Transmigration: Flirted with My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 111 - 110: Teacher Xiao Lin’s First Lesson

Chapter 111: Chapter 110: Teacher Xiao Lin’s First Lesson

Lin Nianhe stood in front of the blackboard, unconsciously beginning to ponder whether the Northeastern dialect could be considered Mandarin.

She thought and thought, but in the end was only certain of one thing—

It was indeed not so easy to be a teacher. First of all, one must possess a strong inner character; otherwise, it simply wouldn’t suffice to face students’ questions with composure. Secondly, one must have the ability to maintain control over the classroom; otherwise, it would turn into a marketplace.

Teacher Xiao Lin looked at the chattering aunts, pulled a serious face, concentrated her energy in her lower abdomen... and knocked on the blackboard.

The blackboard was made of a wooden plank, perhaps because it needed to be moved to the classroom later, so they just propped it up against the wall with a stool, without fixing it with nails.

Startled by the knock, the blackboard jumped and nearly fell down, flattening Lin Nianhe’s head.

"Whoa! Easy, easy, don’t let it smash you!"

The sound of knocking on the blackboard wasn’t that loud, but Aunt Li’s exclamation caught everyone’s attention.

Lin Nianhe twitched the corners of her mouth and sent a grateful look towards Aunt Li.

While all the aunts’ eyes were on her, she quickly said: "Everyone thinks they speak Mandarin, and that’s normal, because Mandarin is based on the Beijing accent and the dialects of the northern officials, which are somewhat similar to everyone’s own accent."

This explanation was fairly clear, and the aunts understood, but it immediately raised another question—

Do they even need to learn that so-called Mandarin?

Lin Nianhe was not going to allow them any more room to discuss this issue; she simply stated: "However, the Northeastern dialect and Mandarin do have differences in accent and word usage. The reason I mention this today is that when our primary school starts classes, Mandarin will be used for Chinese teaching, and we will need the aunts’ cooperation then."

Before, the aunts didn’t really grasp the importance of Mandarin, or to put it another way, they didn’t even know what Mandarin was.

But now, the aunts were no longer the aunts of the past; they had experienced being isolated by Wen Lan.

"Oh, I see, we really should learn."

"Otherwise, we won’t understand what others are saying when we go out."

"Eh? But where could those little bastards possibly go?"

The aunts came across a new and the most practical question.

They couldn’t figure it out: what was the point of having their children learn Mandarin?

After all, they would eventually stay on this black land, farming, getting married, having children... What difference would speaking Mandarin make?

Lin Nianhe didn’t think they were ignorant. Circumstances were as they were, generation after generation, they all came from this kind of life, asking them to imagine a future they had never touched was just too unrealistic.

She smiled faintly, baiting them with what mattered most to them at the moment:

"That’s not how you should see it. Our Ten Miles Team is now an Advanced Cultural Team. It’s been said that in time, comrades from other teams will come here to learn. What if our team’s children are needed to go to other teams and share their experiences and insights? What if some of them could go to the Worker-Peasant-Soldier University?"

"These are all opportunities to step out into the world."

The eyes of the aunts brightened more and more.

No one would think their own children were worse than others. They unconsciously started fantasizing: their own little brats representing the team to give speeches elsewhere, like how the team leader speaks at big meetings... then being spotted by leaders of the Worker-Peasant-Soldier University to attend school... then staying in the city to work...

It took Lin Nianhe eighteen minutes to initially stimulate the potential for daydreaming in the minds of the women comrades of Ten Miles Team.

She left them a dozen seconds to fantasize, then said, "How about, today, I teach everyone to write the names of their children?"

Since those who had attended elementary school didn’t need literacy class, the youngest ones present were married women in their twenties—thanks to Wang Hong’s efforts, all the unmarried girls had been kicked into primary school.

The initial purpose of these mothers coming here might have only been the fear of shaming the team due to their illiteracy, but now, hearing that they were going to learn how to write their own children’s names, their enthusiasm for learning soared instantly.

"Don’t fight, aunts, let’s start learning from the children with the youngest age."

"But everyone needs to learn to write these names because they are all new characters."

Lin Nianhe began to write on the blackboard—given the high rate of name repetition in those days, it was quite easy to teach.

And what Lin Nianhe herself did not expect was that because the names of these children were ordered from the youngest upwards, it actually helped the aunties remember the pronunciation and shapes of the characters... After all, they all come from the same team, and the aunties were very familiar with the names of each child.

That was an unexpected pleasant surprise.

In two hours, Lin Nianhe had written down the names of all thirty-six children under ten years old in the village.

Thirty-six...

And then thinking of the one hundred and eight next door...

Teacher Xiao Lin’s feelings were quite complex.

This is a coincidence, right?

It must be.

After Principal Wu finished her class on the other side, she came here. She had been somewhat worried, afraid that Lin Nianhe, with no experience, wouldn’t know how to teach and also afraid that others wouldn’t understand her.

She quietly went to the door and listened carefully.

"Just before class ends, let’s learn one last name... Li Hehua. We’ve just learned two of the three characters in this name, which auntie remembers?"

"I remember! It’s Li as in ’plum’, the same surname as Li Dabao."

"I also know Hua, it’s the same Hua as in Zhao Huahua and the ’flower’ in ’flowers and grass’."

"Right, so there’s only one new character in Hehua’s name, which has the ’grass’ radical on top and a He character underneath. We just learned this ’He,’ like in He Aiguo’s name."

"Really... but Educated Youth Lin, what does a lotus flower actually look like? Never seen one."

"Aunt Li, have you seen a lotus flower?"

"Ah? I haven’t seen one either... It was a name given by Hehua’s grandma." Aunt Li was a bit at a loss.

Lin Nianhe spoke in a timely manner: "It’s getting late today, let’s end the class here. The aunties should all go back and remember the characters well. We will have a dictation before the class starts tomorrow."

She paused for a moment and added, "I have a painting of a lotus flower, which I will bring tomorrow to show everyone, and then I will reward it to the auntie who writes all the characters correctly."

People always need a little motivation.

As soon as the aunties heard about the reward, they unconsciously became eager to compete for the honor.

"Don’t erase the blackboard, let me check it again..."

"Yeah, Miss Lin, can you look for me and see if I got it right?"

Teacher Xiao Lin’s very first class in her life, due to the students’ over-enthusiasm, ended up running half an hour over time.

It wasn’t until the last auntie left that Lin Nianhe belatedly rubbed her stomach.

She was hungry.

Principal Wu came in with a smile, looking at her and said, "The effect was quite good."

"Yeah, it was almost a mistake."

Lin Nianhe brushed the chalk dust off her hands and walked back with Principal Wu.

She mentioned the questions the aunties had raised to Principal Wu and also mentioned the teaching of Mandarin to the children.

Principal Wu gladly accepted and expressed deep approval of her teaching method.

"We’ve held literacy classes many times before, but no one has ever started from the children’s names; indeed, it’s an easy way to engage the mothers’ interests... I’ll suggest this at the commune when I go there next time. By the way, Nianhe, do you have any more ideas like this?"

Lin Nianhe: "If I said that I just came up with this method at the time because I didn’t want to lose my speaking rights... would you believe me?"