The moment Qian Wenhuan snorted, several foreigners and flight attendants turned over and looked at him.
He promptly covered his mouth in embarrassment.
No, no, got to stay classy...
After issuing a small reminder to himself, he coughed lightly and turned toward the young man beside him.
To his surprise, the other person did not react to his exaggerated movements. He remained silently fixed onto his book.
Yeah right, keep playing the cool guy...
Even the others around him could hear it so he doubted that the person sitting right next to him could not hear him.
He found it hilarious. The young man along with his cool composure gave off an impression of a mainland Chinese who had been residing in Switzerland for a long time. As it turned out, the piece of diamond was just a piece of bronze all along.
Sixty-five percent of the Swiss population spoke German. If you were headed for Switzerland, it would be helpful to know a bit of German. Still, it was a bit too late for learning after having boarded the plane.
Qian Wenhuan shook his head. He thought it was such a shame that he was not carrying his European German C1 certificate with him right now.
Otherwise, he could accidentally drop it on the floor while chatting with the other person, then casually pick it up from the floor.
The moment the young man saw his C1 certificate, his expression would probably quickly spiral from the stages of being dumbfounded to doubt and awe before finally falling into hysterics.
That would be fun.
Sigh, what a shame...
Qian Wenhuan turned away with a faint smile before lazing back into his chair.
How was he going to spend the next 16 hours?
He took out his phone to send a short text to his wife. At that moment, he heard something.
“Flip...”
“Flip...”
He heard the steady rhythm of pages flipping coming from next to him. He probably would not even notice it if it was not for his excellent ears.
Qian Wenhuan frowned slightly. He turned around and there it was again – the young man flipping through the book.
This pace of reading...
Qian Wenhuan found himself speechless.
Kiddo, were your eyes made of cameras or scanners? How were you just scanning through them?
When he boarded the plane, the young man was still reading the foreword. The plane barely even took off yet he was almost halfway through the book.
Judging by the condition of the book, it was probably a recent purchase. Could he just be revising if he was flipping through the pages that quickly?
Did this mean that this bloke was just putting up an act?
Qian Wenhuan kept muttering in his mind before retracting his gaze again.
“Ladies and gentlemen:
“Welcome aboard Mainland China International Flight K420, headed for Zurich from Shangdu Chuanpu Airport. The total distance is 8200 kilometers. The estimated flight duration will be 15 hours and 20 minutes.
“The plane will be taking off shortly. The cabin crew will now be conducting a safety inspection. For your safety, please fasten your seatbelts and switch off your phone...”
Following the announcement, several flight attendants began conducting the safety inspection while handing out embarkation cards.
After a rowdy takeoff, the plane was finally en route to its destination.
After the plane had stabilized in the air, Qian Wenhuan loosened his seatbelt without waiting for the flight attendant’s instructions. He kicked his feet up and hummed a little tune while he turned on the TV and put on a variety show.
After some time, while Qian Wenhuan was starting to doze off while watching the show, he suddenly heard some ruffling coming from beside him.
He instinctively looked over and noticed the young man setting the book down. He then got up and retrieved a backpack from the overhead compartment.
You’re not telling me that he already finished the book?
Qian Wenhuan was slightly surprised. Right after that, something even more shocking happened.
He saw the young man taking out a large stack of books from his backpack.
Was it not cumbersome carrying so many books to the plane?
Qian Wenhuan stared in disbelief as he observed the young man taking out all the books from his backpack. A stack of books was on top of the table while another stack was below it.
Modern University German, New Refinement Intensive German Course, Standard Intensive German Course, Traversing Germany...
Qian Wenhuan had read all these books in the past. There were countless books for learning German but only a handful of which were considered staple resources. All of these classic resources were set on the table now.
Qian Wenhuan was suddenly jolted awake when he saw the familiar book titles. All of these learning resources cycled from basic to advanced!
From the introductory Easy German Learning with Zero Foundation to the expert-level Standard Intensive German Course. Did the young man plan to go through all of them?
When Qian Wenhuan saw the young man flipping his next book, he could no longer resist his urge. “Hey there buddy, what are you doing over there? Learning German?”
“Yeah, I have some errands to run in Switzerland. I figured I might as well make use of the time on the flight.”
The young man looked over and answered politely.
‘Sh*t, of course I know you’re going to Switzerland. What I’m asking you is what you’ve been doing all this time? Don’t tell me you’re learning German!’
Qian Wenhuan cursed in his mind but kept his welcoming smile. “You sure are an eager learner but as someone with a bit of experience with German let me give you a small bit of advice. This isn’t how you learn German.”
Before the young man even had time to respond, Qian Wenhuan continued. “Personally, I don’t recommend learning by yourself right away. First, it takes too long to make progress. Second, most people who finish learning pronunciation still feel like there’s something off and end up applying for a class anyway. In the end, the tutor will have to spend a longer time than usual trying to correct their pronunciation. It’s a common pitfall.”
“Is this so? Then, I’m truly grateful for the tip from a senior,” the young man responded with a smile.
Qian Wenhuan felt refreshed, feeling like he had proved himself. He went on asking, “Buddy, how much progress have you made with your self-learning so far?”
“I just finished this book. I learned phonetic symbols and the attributes of nouns. I also learned the difference between verbs and sentence structure.”
Chen Chen held up the previous book, Easy German Learning with Zero Foundation.
‘Hm? You learned it so quickly? Who are you kidding?’
Qian Wenhuan expressed his disbelief. “Then, do you mind if I quiz you a little?”
“Please do!”
The young man nodded and displayed his eagerness to learn.
Qian Wenhuan was very pleased by the reaction. He nodded in approval and spoke a basic German sentence.
The young man hesitated for a moment and answered with uncertainty.
“See, this is why I say German isn’t that simple. You got it wrong right off the bat.”
Qian Wenhuan sighed helplessly. “Non-human pronouns are a very complicated subject. The three utensils in the kitchen: Spoon, Löffel. Knife, Messer. Fork, Gabel. These three are valid on their own unless you attach human nouns to them, then it’d be incorrect. The Swiss wouldn’t even be able to understand what you’re trying to say.
“On top of that, you also need to pay attention to the length of your pronunciation. For example, Stadt and Staat, they have entirely separate meanings if you mispronounce them...”
...
What followed after was a sequence of Qian Wenhuan asking questions, the young man answering and Qian Wenhuan pointing out and correcting the mistakes.
In the beginning, Qian Wenhuan was having the time of his life. As time went on, he began to notice something was slightly off.
He began to notice that the young man seemed to be making fewer mistakes as the session went on...
How did he go from making hundreds of grammatical and sentence structure errors to being able to converse with him using a complete, well-structured sentence?
What the hell!
Qian Wenhuan looked down and noticed that the young man was almost done with the collection of books on the table.
It was only then when he noticed that while he was busy explaining, the young man had been flipping the pages all along. He barely even noticed it because he was too immersed in explaining and all the while the young man took care to give him responses, even praising him occasionally.
‘Godd*mn, what the hell am I doing?’
Qian Wenhuan snapped out of it completely. He had been discussing German with a young man he had only met for the first time for three whole hours?