Chapter 335 – The First English Class
The next day, the two of them got up early and went to school.
Since there was no military training at the start of the school year, today marked the first official day of classes.
This time, Lu Xia didn’t return to the dormitory; she went straight to her classroom. She thought there was still half an hour before class started, and she was early enough. However, to her surprise, quite a few people were already in the classroom, even the other two roommates from her dormitory had arrived.
Upon seeing Lu Xia, Yu Wan waved to her. Lu Xia walked over directly; there were only three girls in the class, so they naturally gathered together.
After she arrived, she noticed Xie Guifang glanced at her without greeting, and Lu Xia couldn’t be bothered to respond.
However, Yu Wan asked excitedly, “Why are you here so early? Have you had breakfast?”
Lu Xia nodded, “I had it at home. What about you guys?”
“We’ve had ours too. We were too excited on the first day of school, couldn’t sleep.”
Lu Xia chuckled, it seemed like in her past life when she had just started college, it had been the same. However, she would get used to it soon and wouldn’t wake up until the last possible second.
But things were a bit different in this era. Since the college entrance exams were not easy, everyone cherished the opportunity to learn.
Just like now, the classroom was filled with the sound of pages turning. Lu Xia and Yu Wan spoke in hushed tones, afraid of disturbing others.
At this point, Yu Wan expressed her worry, “What should I do? I’m not good at English. During the college entrance exams, I thought just in case it might be useful, so I crammed for a short period and managed to get an additional test, but I didn’t expect to be placed in the English major. What if I can’t keep up?”
Lu Xia comforted her, “Don’t worry, English is easy to learn. At the very least, the pronunciation is simple, easier than Russian!”
“Really?”
“Yes,” Lu Xia nodded. “Just memorize more words and grasp the grammar, you’ll be fine.”
With that assurance, Yu Wan reluctantly put her mind at ease and started reviewing her textbook.
Meanwhile, Lu Xia noticed Xie Guifang’s displeased expression, but she acted as if she hadn’t seen it.
Soon, the classroom filled up, and the first class of the day officially began.
Their first class was their major course, English class. The English teacher was a woman in her thirties, with an air of intellectualism about her.
While she tried to dress in a way that was aligned with the attire of the average person in this era, Lu Xia could still sense a certain foreign flair about her. It was a quality that differentiated her from people raised domestically.
Lu Xia began to speculate in her mind.
When the teacher entered the room, she didn’t immediately open the textbook. Instead, she started with a brief self-introduction.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Li Li, and you can call me Teacher Li. I will be your English teacher during your freshman year. But before we start, I’d like to ask you a question: Do you think learning English is useful? Why do we need to learn English?”
The classroom fell silent for a moment. This topic might have been sensitive a few years ago, but now everyone seemed more bold.
Then the class monitor raised his hand to answer, “Learning English is very useful. It’s widely known that many Western English-speaking countries are socially advanced. If we can excel in English, we can better learn Western technology and contribute to our country’s development.”
Teacher Li applauded after hearing that, “Well said. However, the benefits of learning English go beyond that. Whether it’s in diplomacy, politics, or economics, we need to clearly understand each other’s thoughts. This is where the importance of language comes into play.”
With a smile, she continued, “I believe all of you sitting here are intelligent students. I trust that all of you can master this language.
Of course, the English majors among you have already taken the English supplementary exam, so you should have some foundation. But I need to assess the specifics.
How about this? Let’s not study this class today. Instead, each of you will introduce yourselves in English. Let me see where your English proficiency stands.”
Finishing her statement, Teacher Li looked around the classroom and smiled, “Who wants to go first?”
*
Chapter 336 – Self Introduction
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As the words fell, there was another silence in the classroom, even the class monitor didn’t take the initiative.
After all, no one dared to say how good their English was, afraid of embarrassing themselves when they spoke.
Seeing this, Teacher Li smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I understand that your proficiency might not be too high. But the most important thing when learning a language is to speak. If you don’t speak, you might never learn.”
Lu Xia observed that everyone remained silent and thought for a moment. Why not be the first to speak? After all, her English was quite decent. At the very least, she had meticulously corrected her pronunciation word by word while recording, making her much better than most people.
However, before she could open her mouth, Teacher Li directly said, “Since no one is volunteering, let me call someone. Hmm… Xie Guifang!”
The students in the classroom were taken aback, and there were even sighs of relief.
Lu Xia turned to look at Xie Guifang and found that she had no reaction, as if she hadn’t heard.
Then Teacher Li repeated, “Is Xie Guifang here? Please come up and introduce yourself.”
But Xie Guifang still didn’t react. Seeing this, Yu Wan took the initiative to nudge her and then pointed at the teacher.
It seemed like she finally realized and, a bit flustered, hesitantly walked to the front of the classroom.
Facing everyone, she opened her mouth a few times before finally speaking, “Hi… h-hello, um… my name is Xie Guifang, I’m from, uh, Jiangxi Province, Shank yow!”
After finishing, her face turned red, and she stood on the stage looking bewildered.
Lu Xia nearly burst into laughter. Just these few words, not one of them was pronounced correctly. While she knew that the students’ proficiency might not be high in this era, it wasn’t as if they were worse off than first graders, right?
However, Lu Xia noticed that the other students also seemed relieved, which meant that they were probably better than Xie Guifang. Even Yu Wan patted her chest, signaling a sense of relief.
Seeing this, Lu Xia chuckled. It looked like only Xie Guifang struggled that much. Truly, she felt embarrassed for her.
Teacher Li’s expression also didn’t look good at this point. She hadn’t expected the students to struggle to this extent, but she didn’t criticize. Instead, she asked Xie Guifang to return to her seat.
After Xie Guifang ran back to her seat with a flushed face and sat down, she heard Teacher Li call out Lu Xia’s name, and immediately showed a look of watching a show.
However, Lu Xia disappointed her. Once on stage, Lu Xia used fluent American pronunciation to introduce herself and even explained her English learning methods.
To be fair, she rambled on so much that Xie Guifang couldn’t understand a word, well, except for the initial “hello.”
Teacher Li was particularly pleased. She even had a brief conversation with Lu Xia, and her pronunciation was remarkably accurate. She even incorporated some slang, indicating that she had lived abroad. Her language leaned towards colloquialism, unlike Lu Xia’s, which sounded like the precise enunciation of a broadcaster reading from a script.
After a few exchanges, Teacher Li was very pleased. Clearly, she was satisfied with Lu Xia. Seeing that many of the students hadn’t understood, she had Lu Xia explain her learning methods again in Chinese.
Lu Xia smiled and said, “Actually, it’s the same as what the teacher mentioned. For vocabulary, it’s all about rote memorization. As for pronunciation, listen to the radio and imitate what you hear. Don’t be afraid to get it wrong. Read aloud every day, and gradually, you’ll develop a sense for the language. Then speaking will come naturally.”
Yu Wan, who was seated below, excitedly started applauding first.
Others also found her quite impressive.
The classroom was filled with enthusiastic applause.
Lu Xia felt a bit embarrassed. After all, this was something she learned in her past life. Back then, the learning environment was different from now, and it was much more convenient. Comparing it to now made her feel somewhat guilty.
