Chapter 88: Ghost Talk (3rd Update)

Liang Yao did have such an idea, trying to divide and resolve these pawns of the New York consortium.

Unfortunately, he failed. The degree of unity of these consortiums and their lackeys was beyond Liang Yao's expectations.

Nigel still has some knowledge. It seems that being able to become Vanderbilt's trusted assistant is not just as simple as strong business ability.

The maid brought the refilled tea to Nigel. Nigel took his hand out of his pocket, took the teacup, and tasted it seriously, like a senior tea lover.

"Do you know tea?" Liang Yao asked curiously.

"I don't know, but it tastes good. I like it very much." Nigel said very honestly, "I can't buy such authentic Chinese tea in New York. Can you give me a bag of tea later? My tea is almost finished."

"Nigel, I think you came to me today not just for tea, right?" Liang Yao put away the list in his hand.

"As you said, two ships of the California Shipping Company have problems and need to be repaired at your shipyard." Nigel explained the purpose of his visit. "Your shipyard is the only place in California that can repair ships. If I queue up, I will need to wait for three weeks."

"You can jump the queue, but you have to pay extra. I will say hello to the shipyard later." Liang Yao said.

"There is another thing, about Connie. If Connie continues to be idle, I am afraid you will have a hard time explaining to Mr. Vanderbilt." Nigel reminded Liang Yao, "Although I also know that Master Connie can't do anything and can't help you, he will definitely carry the bag. Let him stay with you. Maybe he can learn something from you, even if it's just the surface."

Liang Yao didn't forget Connie, but since John arrived in California, he had to concentrate on dealing with the consortiums that swarmed in, and had no time to take care of Connie, the second-generation ancestor.

"Sir, this is the book you want."

Hu Jinchen handed Liang Yao a book called "Ghost Talk".

Hu Jinchen was the most capable of the fifteen assistants Wu Yuanhua gave him. Strauss went to the east to acquire companies, purchase machinery and materials, and Liang Yao needed a capable assistant.

After much deliberation, he finally chose the most capable one of the fifteen former assistants of Jardine Matheson to stay with him.

Liang Yao flipped through the booklet called "Ghost Talk", which is the words of foreigners.

This "Ghost Talk" is equivalent to a quick start manual for spoken English in this era.

"Did you learn English from this booklet?" Liang Yao flipped through the "Ghost Talk" in his hand, which was basically some daily expressions, and the Chinese characters with similar pronunciations were annotated next to it.

But when you flip to the back, there are some more complicated sentences, and the content is basically related to business, such as how to ask the unit price of goods and how to bargain.

"Sir, almost everyone in Thirteen Hongs has a copy of the book. In addition to Ghost Talk, there is also Red Hair Ghost Talk. However, since I was born, most of the foreign merchants who came to Guangzhou to do business are British merchants, so the most people learn Ghost Talk." Hu Jinchen answered respectfully.

Compared with Strauss, Hu Jinchen does not have the confidence that Strauss has.

Although Strauss, Hu Jinchen and he are all employers and employees, Hu Jinchen's performance looks more like Liang Yao's servant, and the relationship between the two is more like master and servant.

Even when speaking, Hu Jinchen is cautious, for fear of making Liang Yao unhappy.

"How is the effect?" Liang Yao asked after closing the booklet.

"If you want to speak ghost talk, that is, English like you, it is impossible to rely on this booklet. However, if you learn this booklet thoroughly, you can communicate with foreigners and do some simple business without any problem."

Hu Jinchen said very seriously.

"Foreigners speak many languages, but English is the simplest and easiest to learn."

"In that case, you will send this booklet to the newspaper's printing plant later and give it to the newspaper for printing and distribution." Liang Yao said.

He did not want the Chinese immigrants in California to live in their comfort zone forever, especially those Chinese businessmen who were interested in doing business.

With the closed geographical conditions of California, it is impossible to develop behind closed doors. He must rely on the power of the eastern United States to attract factory owners and businessmen from the east to build factories and do business in California.

At that time, it is inevitable to deal with these white people from the east, and if you want to deal with them, do business with them, and let them accept you, you must first learn their language.

Similarly, if the Chinese in California can form a large and powerful group in the future, those foreigners will naturally learn the Chinese language in turn and get close to the Chinese.

This is just the first step. Liang Yao also wants these Chinese elites who have become rich first to infiltrate the American political arena to protect their business.

If American businessmen do not get involved in politics, they will sooner or later become fat meat in the eyes of other capital crocodiles.

If they want to eat you up legitimately, it's just a matter of passing a few bills in Congress.

But this step is long and arduous, and even Liang Yao himself has not yet set foot in American politics.

But he can start by changing California, step by step, and do it steadily.

"Sir, the schools in Sacramento and San Francisco have been built. I wonder when you will find time to go there and cut the ribbon for the school building?" Hu Jinchen asked.

"The school is built, but I can't find a teacher who is proficient in Chinese and English now. I will cut the ribbon after I find enough teachers." Liang Yao said.

The two schools in Sacramento and San Francisco are language schools established by Liang Yao.

There are nearly a thousand Chinese children in California now. Liang Yao wants to select some smart children to enter the language school to learn English, and then send them to middle schools and universities in the east for further study.

He hopes that the Chinese can have their own engineers, mechanics, bankers, ship navigators, doctors and other high-end talents to serve his future career.

These talents cannot be cultivated quickly. At present, they can only be cultivated through the relatively complete education system in the east.

Now, Liang Yao is facing a very embarrassing problem, that is, he can't find enough teachers.

The most suitable teachers for language schools are missionaries and nuns who come to China to preach. These people have high knowledge and are proficient in Sinology.

The earliest Chinese students who studied abroad, such as Yung Wing, Huang Kuan, and Huang Sheng, received their language and basic education in the church schools in Xiangshan, and their teachers were pastors and nuns who came to China to preach.

After the First Opium War, the quality of missionaries who came to China had declined compared to the missionaries during the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong periods, but there were still many well-educated people.

After the Second Opium War, a large number of so-called missionaries who came to China to "preach" were, to put it bluntly, foreign trash who could not make it in their own countries and came to China to cheat and cause trouble everywhere.

Liang Yao has written to church schools in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, expressing his willingness to fully fund qualified students trained by church schools to study in higher education institutions in the United States and even the United Kingdom.

He hopes to recruit some missionaries and nuns who are proficient in Sinology to teach in schools in California, but he has not yet received a reply from the church, pastors, and nuns.