At this time, there was a huge enthusiasm for learning Russian throughout the country. Russian-language schools were being established everywhere, and even the factory-run school for workers’ children offered Russian classes starting from elementary school.
Their apartment building had also once been nicknamed the “Experts’ Building” because Soviet experts had lived there. Those experts had children as well. After the experts returned to the Soviet Union, the teachers at the school even organized students to write letters and communicate with Soviet children in Russian.
The enthusiasm for learning Russian was just as strong in the factory. People often sang Russian songs, too. Even workers at the factory who couldn’t read or write could now speak a sentence or two in Russian.
Qiao Zhufang had often encountered Soviet experts when she worked serving food in the factory cafeteria. She had interacted with them quite a lot and exchanged a few words with them. Although her Russian wasn’t particularly fluent, she had no trouble with simple everyday conversations.
As luck would have it, the radio was also broadcasting programs that taught Russian. Since there wasn’t much else to do at home, she thought she might as well teach her granddaughter some Russian. That way, when Jia Jia eventually went to school, learning Russian would be much easier for her.
Qiao Jia Jia naturally didn’t mind.
Learning another language wasn’t a bad thing. She had nothing else to do anyway, so learning Russian to pass the time seemed pretty good.
Besides, she didn’t know much Russian either.
Russian was definitely not among the foreign languages she had been proficient in during her previous life.
In her previous life, she had gone abroad to pursue both her master’s and doctoral degrees and had spent eight or nine years overseas. Her English had eventually reached a level just below that of a native speaker.
Her doctoral supervisor had been French, so although she wasn’t particularly fluent in French, she knew enough to get by. However, her French vocabulary was somewhat specialized. Most of what she knew consisted of financial terminology. She could manage simple everyday conversations, but she was nowhere near as comfortable with French as she was with English.
Besides that, she also knew a little Spanish, German, Korean, Japanese, and Russian.
And when she said “a little,” she meant it literally, not modestly.
She had learned a few dozen useful phrases in each language, such as “Hello,” “Thank you,” “You’ve worked hard,” “May I ask your name?”, “What would you like to eat?” and “How do I get there?”
She could also give a fluent self-introduction in each language, but that was about the extent of her abilities.
There was simply no comparison with her English and French.
She was certainly intelligent, but even the cleverest person couldn’t accomplish everything without enough time and effort.
She had been far too busy in her previous life to spend enough time mastering so many languages. Knowing a few common phrases was enough for practical purposes.
Although it was somewhat of a shortcut, it had actually been extremely useful when she worked part-time in restaurants overseas. Her hourly wage was higher than that of most other workers, and tips from customers made up a large portion of her income.
Overall, knowing another language was always a good thing.
Qiao Jia Jia wasn’t opposed to her grandmother teaching her Russian. She already knew a few dozen Russian phrases herself, so with that foundation, she should be able to learn quickly, right?
Qiao Heping and He Yingying also knew a little Russian.
At that time, almost every young person who could read knew at least some Russian. It was simply the popular thing to learn.
Whenever the two of them came home from work and saw their mother teaching Jia Jia Russian, they would join in and teach her a few phrases as well.
Qiao Jia Jia was just over a year old, exactly the age when children were learning to speak.
She was deliberately holding herself back because she was afraid that if she learned too quickly, she would seem almost supernatural.
Even so, in the eyes of her grandmother, Qiao Zhufang, she was already unbelievably talented.
Qiao Zhufang watched her son and daughter-in-law speaking Russian to their granddaughter and said,
“Once your father has some free time, have him teach Jia Jia a few words of German too. Look how quickly Jia Jia is learning Russian! She must be a genius.”
Whenever she praised her granddaughter, she couldn’t help complaining about her son, Qiao Heping, as well.
“You weren’t nearly as well-behaved as Jia Jia when you were this age. You couldn’t sit still at all. As soon as you learned how to walk, you were always running outside.
“Your grandmother and I were exhausted from playing with you every single day. Don’t even talk about trying to teach you anything!”
Qiao Heping rubbed his nose awkwardly.
He had indeed been a rather mischievous child.
He quickly changed the subject.
“There’s no need to have Dad teach Jia Jia German. I know it too. I’ll teach her myself. I’m not as proficient as Dad, but what I know is more than enough to teach Jia Jia.”
As it turned out, the fact that both Qiao Qiusheng and Qiao Heping knew German was also related to their work.
Qiao Qiusheng was a Level Eight fitter.
In a state-owned steel factory with tens of thousands of employees, he was the only Level Eight fitter.
That alone showed just how capable he was.
For a Level Eight fitter, designing, drafting, and planning production processes were basic skills.
Hand skills such as chiseling, filing, sawing, marking, drilling, reaming, tapping and threading, scraping, grinding, straightening, bending, and riveting were even more important—and Qiao Qiusheng was outstanding at all of them.
Whether it involved manufacturing missiles, aircraft carriers, or other precision machinery, highly skilled workers like Level Eight craftsmen were indispensable.
To reach such a level, talent alone wasn’t enough. Without more than a decade of hard work, it was almost impossible.
Qiao Heping was only twenty-four.
He had only followed his father into the profession and moved with the family to the provincial capital after the founding of the People’s Republic. It would be difficult for him to achieve much in precision fitting in such a short time.
Moreover, Qiao Heping had never been particularly patient or steady by nature. He hadn’t suffered much hardship either.
Being a fitter required tremendous effort and, above all, patience.
Qiao Qiusheng understood his son well, so from the beginning, he had never planned for Qiao Heping to become a fitter.
Instead, he had arranged for him to work as an installation technician.
The job was somewhat simpler than being a fitter, and Qiao Qiusheng could teach him himself.
Although Qiao Qiusheng was a fitter, he also had to know mechanical assembly. The two fields had quite a bit in common.
Before the founding of the People’s Republic, the factory where Qiao Qiusheng had worked had been owned by capitalists and had business connections with foreigners.
The factory had many German-made machines and several German engineers.
Because of the machinery, Qiao Qiusheng frequently interacted with the Germans.
Later, he learned German and used the German instruction manuals to disassemble and assemble countless machines.
At that time, the factory had hundreds or even thousands of different mechanical and electrical components.
Qiao Qiusheng could identify the installation position, specifications, dimensions, installation requirements, stock quantity, storage location, and manufacturer of a component without even looking at a blueprint or instruction manual.
He practically knew the machines inside out.
In the eyes of a true expert, mechanical assembly was something that could be mastered across the board.
German machinery represented some of the most advanced mechanical technology of the era.
Although not all of the machines in the steel factory were German-made, for someone like Qiao Qiusheng, who had spent half his life working with all kinds of machinery, he could figure out the assembly method simply by examining a machine for a while.
Because of his exceptional mechanical assembly skills, even if Qiao Qiusheng hadn’t been a Level Eight fitter, he could easily have become a Level Six or Level Seven installation technician.
Whenever the factory brought in imported machinery and everyone spent half a day trying to figure out how to install it, they still had to call on Qiao Qiusheng.
Because of this, Qiao Qiusheng’s position in the steel factory was exceptionally secure, even though he had only joined after the founding of the People’s Republic.
According to regulations, he couldn’t receive two full salaries for being both a fitter and an installation technician.
However, the factory director often compensated him through other means.
In reality, Qiao Qiusheng’s monthly income was considerably more than 126 yuan.
Qiao Qiusheng had also given his son plenty of extra lessons.
After five or six years, he had trained Qiao Heping into a Level Four installation technician.
Because Qiao Qiusheng himself had needed German to understand the machinery assembly technology, he taught Qiao Heping German at the same time as he taught him mechanical installation.
Most of the machinery in the steel factory at that time was imported from overseas.
So, besides German, Qiao Qiusheng had also spent the previous few years teaching himself English whenever he had the opportunity.
English was also an international language, and many advanced technologies were documented in English.
Over the past two years, Qiao Qiusheng had accumulated almost half a box of densely handwritten English notes and books in his room.
Originally, when teaching his son, Qiao Qiusheng had wanted to teach him English as well.
But Qiao Heping was unwilling.
It wasn’t because Qiao Heping was lazy or unwilling to study.
The difficulty was simply too great!
Learning installation technology from his father every day was already exhausting enough.
Even after getting married, he still had to complete the assignments his father gave him like a student.
On top of that, he had to learn the notoriously difficult German.
He was already exhausted.
If he had to learn English as well, wouldn’t that be the death of him?
Speaking of this, if Qiao Heping had to say who he admired most in his entire life, it would definitely be his father.
He couldn’t understand where his father got all that energy.
Didn’t he ever get tired?
There was so much work at the factory, yet after coming home, his father still had the energy to continue studying.
Qiao Heping simply couldn’t do it.
Now that the subject of teaching his daughter German had come up, however, Qiao Heping suddenly became enthusiastic.
He immediately wanted to return to his room and get his notebook, where he had recorded all his German notes from when he studied with his father.
He Yingying stopped him.
“There’s no need to rush. Jia Jia is only a little over a year old. Learning one additional language, Russian, is already enough.
“If you add German too, can she really handle it? What if she ends up mixing the languages together?”
Hearing her daughter-in-law’s words, Qiao Zhufang slapped her forehead.
“Yingying is right. Jia Jia is still so young. She’s simply too little.
“If we teach her another language now, we’d just be forcing her to grow too quickly. We’ll wait until she’s older.
“And Heping, as her father, you need to set a good example. You can’t forget everything you’ve learned after a couple of years. We’ll be counting on you to teach her later!
“Your father didn’t even make you learn English with him. Now that you only have to maintain your German, you need to take it seriously!”
Qiao Heping nodded and promised,
“I definitely won’t forget. Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll make sure I keep studying seriously.
“Yingying reminds me all the time, too. And besides, I need to remember it for work. If the factory gets another foreign machine that needs to be installed and I can’t even understand the words on it, wouldn’t that be embarrassing?”
Meanwhile, Qiao Jia Jia sat obediently on a chair, hugging the radio as she listened to her grandmother and parents talk.
She was stunned.
Teach her German?
She had originally thought that the fact that her family members knew Russian was already impressive enough.
That was understandable, after all. Everyone in the country was learning Russian at the time, so it was normal for her parents and grandparents to know some.
But German?
Her father and grandfather knew German too!
Weren’t they just workers at a steel factory?
How did they know so many things?
It was only now that Qiao Jia Jia belatedly realized that the family she had been born into in this life seemed to be incredibly impressive.
Especially her grandfather.
He was a Level Eight fitter, and there was only one Level Eight fitter in a steel factory with tens of thousands of workers!
That alone was extraordinary.
But on top of being so skilled at his job, he also knew German and English, as well as Russian, which practically everyone was learning.
Wasn’t he basically a genius who excelled in both the sciences and humanities?
What kind of incredible person was he?
In later generations, someone like this would absolutely be considered a big shot!
For a moment, Qiao Jia Jia was filled with immense admiration for her grandfather, Qiao Qiusheng.
And what was the man whom Qiao Jia Jia admired so deeply doing at that very moment?
He hadn’t even finished work yet.
He was still at the factory, discussing something with the factory director.
“Qiusheng, take a look at the workers on this list. Which two are you planning to choose as your apprentices?”
Director Wen handed him the list and asked in a gentle voice.
As the steel factory’s only Level Eight fitter, as well as its most skilled installation technician, Qiao Qiusheng was extremely valuable to Director Wen.
He always asked for Qiao Qiusheng’s opinion on important matters.
In fact, even if Qiao Qiusheng didn’t want to take on apprentices, Director Wen would have agreed.
So what if a master craftsman had a bit of a temper?
This was a valuable talent!
He could do two different jobs at an expert level, and there wasn’t another person like him anywhere in the entire steel factory.
Of course they had to treat him well.
What if he left?
With his skills, he would be highly sought after wherever he went.
Qiao Qiusheng sat down and looked over the list.
Then he said directly to the factory director,
“Since I don’t know any of them, let’s simply organize an examination and choose the top two.”
That would also prevent all kinds of messy situations such as people pulling strings or using personal connections to get selected.
Hearing this, the workshop supervisor, Kong Xingwang, who already had some history with the Qiao family, stepped forward under the vice director’s prompting.
“An examination? Isn’t that making too big a production out of simply choosing an apprentice?
“Wouldn’t that interfere with our normal production work?
“Master Qiao is one of the factory’s key technical experts. You should also think more about the factory’s interests!”