Outsider: The Fifth Young Master of the Kang Family

"Old man, how many things are you hiding from us?"

During dinner that day, the old man suddenly said that his younger brother was coming back from the United States and asked if anyone had time to go to the airport to pick him up tomorrow. Everyone was shocked except Sachiko. The second brother couldn't help but say, "Some time ago, we had a younger mother, and now we have a younger brother. Don't tell me we have a younger brother too."

"You poor boy, the younger brother I'm talking about is my cousin's younger brother, my uncle's son. But my uncle died early, and his mother gave him to Xiu Gu to raise before she remarried, so he went to America with Xiu Gu later." The old man explained. So that's why, no wonder no one had heard of such a relative.

My father continued, "He was a chef in the United States and had been doing it for more than 60 years. He retired this year when he turned . Next week is Qingming Festival, so he came back this time to pay respect to his ancestors and his father. He received me when we went to the United States before, so of course I have to receive him this time when he comes back."

As he said that, the old man looked at Sachiko and said, "Tomorrow his plane will arrive at four o'clock, and we need to find someone to pick him up. I don't understand those British mice, Sachiko, you have seen my brother and he knows English, do you have time to pick him up?"

After hearing this, Sachiko thought about it, then shook her head and said, "I'm sorry, Dad. I have a meeting with a client tomorrow, so I can't go. How about this? My uncle treated me to a meal when we went to the United States before. Tomorrow night I will treat everyone to a meal outside as a welcome for my uncle, okay?"

Sachiko said this because, firstly, the American family did entertain her last time she went there, and secondly, she didn't want her father to misunderstand that she was ignorant of the ways of the world and was deliberately making excuses not to pick them up.

Dad nodded and looked at A-Zu, "A-Zu, you speak English well, I'll give this task to you." A-Zu put down his bowl and chopsticks and responded, "I'm not the only one who speaks English well, my wife and A-Rui also speak it well. I have to work, don't I have to go to work?"

The reason why Lao Dou approached A-Zu instead of Diana and Kang Qirui was because he felt that one of them was in school and the other was in a training institution, and their schedules were fixed. A-Zu, on the other hand, was running his own film and television company, so he had more free time.

Seeing that A Zu refused, he looked at Er Lao again. Er Lao quickly waved his hand and said politely: "Don't look at me. I am uneducated. I don't even know Chinese, let alone English. Besides, there are so many things to do in the tea restaurant every day. How can I have time?"

"They are all useless." The old man was so angry that he slammed the table. Diana suggested: "Master, I have a way. We can make a sign with his name on it, and then he can get the call, right?"

The old man thought this was a good idea, so he asked Diana to help him make the sign after dinner, and Diana naturally nodded and agreed.

"Diana, come here, you have to write English." After dinner, the old man ground the ink himself. Diana took the brush handed over by the old man and was stunned for a while. She put the brush aside and picked up a whiteboard marker and said, "Master, I will just use this pen. I don't know how to use a brush, hahahaha."

After Diana finished playing the cards, she asked, "What's the English name?"

"Call him Michael." The old man thought for a moment and said.

"Michael? Is it Michael or Migore?" Diana asked again. The old man was not sure, so he picked up the phone and called Xiu Gu in the United States. It was only then that he found out that Michael knew Chinese and his Chinese name was Kang Xia Qiu.

This way, Diana wouldn't have to be bothered. My father wrote the name tag himself with a brush. The next day, I went to the airport with my mother to pick up Kang Xiaqiu smoothly. When the three of them arrived at the restaurant that Sachiko had booked, it was exactly 6 o'clock, which was the time when Kang's family usually had dinner.

The old man introduced everyone in the Kang family to Kang Xiaqiu one by one. When he introduced the second sister-in-law, she said, "Oh, Xiaqiu." As a result, she was scolded by the nanny, who scolded her, "Why are you so rude? You should call him Uncle Qiu."

"It's okay, it's okay. Just call us whatever you want. Uncle Ball, Shrimp Ball, Michael are all the same." Uncle Ball has been in the United States for decades and is accustomed to people calling him by his name.

After introducing everyone, the meal officially started. After eating half full, the old man asked Uncle Qiu: "A Qiu, there is still a week before Qingming Festival. During this time, I will take you to visit Guangzhou. You haven't been back for decades."

Uncle Qiu shook his head and said, "Actually, when I came back this time, in addition to paying homage to my ancestors, I also had something else to do, so I didn't have time to go shopping."

After hearing what he said, Er Lao guessed, "Uncle Qiu, are you coming back to open a restaurant? If so, why not do it with me?"

Uncle Qiu shook his head, and A-Zu continued to speculate: "Uncle Qiu has been a chef in the United States for decades and has made a lot of money. Does he still need to work? I think Uncle Qiu wants to come back and find a companion?"

Qiu Shu almost choked on A Zu's words. He took a sip of tea and said, "Don't say that. I have a girlfriend in the United States. In fact, I want to come back to learn English."

Huh? ? ? Uncle Qiu's words caused a huge uproar. Everyone was almost choked by his words. They all asked in surprise: "Come back from the United States to learn English?"

Uncle Qiu nodded, but Kang Qirui really couldn't understand it. He asked in confusion: "Uncle Qiu, I heard from my father that you have been in the United States for decades, how come you don't know English? You said you came back to teach English, which makes sense, but isn't it a bit...?"

Everyone had the same idea as Kang Qirui, and they all looked at Uncle Qiu. Uncle Qiu said helplessly, "You don't know, when I was 8 years old, I went to the United States with Xiu Gu. As soon as I got there, I followed a chef in Chinatown to learn cooking. I learned for ten years. After I finished my apprenticeship, I naturally worked as a chef in Chinatown."

"Don't be afraid of you laughing at me, from the time I came to the United States and entered Chinatown at the age of 8 to my retirement last month at the age of 60, I have never left Chinatown in the past years. Everyone in Chinatown speaks Chinese, so I can't speak a word of English."

Is this even possible? Isn't this too much of an exaggeration? Everyone thought it was outrageous.

And the uncle continued to narrate: "You don't know, when I came back today and went through customs, the customs officer saw that I was an American citizen and insisted on speaking English to me, which made me so embarrassed! I really wanted to make a living."

The words of the old man made Diana, a pure American citizen, lose confidence. She said doubtfully, "There is no reason. I have been to Chinatown, and even the menu there is written in English. If you can't read it, how can you be a cook?"

"It's easy to borrow the fire. I set all the menus, and then I find someone to translate them into English." Uncle Qiu explained. "Uncle Qiu, there is still one thing I don't understand. It's so good for you to learn English in the United States. There is a language environment. The most important thing for learning a language is the language environment. Why do you have to come back to Guangzhou to learn English?" Kang Qirui still couldn't understand Uncle Qiu's behavior.

Uncle Qiu waved his hands and said helplessly: "I have studied in the United States, but the teachers spoke in English and I couldn't understand anything. I studied for a month and didn't learn anything. I thought about it and decided to take this opportunity to come back to Guangzhou to learn some basic English and then go back to study."

So that's how it is. Kang Qirui understood what he said. Hearing what he said, he didn't know English at all and he really couldn't learn it in the United States. His father took charge and said, "That's easy. Diana is American. Not only does she speak English, but she also speaks excellent Chinese. She was hired as a teacher by an English training institution. You can learn from her."

After thinking for a while, Uncle Qiu nodded and agreed. If possible, he would like to be taught English by an American, as this is the most authentic. He and Diana signed up for her training class on the spot. Diana happened to have a new class starting tomorrow, so she asked Uncle Qiu to go to that class to study together.

But he didn't want to go again after just one day. Diana worked in a TOEFL and IELTS training institution for studying abroad. The students who attended the class didn't have very good English but at least they had passed CET-4 and CET-6. Uncle Qiu, who had no English foundation, couldn't understand what everyone was saying.

The most important thing is that everyone thought he was a teacher because he was so old, so he must be very good at English. They kept speaking English to him, which caused a lot of jokes.

"Uncle Qiu, let me help you think of a solution." After class that day, Diana and Uncle Qiu returned to Kang's house. Diana gave Uncle Qiu a vocabulary book and said, "Your foundation is so poor, why don't you start with the simplest words. If you don't want to go to the training class, you don't have to go for now."

Uncle Qiu finally relaxed his frown after a day's frown. He smiled and said, "Okay, okay, then I'll learn some words first, and then I'll go to your training class after I learn them."

"Then you learn first. I have something else to deal with in my room. I'll come out later." Diana said to Uncle Qiu, and then looked at Kang Qirui who was reading a newspaper on the side. "A Rui, if Uncle Qiu has any questions, please help me answer them."

Kang Qirui nodded, and Diana went back to her room with peace of mind. Uncle Qiu had just started reading the vocabulary book when A-Zu came back from get off work. As soon as he entered the room, he greeted Uncle Qiu and said, "Uncle Qiu, are you memorizing vocabulary? Why do you look so sad?"

"People in their forties have poor memory, so it's a bit difficult for them to memorize books, haha." Uncle Qiu smiled bitterly. When Kang Qirui saw that A Zu and Uncle Qiu were talking about memorizing words, he went back to his room to help Zhu Wanling with the accounts.

At the end of the month or the beginning of the month, Zhu Wanling has to count the rents of all the houses she has rented out, to see if there are any under-collections, and to see which houses have expired leases. She has to contact the tenants in time to ask them to renew their leases, etc. Therefore, she is very busy during these days of each month.

Seeing how hard Uncle Qiu was working to memorize words, A-Zu couldn't help but say, "Actually, there are some techniques that can help you memorize words quickly. If you write the Chinese translations behind these words, it will remind you all the time."

"Is that so?" Uncle Qiu didn't understand.

"The Chinese transliteration is actually." A-Zu took Uncle Qiu's vocabulary book and gave an example: "For example, the word mother, mather, you can write 'mother' at the end, mather mother, mother, isn't it easy to remember."

What A Zu is talking about is actually the homophonic memory method, which is used by many training institutions to help students memorize words quickly and efficiently. However, Kang Qirui disagrees with this method. He thinks that learning words this way rarely results in clever connections, such as the Chinese transliteration of the English word ambulance, which is "I can't die". In many cases, the words are not only inaccurate, but also do not convey the meaning.

"For example, this hotel, hotel, is called monkey jump. Monkey means monkey, do you know?" A-Zu continued.

"I see. This is good and easy to remember." Uncle Qiu, like many people who come into contact with the homophonic memory method for the first time, quickly mastered this method and thought it was excellent.

In order to remember those words, Uncle Qiu was not satisfied with just writing them in the word book using the homophonic method. In order to make himself understand what the words meant, he also wrote down the Chinese transliterations of the words and posted them all over the room.

For example, he put a note on the window that said "clouds fall", a note on the chair that said "excellent", and a note on the plate that said "falling books".
When everyone found out, they thought it was Tianxiu's scribbles, but Tianxiu denied it. Just when Lao Dou got angry and asked who was the one who posted it everywhere, Qiu Shu stood up and said, "I posted it. These are the Chinese transliteration memory method that A-Zu taught me. But I remembered the words but didn't know what they meant, so I wrote them down and posted them on the things that the words represented."

"The table is called 'tin pot', the bowl is called 'pot', our room is called 'kong', and the hotel is called Maliutiao." Uncle Qiu was quite confident at the beginning, but he got stuck when he mentioned the hotel.

"Monkey jump?" Kang Qirui asked with a frown.

"What's the monkey jump? It's the monkey jump." A Zu corrected Uncle Qiu: "hotel, it's the monkey jump."

Uncle Qiu smiled and said awkwardly, "Yes, yes, monkey jump. But I don't know how to write the word monkey, so I wrote horse jump."

"Monkey and monkey have different pronunciations. Since you don't know how to write the word monkey, you can write "hou" (later)." Erlao gave Uncle Qiu a suggestion, and Uncle Qiu thought it made sense. He took out his vocabulary book and was about to revise it.

Diana held his hand and shook her head, saying, "No, how can you remember these transliterations? You must learn the phonetic symbols." As an English teacher, Diana has the most professional and authoritative say on how to learn English.

"How about this, you study with Tianxiu and go to the basic English class he attends." Diana suggested. She was talking about the basic English class that the second brother and his wife had signed up for Tianxiu. Tianxiu is in the fifth grade this year and has just started learning English, which is a perfect match for Uncle Qiu's English level.

"Okay." Tianxiu agreed of course. This way, there would be someone to go to class with him on weekends and in the evenings. At least he would have company.

"You are amazing, you are a classmate of your uncle, so you will be of the same generation as your grandfather in the future, hahahaha." Kang Qirui joked. (End of this chapter)