to be worse than the previous time. They even thought of asking him to quit his job.
The English teacher argued with his family for a long time and refused to go back. Then one day, his family suddenly came to his senses for some unknown reason and said that he wanted to stay in Taojia Village to work, and they let him do as he pleased, but there was one requirement: he had to take an exam to become a civil servant and could not continue to be an outsourced employee in this unclear manner.
The teacher recruitment exam in Xishi City is usually registered in March or April. This English teacher has missed it, so he decided to apply for the next year. The principal was very happy when he heard about it. He supported him very much and encouraged him to prepare well. According to the current schedule, the registration will start next month.
Richard came here at the end of December. Everyone in the village knew that a foreigner had come here, and naturally the teachers in the primary school also knew about it.
After New Year's Day, the principal went to other schools for exchange and learning. Seeing that some rural schools with good development had hired foreign teachers, he felt nervous again. On the way back, he pondered all the way and suddenly thought, didn't Taojia Village also have a foreigner? The principal thought about it again and again, and after thinking about it for several days, he decided to give it a try.
So one day after school, the principal went to the village committee of Taojia Village. The principal was not from Taojia Village, but from Zhangjia Village next door. He knew that Taojia Village rented the old village committee to a boss from outside the village, and he also heard his son talk about Jingshan Technology. As a young person, who doesn't play games more or less?
The principal wanted to ask the village committee to help establish a connection with the foreigner named "Richard" to see if he was willing to take time off to come to the school to substitute for the teacher.
The principal said to Wang Junpeng, "I know he is busy with work, but I want to ask him first if he is willing to come to school and teach for an hour or half an hour when he is free. This will give the children a chance to hear authentic English speaking. It will at least help them lay a foundation."
After Wang Junpeng finished talking with the principal, he actually found time to go to the studio to find Richard and ask him about it. Richard was of course happy to do so. He once dreamed of becoming a teacher, but in the end, reality prevailed over his ideals. Making games made more money, and the most important thing for him at that time was to work hard to make money to pay off his college and graduate school loans.
Richard was interested, but he had a lot of work on hand, and he often stayed up all night, and only went out occasionally, so he had no time to prepare lessons. So he made an agreement with Wang Junpeng that when the work at the studio was a little easier, he would go to the school to take a look and teach the children, and he didn't need to pay for the lessons. He didn't need this little money now, so he would just do it as a charity.
The principal was so happy to receive this promise that he hummed a few lines of songs all day long. Look, those schools are splendid, but the cost of hiring foreign teachers is not a small amount. Look at our Taojia Village Primary School, we have ready-made teachers!
Somehow the news got out, and it became known that Richard was going to teach English at Taojia Village Primary School. The English teacher must have heard about it, and was extremely worried. He immediately went to the principal and asked him timidly if he had done something wrong and the principal was going to fire him.
After hearing the whole story, the principal realized that it was a big misunderstanding. He explained the real situation to him and personally "refuted the rumors" at the morning meeting. Only then was the matter over.
When the principal "refuted the rumor", he also played a trick to encourage the children to study English well. When the "Richard" teacher came, you didn't know anything, how would you communicate with the teacher? Therefore, after this incident, the children of Taojia Village Primary School have greatly improved their interest in English classes, and the learning results are reflected in their transcripts, which is particularly obvious.
Occasionally, some children would meet Richard in the village and would muster up the courage to say to him, "How are you?" Richard would reply, "I'm fine, how about you?"
At this time, the blond and blue-eyed Cha Cha suddenly appeared in the village. The children were no longer curious or surprised when they saw him, and naturally thought that they should speak English when talking to him.
Xiao Tao frowned and scratched his head: "I'm only in the first grade, you are also in the first grade, we haven't learned much, we can't speak."
Haohao said: "The teacher taught us 'Okay', you can say it, you will definitely know it."
Liu Wangxue and the other two wanted to laugh when they heard this, but they held it back.
Little Cha Cha pursed his lips and said in standard Mandarin: "I'm not a foreigner." As for what they just said, "Okay," he didn't understand.
Xiao Tao was extremely surprised: "Haohao, he can speak our language!"
Haohao's eyes widened and he nodded vigorously: "He can understand what we are saying too! He is better than Richard!"
Small Theater
Kids: No, you should say "I'm fine, and you"
Richard：That's what I mean.Children ：???
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