It's like a dream!

For the 365 teenagers who were selected to the preparatory school, they certainly felt like they were dreaming. Before that, they might have been apprentices in factories or workers on farms, but they were sure that they earned at most five or six silver dollars a month.

But now, in the school, they have five silver dollars every month with allowance!

All they need is to learn and learn English. Of course, the learning process is not easy. If they cannot memorize the newly learned English words and sentences, they are not allowed to eat. They are not allowed to speak Mandarin at school, they can only speak English.

All this is to enable them to master simple English conversations as soon as possible and to study abroad as soon as possible.

In fact, long before the first batch of immigrants arrived, Zhu Xianhai specially asked to count the teenagers aged 12 to 17 who had been familiar with personal experience among the immigrants. According to his initial plan, some of these teenagers would go to technical schools to learn technology, and some would go to Britain, the United States and other countries to study.

Talent!

Whether it is for a company or a country, talent is the most important.

In fact, opportunities do not only belong to those children. For adults, they also have their own opportunities. Adults who study English at night school can also pass the exam to obtain the qualification to study abroad, just like Li Qingen.

A seemingly simple decision has changed the fate of many people and allowed many people to see opportunities.

For 23-year-old Zhao Tianfeng, what opportunities did he see?

go home!

What does it mean to go abroad?

It means that you can leave South China, whether it is to England or America, if you go to France, you will have the chance to return to the Qing Dynasty.

"Brother Chen, we don't even have the chance to make a boat here, but as long as we go abroad, we can leave Nanhua and return to our hometown. At that time, Brother Chen, you will still be the second young master of the Chen family, and you will be mixed with a group of mud legs like you are now."

When persuaded Chen Jie to sign up with him, Zhao Tianfeng's tone seemed a little excited.

How could he not be excited? He is a great scholar and has passed the imperial examination at the age of 20! Even if he is a deputy juren, he will still be at the center in the future. In his hometown in Zhejiang, no one knows, no one knows?

But what about here?

It is just a teacher, what is the difference between an ordinary mud leg?

The only difference is that he got a single dormitory and could earn fifteen or sixteen yuan a month. But such a life was not what he thought of. He had also thought of joining the company and becoming a senior employee of the company. This is also the reason why he worked hard to learn English.

But the problem is that this is not what he wants. He wants to become an official in the court and to glorify his ancestors.

But here, what if you succeed and become famous?

"Actually, it's like a paradise here, so why bother to go home?"

Chen Jie shook his head.

"The hometown is in chaos. Even if you and I go back, what can we do?"

Seeing that Chen Jie did not listen to advice, Zhao Tianfeng just sighed and said.

"You have to think clearly that after you pass this village, you will not have this store! And when the country is now employed, if you and I complete their studies in the West, they will definitely be valued by the court after returning to China. It will be even more natural to succeed and become famous at that time."

In fact, even Zhao Tianfeng knew that studying abroad was not an opportunity to escape, but also an opportunity to study. In the more than half a year since he came to Nanhua, like many people, he was also shocked by the power of machines. In addition to being surprised, he also realized the changes in the world.

Faced with the impact of steam engines and various machines, Zhao Tianfeng realized the crisis and also realized the opportunity! Isn’t this the opportunity for him to succeed! How many people in the Qing Dynasty knew about machines? They knew science, studied abroad, and then fled back to the Qing Dynasty, so how could they not be valued by the court?

After all, the imperial court used guns and cannons to suppress the bandits. Machines could build guns and cannons to resist foreign barbarians and to build warships. No one in the country could do these things! But he could do it! After studying abroad, he would do it!

"Why……"

He sighed, Chen Jie didn't say anything, some people couldn't persuade him. Of course, he wouldn't miss the opportunity to study abroad. This is indeed a rare opportunity!

Besides, he really wanted to see what France looked like when he fought all the way to the capital of the Qing Dynasty, even the emperor's garden was burned.

A total of 737 people applied for the overseas study exam, including twelve women. The two sisters Song Bing and Song Yu are naturally among them. Compared with others, their sisters have better foreign language skills, and passing the exam is almost natural.

On January 27, 1862, a total of 412 adults who took the exam passed the exam, including ten women. Most of them had English abilities, which were almost the same as... they had a good level in grades three or four in primary school.

It is definitely not possible to study abroad at this level. However, when they signed up, the return of "Feiyun" brought 37 missionaries from the Southern American Church. These missionaries who understand Chinese naturally took on the role of teachers. In addition to the missionaries, there were even two Chinese professors. Their arrival finally brought Nanhua's English education to the right track.

In the following days, they learned English while learning mathematics. For scholars who are good at memorizing, they would achieve twice the result with half the effort by learning English by rote memorization.

In fact, it is not only the case when you are adults, but also when you are studying in preparation for overseas study. You have to recite poems and essays every morning when you wake up. Practice writing in the morning, listen to the teacher’s lectures, and basically recite the text in the afternoon. The requirements for memorizing the text are very strict, and if you fail to complete it, you will be beaten.

"...Everyone has to recite English novels and one or two essays every day. Every time he reads it wrong, the professor will draw it with a pencil and correct the pronunciation. In class the next day, he has to review the old lessons. Only after he recites it in full can he start teaching the new lessons. The professors have to study mathematics and geography every day in two or three hours, and at other times."

Regarding the teaching methods of the preparatory school mentioned by Li Weizhi, Zhu Xianhai just nodded slightly. He didn't know what science was not scientific. The important thing was to let them learn English quickly, lay a good language foundation, and then select the best people to study abroad.

In the late Qing Dynasty, I was beaten several times by foreign countries in 1840, but I didn’t realize that if I wanted to catch up with the Western powers, I had to learn foreign languages, especially English. I was still immersed in my dream of the Celestial Empire. I finally sent more than 100 young children studying in the United States, but because they were influenced by foreign culture, they became "unruly" and retreated. It was not until they were defeated by the Japanese in 1894, and they lost hundreds of millions of taels of silver, stolen Taiwan, and lost North Korea that I understood my own forced numbers. The following year in 1895, the censor Yang Shenxiu reported that Japan’s Meiji Restoration was a student, so I would send people to study in Japan. Even so, they had to wait until the Eight-Nation Alliance captured the capital and truly opened the door to study, but at this time... it was too late!

At present, Zhu Xianhai needs to seize the time, seize this window period, send international students to learn from the West, and spend about twenty years to achieve independent cultivation of talents, and seize the opportunity of the second industrial revolution in this process to achieve the leapfrog development of Nanhua. This is the most important thing.

Being backward may not necessarily be beaten frequently, but being backward and not learning will definitely be beaten frequently. Just like Japan, which "seeks knowledge in the world" in history, cut off Taiwan, demanded hundreds of millions of taels of compensation, and then defeated Russia. On the other hand, what about the "Qing Dynasty" who "knowledge in the world is the best in the Qing Dynasty" and debated "whether middle school is important or Western learning is important"? But it is just the meat on the board.

When sighing at the changes in history, Zhu Xianhai couldn't help but feel a sense of urgency. It seemed that history did not leave much time for himself. After all, compared to Japan, the current external environment of South China is really too bad, and South America is someone else's territory!

How can it not be dangerous to develop on someone else's territory?
Chapter completed!