Back in 1978, I was admitted to Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Chapter 19 English, Just a Tool
Looking at Qin Liang, who had tidied up neatly, Zhao Xiaoxia asked, "Qin Liang, what are your thoughts on using English textbooks?"

Qin Liang was first in the class, and Zhao Xiaoxia took the lead in challenging the first place. The other students were not to be outdone and all said that they would study hard. Even if they could not catch up with the first place, they could catch up with the second, third and so on. In short, they absolutely could not fall too far behind the first place.

Now, seeing that everyone is unfamiliar with the English textbooks, it's only natural to ask Qin Liang for his opinion.

Yu Zhi breathed a sigh of relief.

She had to manage the class and do ideological work. She was just worrying about how to encourage the students to overcome language barriers and learn English, a universal language. Now, she could leave it to Qin Liang, since it was Qin Liang who caused this trouble anyway.

"English is a global language. Now that our country needs to integrate with the international community, overcoming the English hurdle is essential," Qin Liang said. "In the future, during our studies, we'll definitely need to consult Western literature. Without English, we won't understand it. Are we going to have to ask classmates in the foreign language department for help? They might not even understand the specialized vocabulary. Of course, if you're thinking of finding a partner in the foreign language department..."

"Ahem, anyway, English is very important, and we have to learn it. I think that's why the school gave us English textbooks directly, so that we could conquer the mountain of English. Of course, don't think it's too difficult. Once you've learned your first foreign language, learning the second one will be much easier!"

That's no exaggeration. The key to learning a foreign language is to overcome that initial hurdle, and then you can apply that knowledge to other areas. Many veteran military experts, in their forties or fifties, only started learning English because of the need, and they were able to quickly understand English documents and even communicate with Westerners.
"Teacher Yu, shouldn't our school have prepared a dictionary for us by now?" Qin Liang asked Yu Zhi.

"That's right, among these books we have is a professional-grade English-Chinese dictionary."

"Well, all we need to do is memorize the dictionary and transplant some grammar from Russian, and we'll be able to understand it. It's just English, no big deal. In a year or two, we'll realize it's just a learning tool!"

“That’s right, Qin Liang is right. We come to university to study. Learning to build airplanes is studying, and learning English is also studying. It’s just one more subject to learn, it’s not a big deal,” Zhao Xiaoxia said.

"Yes, we need to learn English!" Yang Wei also expressed his opinion.

Now that no one objects, wouldn't that make me seem incompetent? Everyone who gets into university has overcome countless obstacles and faced fierce competition. Who's afraid of who?
"Everyone, please sit down. Two students can stay here to distribute the books!" Yu Zhi breathed a sigh of relief. "After we finish distributing the books, we will continue to distribute the living allowance!"

Going to university in this era is so comfortable! Although you have to pay five yuan in tuition and fees, the school will also give you twelve and a half yuan in living expenses every month. As long as you don't eat meat every meal, you hardly have to spend any money from home!

Some of the main breadwinners in their families, even those with wives and children, would save some of their money and send it home...

As Qin Liang sighed, he wrote his name in the book. Just then, Yang Wei nudged him and said, "Qin Liang, I have some extra newspaper here. Let me cover your book with it!"

Qin Liang then noticed that after receiving their books, the other students had all started to carefully cover them with covers. Most of them used newspaper, and some used kraft paper. The girl at the next table was using a calendar to cover her books, with a big-headed doll pattern inside. The book covers that were sticking out were all white, and the covers looked very pretty.

In this way, when you finish learning, the books will still be fresh, just like putting seat covers on a car in later generations. When you sell the car, the seats will still be brand new.

“This…is not necessary.”

Qin Liang searched his memory and realized that he didn't seem to know how to wrap things very well. Although he could learn on the spot, the wrapped things would definitely not look good.

"You're welcome..." Clearly, Yang Wei knew that calling Qin Liang "Uncle" at the beginning was somewhat insulting, and since Qin Liang was the top student in the class, he took the initiative to get closer to him.

Qin Liang waved his hand: "Really, there's no need..."

He wasn't sure if he would even read these books himself. After all, even after the start of the semester, the old professors hadn't let him off the hook. So, Qin Liang was confident that he could use these books until they were in better condition than everyone else's.

Whoosh!
Just then, a hand reached out and took the book Qin Liang had written his name on. "I have some left; I can cover two books for you," Zhao Xiaoxia said, deftly covering Qin Liang's books with her hands. Swish, swish, swish…

Watching Zhao Xiaoxia's nimble hands, Qin Liang was somewhat impressed, but... after a semester, wouldn't the books be cleaner than his face?

Just then, a voice rang out from outside.

"Teacher Yu, the Fifth Department office building called and asked Qin Liang to come over..."

Qin Liang was helpless; these people always treated him like livestock!

"Yang Wei, could you please help me take my books back to the dorm later? Thank you for your help."

"It's not hard work. Which dorm are you staying in?"

"Dormitory 13, Room 308"

what?
The others who were covering books stopped. On one of their dorm beds, only the bedding was visible, but no one was there. They had initially thought it was left by a senior student, but it turned out to be the first in the class.

Tang Changhong swallowed hard; the pressure was now even greater!
“Perfect timing, we’re in the same dorm, we’ll help you get it later!” Tang Changhong said.

Back in the dorm, everyone stared blankly at the empty bed.

"I heard that our department and major already had the highest scores in the whole school, and now Qin Liang is first in the class, which means he should have the best grades in the whole school. I never thought I'd be sleeping next to the top student in the whole school!" Zhang Zhigang, my roommate, exclaimed.

"Yes, but it's good this way. We can ask him for help if we have any problems with our studies!" Tang Changhong adjusted her mindset and felt that having the top student in the whole school living together wasn't such a bad thing.

“That’s right, but we can’t rely on him entirely. We still need to learn on our own. Let’s start learning English now!” Yang Wei said, picking up his English textbook and starting to look up words in the dictionary. Since it’s all alphabetic writing, looking things up isn’t difficult. Then he’ll memorize them. As for pronunciation…

Put pronunciation aside for now; you'll naturally learn to pronounce things once you've mastered phonetics.

Time slowly passed, five o'clock, six o'clock, seven o'clock... Everyone realized what was happening and rushed to get their food. After eating, they continued reading until nine o'clock, ten o'clock... then lights out...

"Why hasn't Qin Liang returned yet?"

"Yes, that's really strange! Do you think he might be the child of one of our university's professors?"

"Don't make wild guesses. Anyway, you'll see them in class tomorrow!"

　PS: Thanks to reader Black Maple Wild Buffalo for the donation.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)