Chapter 226: Learning English

Ye Ziliang hurriedly said, “Please don’t call me Mr. Ye, that makes me seem so much older. I’ve just got my master’s degree last year, and I’m only a few years older than you. If you don’t dislike me, you can call me ‘bro’.”

Sun Weiwei mulled over his words, “Ziliang bro,” she realized it sounded quite smooth, “Are we signing the contract right now?”

“I need to go back to confirm the final version of the contract first, and I will have a meeting with you and only you tomorrow to sign it,” Ye Ziliang told her, “Sorry for troubling you and having you come out again.”

“It’s fine. I currently don’t have anything to work on during summer break anyways,” Sun Weiwei did not mind.

And the cooperation relationship between Ye Ziliang and “The Sisters” team was confirmed.

On Tuesday, Yu Zhan arrived at Liu Man’s place on time to tutor her in English. Liu Man had done many preparations beforehand; she felt very nervous, for she didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of Yu Zhan.

The duo formally sat down in the study opposite from each other. They looked like a teacher and a student.

Yu Zhan went to America when he was in high school, so he didn’t know a lot about English textbooks and the syllabus in Chinese colleges. He first thumbed through Liu Man’s four English textbooks. He was very quick at it and read through ten lines with one glance. His expression was serious and attentive as if he was working.

Liu Man felt even more anxious. Her eyes stared at his fingers, flipping through the pages. Her heartbeats became slightly faster. For some reason, Yu Zhan seemed like a stern teacher to her.

When Yu Zhan finished reading through the books, he lifted his head to see the pitiful Liu Man anxiously staring at him.

He laughed softly, “Don’t act as if you are facing a powerful enemy. Your textbooks aren’t that hard.”

“They aren’t that hard for you, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t hard for other people,” Liu Man wrinkled her nose.

“Why would such a smart person like you get troubled by English?”

“I probably haven’t found the way to compose English sentences,” Liu Man said, feeling somber, “For example, if I look at these words when they are by themselves, I can understand what they mean, and I can memorize them. However, when they are put together, I don’t know what they mean anymore.”

“That’s because you don’t understand the English grammar and figures of speech.”

“I know about grammar, and I’ve studied them. I’ve compared the grammar in English, Chinese, and Ancient Chinese,” to learn English, Liu Man forced herself to do some really hard work.

In her past life, she didn’t even know what grammar was. Toddlers learned how to speak and memorize the classics, and they already counted as educated. Nobody ever asked why people talk in a specific way and why words were written in this way. Everyone accepted their languages and cultures without asking questions.

Liu Man said, “I went on the internet to study the grammar for modern Chinese, and I’ve compared them with the English grammar.”

“No wonder you couldn’t understand English. When you learn a second language, the worst thing you can do is layer it on top of your native language,” Yu Zhan said seriously, “Since you want to compare them, I will tell you about the biggest difference between Chinese and English. English words have different parts of speech, plural kinds, and formats. For instance, ‘I’ means yourself, and it’s nominative. ‘Me’ also means yourself, but it’s objective. However, in Chinese, you can only write ‘I’ in one way: 我. (wo) Can you find any other ways?”

“Sure!” Liu Man answered quickly, “Bengong, thyself, Zaixia, Biren, Gu, Guaren, Zhen…These all mean ‘I’!”

TL’s Note: These are all words that people use to call themselves back in Ancient China. For example, Bengong is how the empress calls herself while the emperor often refers to himself as “Gu”, “Guaren”, and “Zhen”.

Yu Zhan: “…”

He realized his thoughts and Liu Man’s thoughts didn’t seem to be in the same page.

“The words you just said can only be used by people with certain identities or people back in ancient times. Try talking to people and referring to yourself as ‘Biren’ and ‘thyself’ right now?”

Liu Man pictured that scene. She would seem like an idiot…

“I know you specialize more in retro areas, but we are talking about modern Chinese and modern English. Don’t get off-topic and talk about the Ancient Chinese,” Yu Zhan continued to say, “For the parts of speech in English, the noun for ‘我(wo)’ is ‘mine’. The adjective is ‘my’. Then, these words are all classified into singular and plural. ‘My’ is singular, and ‘our’ is plural…”

Yu Zhan’s lecture was detailed and clear. Liu Man instantly understood lots of areas she was confused about previously, and she got more intrigued the more she listened to while taking notes.

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After talking about a part of the grammar, Yu Zhan started referring to the textbook, and he helped Liu Man analyze the texts. He gave a much more vivid lesson as compared with Liu Man’s female teacher at school. Before, Liu Man only understood half or even less of the passage, and after his explanations, she successfully understood everything, not to mention understanding all the structures and relationships between the sentences.

When she looked at Yu Zhan, her eyes now glowed brightly from her admiration.

This made Yu Zhan feel very satisfied as a man. He loved being admired and recognized by Liu Man.

“Read me the first paragraph of this passage.”

The glow coming from Liu Man’s eyes abruptly disappeared, “Eh…”

“Are you too shy to read it out loud?” Yu Zhan laughed at her, “There’s only the two of us here, and I won’t mock you.”

Liu Man felt like he was mocking her right now!

“Can I read it next time?” She said weakly.

“When is next time? Even ugly daughters-in-law have to meet their parents-in-law someday.”

Liu Man: “…”

“On Valentine’s Day…… More than a million roses ……will be sold during this festival for lovers……the biggest day of the year for the nation’s rose industry……” Liu Man stammered as she read, and for quite a few times, she almost wanted to give up. She only clenched her teeth tightly and persevered when she met Yu Zhan’s encouraging eyes.

TL’s Note: The words she read here are written in English, so I didn’t translate that part.

After finally reading through the entire paragraph, Liu Man exhaled deeply out of relief. Yu Zhan immediately praised her, “You should read out loud more often like this and never read or recite silently. If you pronounce English words more often, you will have a sense of how they should sound like, and naturally, your English will get better.”

“Mhm, I will always read out loud in the future,” Liu Man had always felt her pronunciations sounded ridiculous, so she felt too timid to read out loud; however, Yu Zhan had given her lots of confidence.

“Now, translate this passage for me.”

“Okay,” Liu Man nodded and started translating, “On Valentine, millions of roses will get sold to couples. This is the most important day in a year to the rose production industry in the country.”

Yu Zhan felt it was funny, “You’re translating it by classically saying it word by word. Although there’s no problem with your understanding, it doesn’t match how we, Chinese, talk. Don’t you feel it sounds weird?”

“It does sound quite weird.”

“You should adjust the sentence’s structure and translate like this: ‘Valentine’s days are when the entire nation’s rose industry make the most sales in a year. On this day, they get to sell couples millions of roses.’ Don’t you think this sounds much smoother?”

“You’re so impressive!” Liu Man admired Yu Zhan even more.

Yu Zhan sneakily felt glad on the inside. He had never realized it was so simple to make this versatile girl admire him.

He then, at the same time, recalled that Chinese Valentines Day was going to occur next month. What surprise should he prepare for Liu Man?

And so, Liu Man and Yu Zhan remained attentively like this. One taught, and the other listened. At times, the two would have some eye contact and would stare into each others’ eyes. Liu Man would be the first to feel it was too much, and she would lower her head to timidly look away. After a while, he would stop looking at her. She would then, sneakily, lift her head and peek a glance at him. This was repeated in a never-ending cycle. A light, ambiguous atmosphere surrounded them, and they never even realized how quickly the time passed.

Translated by: Sydney

Edited by: Yutong

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