Early the next morning, when Xu Yiyang and his sister went out together, their parents were still encouraging them to perform well in the exam.
Xu Yiyang responded vaguely. After taking his sister to No. 3 Middle School by bike, he turned around and rode out of the city.
take an exam? What a crap test!
Not taking the exam and getting zero points can also be interpreted as being in a bad mood and not wanting to take the exam.
If you take the exam and fail in the exam, there's really no way to explain it.
However, Xu Yiyang had no money in his pocket and had nowhere to go, so he simply rode to the Yellow River outside the city.
Yingzhou is located in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, not far from the mouth of the sea. The original scenery of the Yellow River is still very magnificent.
Xu Yiyang used to like to walk along the Yellow River. Whenever he was stressed or in a bad mood, he would go for a walk on the river embankment alone.
I just didn't have to take the exam today, and I had nowhere to go, so I just came to the bank of the Yellow River to look for memories from that year.
In winter, the wind is biting and freezing by the Yellow River, but Xu Yiyang doesn't feel cold at all.
After strolling along the small park along the river embankment for a while, he was still thinking about how to make money.
After walking back and forth for several times, Xu Yiyang suddenly heard a burst of noise.
When I looked up, I found a group of people coming not far away. I looked at them and saw at least seven or eight people.
Among these seven or eight people, there were two foreigners with blond hair who were particularly obvious.
The two foreigners were a man and a woman, about thirty or forty years old, both with blond hair, blue eyes and high noses.
The two foreigners were accompanied by five or six Chinese people, including a photographer with a camera on his shoulder and a female reporter holding a microphone.
Xu Yiyang looked at the logo on the microphone. It was the local Yingzhou TV station.
Looking at this posture, Xu Yiyang estimated that these two people were probably foreign businessmen coming to invest in the local area.
Seeing that these people were getting closer and closer, Xu Yiyang was worried about being caught by the camera. After all, he was hanging out during exam time. If he was on TV again, it would be troublesome for his family, teachers and classmates to see him.
So he quickly turned around and turned his back to the approaching people.
When these people passed behind him, Xu Yiyang heard the blond foreign middle-aged man, speaking very standard English, say seriously: "My grandfather has lived in Yingzhou for twelve years. At that time, he kept telling me that it was the Chinese people and the people of Yingzhou who raised him... "
After the blond man finished speaking, a middle-aged Chinese man next to him said with an embarrassed face: "Oh, I'm so sorry, Mr. Lauter, I... I... don't quite understand what you said... Please wait a moment, I've already We asked someone to hire an English teacher from the best local high school..."
The foreigner called Lauter couldn't understand what the middle-aged man was saying, so he smiled awkwardly.
Xu Yiyang, who was not far away, took a sneak peek at this scene and couldn't help but chuckle secretly.
Yingzhou itself is not a port city, nor is it located on the southeast coast. In 1999, Yingzhou was still very isolated.
Nowadays, most locals in Yingzhou have probably never seen a living foreigner.
The first living foreigner Xu Yiyang met in his previous life was a foreign teacher he met after going to university in the provincial capital.
Moreover, of Xu Yiyang's father's generation, very few have received higher education, and even fewer have learned and spoken English well.
Therefore, it is quite common for locals in Yingzhou, even leaders of their work units, to be unable to communicate normally with foreigners in English.
Not only Yingzhou, but also most small cities in the mainland are in a similar situation at this stage.
The middle-aged man was a little impatient at this time and asked the people around him in a low voice: "What's going on? Why haven't they come yet?"
The person next to me pretending to be a secretary hurriedly said: "I just called the principal of No. 1 Middle School again. He told me that he was coordinating with the English teachers. He said that all the teachers in the first and second grades of their school were on vacation. Although the teachers in the third grade were not on vacation, But today’s exam, the teachers are all in the exam room to invigilate the exam, so it will be difficult to make arrangements for a while.”
"Isn't it easy to be transferred?" the middle-aged man snorted and said angrily: "I think he is an English teacher in their No. 1 middle school. When he heard that he was going to be a translator for foreign guests, everyone must have become timid!"
The man next to him smiled awkwardly and said, "Director Cai, let me tell you the truth. Conversation with foreign guests and real-time translation not only require high English proficiency, but also higher requirements for speaking and listening. Otherwise, you will either have to listen." I don’t understand what the foreign guests say, or the foreign guests don’t understand what they say. Our English teachers have all taught according to the lesson plans for several years or more than ten years. Whether they have met foreigners or not is a problem. Talking to foreigners , Real-time translation may not be very clever!”
After finishing speaking, the other party quietly pouted at the two reporters not far away, and whispered: "In addition, there are reporters following the interviews and cameras filming, I am afraid that no teacher would dare to take this task! This might be necessary. Making a fool of himself…”
The middle-aged man known as Director Cai said angrily: "No one dares to answer, so let their principal assign one to me! Even if you put a knife on the neck and tie him, you have to tie him up! Give him another beating Phone, if I don’t see anyone again within ten minutes, he will stop being the principal!”
When he thought that the school might send an English teacher here, Xu Yiyang subconsciously wanted to leave.
Otherwise, it would be embarrassing if a teacher at school recognizes you later.
Just as he was about to slip away, another thought suddenly flashed through his mind:
The battle in front of us was covered by a TV station!
People these days actually don’t have much leisure and entertainment. The most popular entertainment activity every day is watching TV.
Moreover, current closed-circuit televisions do not receive many channels, so the ratings of local TV stations are very high.
I have been married to Gu Sijia for so many years and have always been "bilingual educated" by her. I have also worked in the English training industry for so many years. I deal with foreign teachers every day. My English level is completely sufficient to be a temporary translator.
If I volunteered to be a translator for these two foreigners in the past, once it was on TV, I would at least be able to make a name for myself in Yingzhou, right
It just so happens that I am worried about how to make money right now.
I want to go back to my old career and engage in a business like training without capital, but because I am too young and have no qualifications, it is difficult for me to be recognized by my parents.
Now, isn't it a good opportunity to improve parents' recognition
As an adult, he would never sit back and let any opportunity pass him by.
Regardless of success or failure, you must give it a try!
…
Thomas Lauter, who came to Yingzhou all the way from Germany, felt a little helpless at this moment.
His grandfather grew up in Yingzhou and had deep feelings for this place.
Before his death, his grandfather entrusted him to take part of his ashes back to Yingzhou and scatter them into the Yellow River. He also asked him to donate 200,000 German marks from his inheritance to Yingzhou for education.
What I didn't expect was that when I brought my wife to Yingzhou and found the Yingzhou Education Department, I couldn't find anyone in the office who could speak fluently in English.
As for finding someone who can speak German, he doesn't even dare to hope for it. Compared with English, German is currently only an unpopular language in China.
We can’t blame Yingzhou’s education department for its poor quality. The main reason is that when they went to school, their English proficiency was generally very low.
Even college students with English proficiency may not be able to converse fluently with foreigners.
What's more, I have been working for so long, and I haven't seen any foreigners in several or even more than ten years, let alone spoken a word of English. I have almost returned all the things I learned back to the teacher.
Moreover, the leaders of the Education Bureau may not all be educated, so it is unrealistic to insist that they have excellent English proficiency.
Thomas Lauter took his wife to the Education Bureau, talked and gestured, and finally managed to talk through the Yellow River.
So the leaders of the Education Bureau quickly arranged for a car to take the two foreigners to the edge of the Yellow River, regardless of what they wanted to do.
The original plan was to bring the two foreigners to the Yellow River first, and at the same time quickly ask Yingzhou No. 1 Middle School to send an English teacher to join them.
In this way, the Education Bureau brought people to the Yellow River, and teachers from Yingzhou No. 1 Middle School also happened to come over to act as translators, so the two sides could be seamlessly connected.
Unexpectedly, Yingzhou No. 1 Middle School fell apart at a critical moment.
It's such a small road, and you can get there by riding a bicycle in ten minutes, but Yingzhou No. 1 Middle School has been inked so far, and it hasn't chosen a good candidate yet!
(End of chapter)