Free Web NovelChapter 518: Chapter 430: Lively Chinese Mini-Class, Creamy Mushroom Tart
In his memory, as long as a small number of students fall asleep during class, it basically means the content is dry.
If most of the students are asleep, then it’s not just dry, it’s downright boring.
Lucas glanced at the five women, seeing them diligently taking notes, and nodded with satisfaction, a sense of pride rising from deep within his heart.
He never thought he had a talent for teaching!
This discovery further fueled his desire to teach well, so he quickly opened a search engine to find content related to teaching Chinese to foreigners.
"Skip the usual stuff, the most important thing now is to let them engage in simple conversations first."
"This won’t work, it’s too basic, and there’s no time to waste."
"This won’t work either, it’s a bit too difficult for them to understand."
As he kept scrolling, his eyes lit up.
"Got it! This is it!"
Just as break time was about to end, he confirmed that everyone had finished their notes, then erased the previous content on the whiteboard, writing down the pinyin of a few words.
That’s right, only pinyin, no Chinese characters.
Since they can’t write it anyway, it’s better to just not write at all.
If they really need to learn writing, they can just buy some handwriting practice books online and trace them, simple as that.
"Since you’ve already mastered the pronunciation, next I’ll teach you some simple everyday phrases and internet slang, so you can engage in basic conversations in the shortest time possible."
"First, let’s look at this word, which is an internet slang that has been popular for many years and has become part of everyday language for young people in Great Xia."
"It has no inherent meaning, nor does it have a specific character to express it, because there are homophones in Chinese, often using a character with the same pronunciation to represent a word."
"This neologism is mostly used to express tone, like surprise, exclamation, anger, etc. The specific meaning changes based on context and the current situation."
"You might not understand just from my explanation, so I’ll give you a direct example."
Lucas rubbed his chin in thought for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the faces of the five women, and suddenly noticed that President Wang, who had been sleeping, had woken up groggily.
His eyes lit up, and he pointed at him, his face full of surprise as he shouted.
"Holy crap! President Wang is awake!"
"???"
Wang Ziqin was still in a daze, his brain not rebooting in time, and then he saw the five people in front of him all turn around to stare at him, eyes showing confusion or realization.
"In this scenario, what does ’holy crap’ mean, who can explain it?"
"Surprise?"
"Shock?"
"Very good! You’re learning fast, so let me give you another example."
As he listened, Wang Ziqin finally realized that this guy was actually using him as a teaching example, how outrageous!
Doesn’t the general manager care about face?!
Seeing his expression change unpredictably, Lucas quickly ran over, grinning, ready to apologize.
Wang Ziqin wasn’t really an irritable person, he didn’t take it to heart, he raised his hand as if to hit, ready to make a joke.
Who knew Lucas’s face would change drastically, braking suddenly and covering his head with both hands.
"Holy crap?? I was wrong, I was wrong, President Wang, don’t hit me!"
This time, there was no need for additional explanations; the five women suddenly understood, obviously getting the hang of this magical tone word.
"You rascal!"
Wang Ziqin couldn’t help but laugh, this guy reacted really fast, but to be fair, this vivid teaching method was indeed very effective.
Lucas grinned, putting his hand down from his head, making a salute gesture on his forehead.
"Respect!"
"Thanks for your cooperation, President Wang!"
With that, not giving Wang Ziqin a chance to speak further, Lucas quickly slipped back to the whiteboard, aiming at Helena for the next shot.
"Helena, now imagine that after a long day of work, you’re exhausted and just want to hurry home to hug your husband and daughter."
"Uh-huh!"
Helena nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking at rice, clearly immersed in the scenario, something she experienced almost every day in the past few years.
"Then, on your way home on the bus, you notice your husband’s sneaky silhouette walking into a strip club..."
"Damn!!"
"Oh no, I mean, holy crap!!"
"Don’t be angry, don’t be angry, this is just a hypothetical scenario, I believe your husband wouldn’t do that, right?"
"It’s fine, it’s just a strip club, it’s nothing."
With a nonchalant expression, Helena said, "As long as I don’t catch him in the act, it’s okay. If there’s a stripper trying to seduce my husband, it just means my husband has charm, and I have great taste!"
Elsa, with East Asian blood flowing in her veins, couldn’t quite understand her thoughts and asked puzzledly: "What if the stripper sat naked in your husband’s lap? Wouldn’t you get angry?"
"Angry? Ha! Then I’d just sit next to him with a naked handsome guy in my lap."
"Holy crap??"
"Holy crap?!"
"Holy crap!!!"
"Pfft... Haha, just kidding, just kidding, it looks like everyone is learning fast~"
Lucas’s expression changed, his lips twitching as he handed the marker to her: "Here, here, you take the pen and teach. It’d be a waste if you weren’t a teacher."
"That’s what I think too."
Helena took the pen, deftly twirled it a few times, then tossed it back to Lucas.
"When I first graduated, I wanted to be a teacher, but later I found out there were too many tests to take. I’m not good at exams, so I had to give it up."
"But if I learn Chinese, I can help share the teaching load, haha~"
Lucas quietly looked at her and gave a thumbs-up: "Awesome!"
Then he pointed to another pinyin on the whiteboard: "This one, ’niubi’, can anyone guess what it means?"
"Ah! I think I’ve heard this word somewhere before!"
"When you mention it, I also recall it, probably from some interview clip."
"I guess it means to describe someone as incredible? Or something like that?"
"That’s right! Congratulations on guessing it correctly, but the two characters forming this word have another literal meaning."
"What does it mean?"
"Hurry up, don’t drag your feet, time’s ticking."
Lucas glanced at Wang Ziqin, who wore a strange smile, and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "Uh... maybe we should skip this one? It’s okay not to know."
Who knew all the girls would simultaneously turn their heads, fixing questioning looks on Wang Ziqin.
Wang Ziqin felt no pressure and, seeing the eager eyes on him, smiled slightly.
"’Niu’ refers to the cow used for farming, so it’s like that of a female cow."
"??? "
"?????? "
Although he spoke somewhat obscurely, everyone quickly understood.
Nobody felt embarrassed; instead, their curiosity about the word grew stronger.
"Why do they use a female cow’s thing to describe someone as incredible?"
"I don’t know either, it’s internet slang; there’s usually no reason, it just suddenly catches on and everyone starts using it. After a while, people get used to it."
"I see, Lucas hurry up, are there any other interesting and useful slang terms? I’m eager to learn more!!"
"Me too!"
"So, does praising someone as ’niubi’ not have a derogatory meaning? Wouldn’t a woman get mad if a guy said it to her?"
"No, no, it’s safe to use, just be careful not to let your eyes wander down, you know?"
...
The next morning.
Lin Chen rarely slept in, waking up at exactly six o’clock.
After a quick wash, he went downstairs, reaching the kitchen by nearly half-past six. As usual, a long line had already formed outside the restaurant.
Seeing him coming out from the hotel, the diners appeared somewhat puzzled.
Wasn’t it already this late, why did the chef seem like he just came downstairs?
Was breakfast going to be delayed today?
Lin Chen waved at everyone as a greeting and walked straight into the restaurant through the beachside area.
Before he even reached the kitchen, the rich smell of bread and butter filled the air from a distance.
As usual, long tables were set up in the place where sandwiches and pizzas were sold the day before, now filled with all sorts of Chinese-style bread, even including several flavors of egg tarts.
Lin Chen walked up, glanced over, and nodded in satisfaction.
"Not bad, this kid Zhao Shun, these things look pretty appetizing. I didn’t expect him to do quite well on his own."
He hadn’t had this kind of hometown-flavored bread for a while, and with the enticing aroma of creamy butter in his nose, his mouth couldn’t help but water.
"Good morning, chef."
The few women helping arrange the bread on the table greeted him simultaneously, using Chinese.
"Whoa? Only one night, and it’s already quite standard!"
"Of course!"
Elsa puffed out her chest and raised her chin: "We took a four-hour class yesterday! Afterward, we went online and watched many videos. I took over thirty pages of notes!"
"???? "
Lin Chen’s mouth opened slightly, "Do you have to go so hard? Remember to rest."
Upon hearing the words ’class’ and ’notes’, his eyelids began to uncontrollably droop. He quickly grabbed a chicken and mushroom tart and stuffed it into his mouth, trying to use the food to wake himself up again.
"Hmm? Wow, this egg tart is really tasty?"
He had never seen egg tarts with this flavor before, which is why he chose to eat it, not expecting it to burst with not only the sweet and creamy filling of an egg tart but also a very familiar taste.
Cream of mushroom soup!
Besides the two decorative white mushrooms on top of the egg tart, the filling surprisingly hid rich cream of mushroom soup, though it’s thicker than the drinkable kind.
As the creamy soup burst open, the smooth and crispy mushroom bits were obvious, and every bite of chicken was quite noticeable too.
Upon hearing his comment, the surrounding women lit up, simultaneously closing in from all directions.
