Chapter 202

The strength of Enhua's foreign teacher classes lies in the fact that the foreign teachers really teach the foreign language using the foreign language. It allows you to quickly become familiar with this language. The downside is that students who are used to exam-oriented English teaching may not adapt, wondering why they don't teach grammar and sentence patterns.

By the time they reach university age, students have many activities, and many become somewhat confused, no longer knowing why they are learning. Some feel truly empty and want to get certificates, as if that could prove they are learning and making progress, because the closer you get to the end, the more you can feel the pressure from society, understanding that you can't stay in the ivory tower of the university forever.

Pure foreign language teaching is more conducive for students to learn the language, and dare I say, they develop better language sense, but they are weaker when it comes to getting certificates, after all, the exam papers should be made domestically.

For Little Seven, this is just right, because she has a foundation. She studied with Teacher Zhou during the summer vacation, and has been self-studying on her own, and she also had an experiential learning experience once, very nostalgic for that feeling, purely filled with this new language. What she lacks most is language sense training. After all, she can find grammar and sentence patterns in textbooks and materials, but language sense doesn’t work that way.

Now when she hears Mr. Yamamoto speaking Japanese, it feels very intimate, even if he is a very serious old Japanese man, Little Seven still feels that she has come to the right place.

Also, the entire class is taught in Japanese from beginning to end, so she is actually learning all aspects - simple Japanese, complex Japanese, Japanese contexts. It's perfect.

Although Mr. Yamamoto still starts teaching from hiragana and katakana, which is equivalent to teaching pinyin, teaching it in Japanese gives it a completely different feeling. Little Seven is not impatient, feeling that being able to repeat what she learned is really great, because when she first learned Japanese, she was still a little confused, and even if she had questions about some parts, she didn't ask them in time. Now some things make sense.

Little Seven studies very hard, comparable to practicing martial arts, practicing the most basic skills. Once the foundation is solid, everything else will be much easier in the future.

However, some students are very impatient. They don't even know how many times they've learned hiragana and katakana. They can't pass the exams anyway. But they know Mr. Yamamoto's temper, so they consciously sit in the back, reading other books as to not disturb those who want to learn.

Yamamoto is a very old-fashioned old man. His surname is also Yamamoto. In the past, his family was actually quite well-off, but later fell into decline. He relied on an uncle who married into another family to support him through school. After graduating, he became a low-level employee in a company.

With the first money he earned, he sent it to his uncle, and continued sending money to his uncle for many years until he sent back double the amount his uncle spent supporting his education.

Feeling that he had repaid his debt of gratitude, he then started his own life.

With a wife and child, and his own life, he still thought about his uncle, hoping to support his uncle when he got old. But somehow, he lost contact with his uncle again, as if his uncle had disappeared.

He became an ordinary, mediocre Japanese person among millions of others, a company employee, working hard and diligently. He also made steady progress, getting promotions and raises step-by-step. He looked forward to retiring in another decade, when he could live a happy retired life. Japan's pensions are very high, with a large sum of money enough for him to live comfortably in his later years without worries about food and shelter.

Unexpectedly, his company went bankrupt, and he only received a small severance payment. He felt like the sky had fallen. Fortunately, he still had his beautiful wife and sensible, hardworking daughter.

But surprisingly, upon hearing about his company's bankruptcy, his wife actually took the money and divorced him directly, taking their daughter with her. It turned out that while he was busy working, his wife had cheated on him. After the divorce, he found out the daughter he had worked so hard to raise and pay for her education was not even his biological child.

He felt his life was too miserable. He had never done anything bad. As a child, he faced his family's decline and ruin. In middle age, he encountered his company going bankrupt. Even his only child was not his. He decided to commit suicide.

But that day, the uncle he had not heard from in years suddenly contacted him again.

He was surprised to find out his uncle had become the abbot of a temple, and wanted to leave the temple to him.

In Japan, temples can also be run as enterprises. Many large temples are like big companies, with land assets and incense offerings making them very lucrative careers.

It could be said that temple abbots are very wealthy and powerful, and it is a hereditary system.

He did not expect his life to have such dramatic ups and downs.

He sobbed bitterly. If his uncle had appeared earlier, would his wife still have divorced him? Would the child still be his child? Life's greatest joke could not exceed this.

Perhaps if his uncle had appeared earlier, he would have been overjoyed, but now, his heart was deadened.

He told his uncle that he did not want to inherit the temple. He wanted to go out for a walk.

His uncle was already an old man with white hair and a wrinkled face.

His uncle agreed to give him five years. If by then he still hadn't found himself, he would pass the temple onto someone else. If by then he figured things out, he hoped he would come back.

And so Yamamoto went to many places. His uncle didn't give him any money, and he had no savings either. He worked along the way to fund his travels, sometimes like an ascetic monk.

And so Yamamoto came to Huaguo.

He was not young, and quite traditional. He did not find any good jobs, and accidentally ended up teaching at Enhua University.

But he still did not change, living alone in an apartment, unwilling to socialize with others, trusting no one. He hated anyone who was not hardworking. But his students were like that.

He had struggled and worked hard all his life, but did not have good results.

It was the fifth year, but he still persisted in his beliefs. Today was the countless day he taught classes, and he thought it would be the same as usual, the same as every other day.

Dull, a waste of time.

However, today seemed different.

Sitting at the front of the classroom was a female student.

As usual, he greeted the students, not expecting any response.

But today someone replied to him. In fairly fluent Japanese. For a moment he felt as if he was back in Japan.

Then he started teaching, going through the motions, dull and boring.

But the female student listened carefully, seeming to record everything he said.

In Japanese too.

She had learned Japanese before, seemingly more than the other students in his class.

Yet she still listened diligently.

He felt today was a little different, just a tiny bit different.

This female student was hardworking.

He thought of his daughter Amako. Was Amako this diligent when she was in school too?

For a moment, his face softened, but thinking of what came after, his expression quickly darkened again, even becoming irritable. His wife threw the DNA test report in his face as Amako smiled like it was natural.

Thinking of that scene made him angry again. His face became even worse.

It had been years, yet while furious, he could still mechanically teach the class.

Like a zombie, lecturing the course content.

The female student sitting below still listened carefully to the class. Occasionally a gust of wind blew in through the window, blowing a strand of her hair. She tucked the hair behind one ear with one hand, and continued taking notes with the other.

The thick, battered vocabulary workbook on her desk fluttered open and closed in the wind.