Chapter 131 Seize the Opportunity (First Update, Please Subscribe)
It's like a dream!
For the 365 teenagers who were selected to attend the preparatory school, they certainly felt that all this was like a dream. Before this, they might have been apprentices in factories or workers on farms, but it was certain that they would only earn five or six silver dollars a month at most.
But now, in the school, they have a monthly allowance of five silver dollars!
All they need to do is study, learn English. Of course, the learning process is not easy. If they cannot memorize the new English words and sentences, they are not allowed to eat. They are not even allowed to speak a word of Mandarin in school and can only speak English.
All of this is to enable them to master simple English conversations as quickly as possible and go abroad to study as soon as possible.
In fact, long before the first batch of immigrants arrived, Zhu Xianhai specifically asked for a statistics of the 12 to 17-year-old immigrants who had attended private schools. According to his original plan, some of these teenagers would go to technical schools to learn technology, and some would go to study in countries such as Britain and the United States.
Talent!
Whether it is for a company or a country, talent is the most important.
In fact, opportunities do not only belong to children. Adults also have their own opportunities. Those adults who study English in night school can also pass the exam and obtain the qualifications to study abroad, just like Li Qingen.
This seemingly simple decision changed the fate of many people and allowed many people to see opportunities.
What opportunities does the 23-year-old Zhao Tianfeng see?
go home!
What does it mean to study abroad?
It means that you can leave Nanhua, whether to go to England, America, or even France, and you will have the opportunity to return to the Qing Dynasty.
"Brother Chen, we don't even have the chance to build a ship here, but as long as we go abroad, we can leave Nanhua and return to our hometown. By then, Brother Chen, you will still be the second young master of the Chen family, and you won't be mixed up with a bunch of mud legs like you are now."
When persuading Chen Jie to sign up with him, Zhao Tianfeng's tone seemed a little excited.
How could he not be excited? He was a juren, and he passed the exam at the age of 20! Even if he was only a deputy juren, he would have a chance to be a high-ranking official in the future. In his hometown of Zhejiang, who didn't know this?
But here?
He is just a teacher, what is the difference between him and an ordinary peasant?
The only difference was that he got a single room and could earn 15 or 16 yuan a month. But this was not the life he had imagined. He had also thought about joining a company and becoming a senior employee, which was why he worked hard to learn English.
But the problem is that this is not what he wants. He wants to be an official in the court and bring honor to his family.
But here, what does it matter even if you are successful and famous?
"In fact, this place is like a paradise on earth, so why should I miss going home?"
Chen Jie shook his head.
"My hometown is in chaos. Even if you and I go back, what will happen?"
Seeing that Chen Jie refused to listen, Zhao Tianfeng just sighed and said.
"You have to think clearly. If you miss this opportunity, you will never get it again! And now that the country is in need of talents, if you and I finish our studies in the West and return to China, we will definitely be valued by the court. By then, it will be natural for us to achieve success and fame."
In fact, even Zhao Tianfeng knew that studying abroad was not an opportunity to escape, but an opportunity to learn. In the more than half a year since he came to Nanhua, like many people, he was also shocked by the power of machines. In addition to being surprised, he also realized the changes in the world.
Facing the impact of steam engines and various machines, Zhao Tianfeng realized the crisis and the opportunity at the same time! Isn't this his chance to become famous! How many people in the Qing Dynasty know about machines? If you know science, study abroad, and then escape back to the Qing Dynasty, how could you not be reused by the court?
After all, the imperial court needs guns and cannons to suppress bandits, and machines can make guns and cannons. To resist foreign invaders, warships need to be built. These... no one in the imperial court knows how to do them! But he knows how to do them! After studying abroad, he will naturally know how to do them!
"Why……"
Chen Jie sighed and said nothing. Some people cannot be persuaded. Of course, he would not miss the chance to study abroad. This is indeed a rare opportunity!
Besides, he really wanted to see what England and France, which had fought all the way to the capital of the Qing Dynasty and even burned down the emperor's garden, looked like.
A total of 737 people applied for the overseas study exam, including 12 women. Sisters Song Bing and Song Yu were naturally among them. Compared with others, they had better foreign language skills, so passing the exam was almost a natural thing for them.
On January 27, 1862, 412 adults passed the test, including 10 women. Most of them had English proficiency equivalent to that of a third or fourth grader in elementary school.
It is definitely not possible to study abroad at this level. However, when they signed up, the return of the Feiyun brought 37 missionaries from the Southern Church of the United States. These missionaries who knew Chinese naturally took on the responsibility of teachers. In addition to the missionaries, there were even two Chinese professors. Their arrival finally put Nanhua's English education on the right track.
In the following days, they learned English and mathematics at the same time. For those who are good at memorizing, learning English by rote memorization is more effective with less effort.
In fact, it is not only adults who are like this, but also students in overseas preparatory schools. They have to recite poems every morning. In the morning, they practice writing and listen to the teacher's lectures. In the afternoon, they basically recite the text. The requirements for reciting the text are very strict. If they fail to complete it, they will be beaten with a stick.
"...Everyone has to recite one or two English novels or essays every day. Every time they read wrong, the professor will mark it with a pencil and correct the pronunciation. In class the next day, they have to review the old lesson. Only after they have memorized it completely will they start teaching the new lesson. The teaching time is two to three hours a day, and the rest of the time is spent studying mathematics and geography."
Zhu Xianhai just nodded slightly to the preparatory school teaching method mentioned by Li Weizhi. He didn't know whether it was scientific or not. The important thing was to let them learn English quickly and lay a good language foundation, and then select the best people to study abroad.
The late Qing Dynasty was beaten by foreign countries several times since 1840, and ceded territory and paid compensation, but it did not realize that if it wanted to catch up with the Western powers, it had to learn foreign languages, especially English. It was still immersed in the beautiful dream of the "Tartar Qing" Celestial Empire. It was not easy to send more than one hundred young children to study in the United States, but they were influenced by foreign culture and became "unruly" and were withdrawn. It was not until 1894 that it was defeated by the Japanese, paid hundreds of millions of taels of silver, ceded Taiwan, and lost Korea that it understood its own fate. The following year, in 1895, the censor Yang Shenxiu reported that the merits of Japan's Meiji Restoration were due to overseas students, and requested to send people to study in Japan. Even so, it was not until the Eight-Nation Alliance captured the capital that the door to studying abroad was truly opened, but at this time... it was too late!
What Zhu Xianhai needs to do now is to seize the time, seize this window of opportunity, send overseas students to learn from the West, and use about 20 years to achieve independent training of talents. In the process, he should seize the opportunity of the Second Industrial Revolution and realize the leapfrog development of Nanhua. This is the most important thing.
Being backward does not necessarily mean you will be beaten often, but being backward and not learning will definitely make you beaten often. Just like Japan, which "seeked knowledge from the world", ceded Taiwan, demanded hundreds of millions of taels of silver in compensation, and then defeated Russia. On the other hand, what about the "Qing Dynasty", which said "the world's knowledge is the best" and argued endlessly about "Chinese learning or Western learning is more important"? It was just meat on the board.
While lamenting the changes in history, Zhu Xianhai couldn't help but feel a sense of urgency, as if history did not leave him much time. After all, compared to Japan, the current external environment of South China is really too bad. South America is their territory!
Developing on someone else’s territory... How can it not be dangerous!
(End of this chapter)
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