"Old Dou, how many things are you hiding from us?"
During dinner that day, Lao Dou suddenly said that he had a younger brother coming back from the United States to see who among us has time to go tomorrow. Pick up at the airport. Everyone except Sachiko was shocked when they heard this. The second brother couldn't help but said: "Some time ago, we had a little mother, and now there are more little brothers. Don't tell me that we also have a little brother."
"Baby, the younger brother I'm talking about is Tang younger brother, my uncle's younger brother. But my uncle died early, and before his mother remarried, he gave him to Xiugu to raise. So I went to the United States with Xiu Gu." Lao Dou explained, so it's no wonder that no one has heard of such a relative.
Lao Dou continued: "He is a chef in the United States and has been working for more than 40 years. This year he is just 60 years old and will retire. Tomb Sweeping Day is next week, so he is coming back this time. Lao Dou paid homage to his ancestors. He received me when we went to the United States before. Of course I will receive him this time when he comes back."
As he said this, Lao Dou looked at Sachiko and said, "He will sit down tomorrow. The plane will arrive at four o'clock, and we need to find someone to pick him up. I don't understand those British rats. Sachiko, my dear, you have seen them and you know English. Do you have time to pick him up?"
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Sachiko thought for a moment after hearing this, then shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Dad, I have a meeting with a client tomorrow, and I can't go. What else is going on? My uncle treated me to dinner when we went to the United States before. Tomorrow night If I invite everyone out for dinner, please treat it as a courtesy to your uncle, okay?” Excuses not to pick people up.
Lao Dou nodded and looked at Azu again, "Azu, you speak English well, I will leave this task to you." Azu put down the bowl and chopsticks and responded: "You speak English well. I’m not the only one, my wife and A Rui both said very well, I have to work, so I don’t have to go to work?”
The reason why Lao Dou is looking for A Zu instead of Diana and Kang Qirui, It's because he feels that one of them is in school and the other is in a training institution, and their time is fixed. Azu, on the other hand, runs his own film and television company and has more free time.
Seeing that Azu did not agree, he looked at the second brother again. The second brother quickly waved his hands and declined: "Don't look at me, you second brother, I am uneducated, let alone English. I am not sure about Chinese. I know. And there are so many things to do in the tea restaurant every day. How can I have time?”
"Everyone is useless." Old Dou slammed the table angrily. Diana suggested: "Master, I have an idea. Can I make a sign and write his name on it, so I can receive it?"
Old Dou thought about it, this is a good idea. So he asked Diana to help him make this brand after eating, and Diana naturally nodded and agreed.
"Diana, come on, I need you to write in English." After eating, Lao Dou polished the ink himself. Diana took the brush handed over by Lao Dou and stared at it for a while, then put the brush away. He went to the side and picked up a whiteboard pen and said: "Master, I can just use this pen. I don't know how to use a brush hahaha"
After Diana got the cards, she asked again: "What is it called?" What’s the English name?”
“My name is Mi Gao,” Lao Dou thought for a while and said.
"Migore? Is it Michael or Migore?" Diana asked again. Old Dou didn't know. He picked up the phone and called Xiu Gu in the United States. Only after a dozen calls did he find out that Mi Gao knew Chinese and his Chinese name was Kang Xiaqiu.
This way, there is no need to bother Diana. Lao Dou wrote the name tag himself with a brush. The next day, I went to the airport with my mother and successfully picked up Kang Xiaqiu. When the three of them arrived at the restaurant that Sachiko had booked, it was exactly 6 o'clock, which is usually the time for the Kang family to have dinner.
Lao Dou introduced everyone in the Kang family to Kang Xiaqiu one by one. When he introduced the second sister-in-law, the second sister-in-law said: "Oh, Xiaqiu." As a result, he was educated by his mother, who scolded him. : "Why are you so rude? You should call me Uncle Qiu."
"It's okay, you can call me whatever you want. Uncle Qiu, Xiaqiu, and Mi Gao are all the same." Uncle Qiu is here For decades, Americans have become accustomed to others calling him by his first name.
After introducing everyone, the meal officially started. After eating half full, Lao Dou asked Uncle Qiu: "A Qiu, there is still one week before Qingming Festival. During this time, I will take you to visit Guangzhou. Mansion? Speaking of which, you haven’t been back for decades.”
Uncle Qiu shook his head and said: "Actually, when I come back this time, besides worshiping my ancestors, I have one more thing to do, so I don't have time to go shopping."
The second guy heard what he said. , and guessed: "Uncle Qiu, are you coming back to open a restaurant? If so, why not do it with me?"
Uncle Qiu shook his head, and Azu continued to guess: "Uncle Qiu is doing it in the United States. I have been a chef for decades and have made a lot of money. Do you still need to do something? I think Uncle Qiu wants to come back and find a wife.”
Uncle Qiu almost choked at Azu’s words. After taking a sip of tea, he said: "Don't say this nonsense. I have a girlfriend in the United States. In fact, I want to come back to learn English."
Huh? ? ?Uncle Qiu's words can be said to have stirred up a thousand waves with one stone. Everyone almost choked on his words, and they all said in surprise: "Come back from the United States to learn English?"
Uncle Qiu nodded, Kang Qirui really couldn't understand this. He asked doubtfully: "Uncle Qiu, I heard from my old Dou that you have been in the United States for decades, how come you don't understand English? You said that when you came back to teach English, it was acceptable. Isn't it a bit difficult to learn English?"
Everyone had the same idea as Kang Qirui, and they all looked at Uncle Qiu. Uncle Qiu said helplessly: "You don't know something. When I was 8 years old, I went to the United States with Xiu Gu. As soon as I went there, I learned cooking from a chef in Chinatown. I learned it for ten years. I started cooking. After that, of course I worked as a chef in Chinatown.”
“I’m not afraid of your jokes. From the time I went to the United States and entered Chinatown when I was 8 years old, to the time I retired at the age of 60 last month, I have never left it. Just one step past Chinatown. Everyone in Chinatown speaks Chinese, so I can’t even speak a word of English.”
Is this okay? Isn't that too exaggerated? Everyone thought it was outrageous.
Uncle Qiu continued to tell: "You don't know, when I came back and went through customs today, the customs officer saw that I was an American citizen and insisted on speaking English to me, which made me embarrassed. Ah! I really want to drill. ”
Uncle Qiu's words made Diana, a pure American citizen, feel unconfident. She said doubtfully: "There is no reason. I have also been to Chinatown. Even the menus there are written in English. If you can't read, How do I become a chef?”
“It’s easier than borrowing money. I order all the menus, and then I can find someone to translate them into English for me,” Uncle Qiu explained. . "Uncle Qiu, I still don't understand one thing. How good is it for you to learn English in the United States? There is a language environment. The most important thing in learning a language is the language environment. Why do you have to come back to Guangfu to learn English?" Kang Qirui still can't Understand Uncle Ball's behavior.
Uncle Qiu waved his hands and said helplessly: "I have studied in the United States, but the teacher only spoke English in class, and I couldn't understand it at all. I studied for a month, I haven’t learned anything. After thinking about it, I might as well take this opportunity to come back to Guangfu to learn some basic English and then go back to study.”
That’s what Kang Qirui said. . Listening to what he said, he didn't know English at all, and he really couldn't learn it in the United States. Old Dou said: "It's easy. Diana is an American. Needless to say, she speaks English. Her Chinese is also very good. She is hired as a teacher by an English training institution. You can learn from her."< br>
Uncle Qiu thought about it for a while, then nodded and agreed. If possible, of course he hopes that Americans will teach him English, as this is the most authentic way. She and Diana signed up for her training class on the spot. Diana happened to have a new class starting tomorrow, so she asked Uncle Qiu to go to that class to study together.
But he just went there for one day and didn’t want to go anymore. Diana was at a training institution for TOEFL and IELTS study abroad. The students who went to the class were not very good at English, but they had at least passed CET-4 or CET-6. Uncle Qiu, who has zero basic knowledge, can’t understand what everyone is talking about.
The most important thing is that everyone thinks that since he is so old, he must be very good at English since he is a teacher. I kept talking English to him and made a lot of jokes.
"Uncle Qiu, let me help you think of a way." After class that day, Diana and Uncle Qiu returned to Kang's house. Diana took a vocabulary book for Uncle Qiu and said: " Your foundation is so poor, why not start with the simplest words? If you don’t want to go to the training class, you can stop going.”
Uncle Qiu finally relaxed his brows after frowning for a day. "Okay, okay, then I will learn the words first. After I learn them, I will go to your training class."
"Then you learn first. I still have some things to do. I'll go back to the room to deal with it. I'll come out later." After Diana said to Uncle Qiu, she then looked at Kang Qirui who was reading the newspaper. "Arui, if Uncle Qiu has anything, Please help me answer the question."
Kang Qirui nodded, and Diana went back to the room with confidence. As soon as Uncle Qiu started reading the vocabulary book, Azu came back from get off work. As soon as he entered the door, he greeted Uncle Qiu and said: "Uncle Qiu, are you reciting the words? Why do you have such a sad face when reciting them?"
"It is a bit difficult for people who are decades old and have poor memory to memorize the book haha. "Uncle Qiu smiled bitterly. When Kang Qirui saw Azu and Uncle Qiu chatting about memorizing vocabulary, he went back to the room to help Zhu Wanling settle the accounts.
Every time at the end of the month or the beginning of the month, Zhu Wanling has to count the rents of all the rented houses, see if there are any undercharges, and see which houses have expired leases. She needs to contact the tenant in a timely manner to see if they want to renew the lease, etc. Therefore, she is particularly busy during these days of every month.
Azu saw how hard Uncle Qiu was memorizing the words and couldn't help but said: "Actually, there are techniques to memorize words that can be done quickly. You write the Chinese transliteration behind these words, and you can do it all the time. I can remind you.”
"Is that so?" Uncle Qiu didn't understand.
"The Chinese transliteration is actually." Azu took Uncle Qiu's vocabulary book and gave an example: "For example, this mother, mather, you just write 'fuck' at the end, mather, mother. , isn’t it easy to remember?”
Azu is actually talking about the homophone memory method. Many training institutions will use this method to help students memorize words quickly and efficiently. However, Kang Qirui does not agree with this method. He feels that when learning words in this way, there are very few clever connections like the Chinese transliteration of "ambulance" in English and "I can't die". In many cases, not only is the speech inaccurate but also inappropriate Its meaning.
“Another example is this hotel, which means monkey jumping. Monkey means horse, you know?” Azu continued.
“I see, this is good and easy to remember.” Uncle Qiu, like many people who came into contact with the homophonic memory method for the first time, quickly mastered this method and felt that it was excellent.
In order for Uncle Qiu to remember those words, it was not enough to write them in a word book using homophones. In order to let himself understand what the word meant, he also wrote down the Chinese transliteration of the word and posted it all over the house.
For example, he put a note on the window saying "Yun falls", on the chair he put a note saying "Zhuoer", on the plate he put a note saying "falling book"
Everyone discovered Later I thought it was Tianxiu who had written graffiti, but of course Tianxiu refused to admit it. Just when Lao Dou lost his temper and asked who posted it everywhere, Uncle Qiu stood up and said, "I posted it. These are the Chinese transliteration and memory methods that Azu taught me. But I remember the words but I can't I know what it means, so I wrote it down and pasted it on what the word represents. "
"The table is called '煲', the bowl is '煲', and our room is called 'empty'. , the hotel is called Ma Liutiao. "Uncle Qiu was quite confident at first, but he got stuck when he mentioned the hotel.
"Ma Liu jumping?" Kang Qirui frowned and asked.
"What's the horse jump? It's the monkey jump." Azu corrected Uncle Qiu from the side: "Hotel, monkey jump is the right thing."
Uncle Qiu smiled and said awkwardly: "That's right, that's right. , monkey jumps. But I can’t write monkey, so I wrote maliu jump.”
“Monkey and maliu have different pronunciations at all. If you don’t know how to write monkey, you can write later. The second guy gave Uncle Qiu a suggestion. Uncle Qiu thought it made sense and took out his vocabulary book and was about to revise it.
Diana held down his hand, shook her head and said: "No, how can I remember these transliterations? You must learn the phonetic symbols." How to learn English, Diana, as an English teachers have the most professional and authoritative say.
"How about this? You study with Tianxiu and go to the basic English class he takes." Diana suggested. She was talking about the basic English class that the second brother and second sister-in-law gave Tianxiu outside. In the English class, Tianxiu is in fifth grade this year and has just started learning English, which is a perfect match for Uncle Qiu’s English level.
"Okay." Of course Tiantuo agreed, so that someone would go to class with him on weekends and evenings. At least he would have a companion.
"You are so lucky, Yuzi. You are a classmate with your uncle, and you and I will be peers from now on, hahahaha." Kang Qirui joked. (End of this chapter)