Back to 80: My literary life

Chapter 20 Li Li teaches English as a substitute
  In the 1980s, we only had five days off during the Spring Festival, and we officially went to work on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year.

The deserted unit became lively, and Fang Minghua still performed his duties in the guard room. I study in my spare time, and also go to Western University to take correspondence courses on weekends.

Today is the 12th of the first lunar month, another weekend. Fang Minghua rode his bicycle to Western University early in the morning. The school had not started yet, so his studious sister could only stay at home, but she still told Fang Minghua to go to class on time.

I rode alone to the Western University campus, entered the classroom on the third floor, and found a young man wearing a blue ski shirt sitting in the back row.

It's Zhao Hongjun.

So Fang Minghua walked over and sat down on the empty seat next to him and asked, "Hey, you haven't been in class for several weeks. Why don't you skip class today?"

"Dad forced me to beat me if I skipped class again." Zhao Hongjun replied lazily, and then asked: "You have become a great writer now, and you still come to class?"

"What a great writer but not a great writer? I said, buddy, don't squander me." Fang Minghua replied: "Actually, I don't want to either, my sister forces me."

Both of them laughed.

This class was an English class. Not long after they opened the textbook, they saw a beautiful girl with short hair walking in. I thought he was a student in class, but he walked up to the podium.

is her? !
  Isn't this Li Li from the literary club?

Have you turned into a teacher today?
  Li Li took out her textbook and said generously to the dark crowd below: "My name is Li Li. I am a sophomore majoring in English in the Department of Foreign Languages. Teacher Yang is taking a break due to illness, so I will take this class for her. Please turn to the dialogue exercise in Lesson 4 of the textbook and ask everyone to read aloud to me, Where is Mr Green?/Where is Mary?
  At first, the students in the audience were talking a lot, but with Li Li's standard pronunciation, they all stopped talking and started reading aloud.

"This girl has a nice voice and is pretty." Zhao Hongjun began to comment in a low voice.

"Stop talking and read quickly!" Fang Minghua reminded.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Hongjun said plausibly: "I am a dignified Chinese, why should I learn English? Besides, what is the use of learning this thing?"

"Short-sighted! Don't you want to do business in the future? Don't you want to do business with foreigners? How can you do it if you don't understand English?" Fang Minghua retorted.

"Oh, I can't refute your reason? It seems that I have to study hard." Zhao Hongjun immediately took the book and started reading after the teacher.

Sorry, I don’t know
  Since many students in the correspondence class have not learned English at all, the teaching is relatively simple, basically based on junior high school textbooks, which is not difficult for Li Li.

She once learned Russian from her father, and followed her parents' request to major in English when she went to college. It's easy to learn Russian well and English well.

While she led everyone to read aloud, she glanced at the classmates below, and soon found Fang Minghua sitting in the back.

As expected, he was a classmate in the correspondence class.

snort!
  How dare you talk to your deskmate in class? !

Thinking of this, Li Li stopped reading and looked at Fang Minghua: "The student in the military coat sitting in the fourth row from the bottom is you, please stand up!"

"Minghua, the teacher is calling you." Zhao Hongjun looked gloating.

Fang Minghua had no choice but to stand up.

"What's your name?" Li Li asked.

"Fang Minghua"

what?
  Fang Minghua? Why do you have the same name as the writer Fang Minghua?
  Li Li was surprised.

He is a writer, so why would he come to take some Chinese correspondence class?

It must be the same name!
  This name is very common. Just like my own name, Li Li, there are several names in the school.

Thinking of this, Li Li regained her composure: "Classmate Fang Minghua, please re-read what I just read in English!"

Fang Minghua had no choice but to reread what he had just read.

Um.
  The pronunciation is quite standard.

Li Li nodded with satisfaction.

"Next, let's continue"

In class, Li Li asked questions while speaking. She especially liked to call Fang Minghua, which made him speechless.

Does my name sound nice?

Very common, right?

However, the questions were very simple and Fang Minghua answered them smoothly.

"Hey, is this girl attracted to you? Why are you always staring at you?" Zhao Hongjun immediately joked in a low voice when Fang Minghua sat down to answer the question.

Fang Minghua glared at him, and before he could answer, he heard Li Li say: "That classmate, the one sitting next to Fang Minghua, wearing jeans, please stand up and answer this question."      Huh? !

Zhao Hongjun had no choice but to stand up.

Of course I couldn't answer, so I had to sit down dejectedly.

When the English class ended, Li Li assigned a lot of homework and finally the get out of class was over.

"Let's go out and get some fresh air. I'm suffocated." Zhao Hongjun stood up after saying this.

Fang Minghua followed and walked out.

The so-called ventilation is just smoking.

The people who come to class are all young people from society, and all of them are smoking addicts and standing in the corridor puffing away smoke.

Fang Minghua doesn't smoke and doesn't like to smell second-hand smoke, so he simply walked out of the corridor and outside the teaching building.

School hasn't started yet, so the campus seems a little deserted.

Fang Minghua was standing on the side of the road when he saw a girl riding a light bicycle. It was Li Li who had just been in class.

Li Li was riding her bike home when she saw Fang Minghua standing on the side of the road. She got off the car and stopped next to him: "Classmate Fang Minghua, your English foundation is very good."

"I studied on my own for a while some time ago."

Li Li nodded after hearing this.

In fact, correspondence courses have relatively little time, and students mainly rely on self-study in their spare time. Teachers test students' level through examinations.

"Fang Minghua, your literary quality is also very high. You will definitely be able to graduate successfully in the future. Come on!" Li Li encouraged.

"Thank you."

"You go to class. We will exchange literature when we have time. Goodbye!"

"goodbye!"

The girl rode her bicycle away, and Fang Minghua also returned to the teaching building.

When he went to work the next day, Fang Minghua received another letter from his female pen pal Li Li.

In the letter, Li Li said that Fang Minghua's understanding and knowledge of "suffering" made her feel very novel, and after thinking about it later, it made sense.

Later in the letter, the girl also talked about her troubles.

"Teacher Minghua, I like literature very much. I originally applied for the Chinese Department, but my parents didn't agree and insisted on letting me learn English. They said that English will definitely be very popular in the future. Although my English is not bad, I have never been a good student. Deep down I don’t like it.”

Fang Minghua smiled when he saw this. It seems that this girl's parents are well-educated and have a broad vision.

In the 1980s, English was definitely a very popular major. The country's reform and opening up required a large number of talents who knew foreign languages ​​and could communicate with foreigners. This was much more popular than computer electronics.

He can also understand the girl's distress. There are too many mismatches between her profession and her interests.

So he wrote in his reply: "Classmate Li Li, in fact, you don't have to worry about this. There is no conflict between learning English and loving literature, because English is also a door to foreign literature. You can read the original works of Shakespeare in English, There are also Dickens's "Oliver Twist", Charlotte's "Jane Eyre", and Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind". It is a great thing to feel the beauty of foreign literature and even translate it into Chinese so that more people in China can read it. Something interesting and meaningful.”

Let’s be a close sister again.

Today is the first day of school. Li Li just arrived at school on her bicycle. Before she entered the dormitory, she saw the life committee member of the class calling her: "Li Li, I have your letter!"

"Thank you."

"It's from Teacher Minghua!" Li Li saw the envelope, quickly opened it and stood on the roadside to look at it.

Ah, to be a translator? Translate classics?
  Why didn't I think of that? Do you always think about what your parents said about learning foreign languages ​​and going abroad or engaging in diplomacy in the future?

Teacher Minghua is indeed a good teacher!

thank you!
  The girl suddenly felt very happy.

He carefully stuffed the letter back into the envelope, put it into the green satchel on his back, and then continued riding towards the dormitory.

Wow. Spring is here.

Li Li saw that the grass on the roadside had sprouted.

(End of this chapter)