Jeju University's Department of Foreign Literature has four tutors who study English, Russian, German, and French literature. This year, the Foreign Literature major originally planned to recruit eight graduate students, but in the end, only six were admitted, and they chose tutors in English, Russian, and German directions. After Wu Dao turned around, he became the seventh graduate student in foreign literature and the first graduate student in French literature in the past three years.

Wu Dao only knew that there were seven graduate students in the foreign literature major, but because he was transferred from another major, he didn't meet the other six people, and he didn't know anything about them until he took a class together for the first time. It was a literature translation class in a small classroom, and the lecture was Associate Professor Zhang, who studies English literature. The students came to the classroom five minutes early, and the other six graduate students of the foreign literature major knew each other, and they also heard that there was a new graduate student in their major, and when they saw Wu Dao in the classroom, they guessed that he was the new graduate student, so they greeted him one after another. At this time, Wu Dao learned that the graduate students majoring in foreign literature were two men and five women.

Associate Professor Zhang came to the classroom and started the class. Although the other six graduate students except Wu Dao had met with all the supervisors of their major during the interview, several months had passed, and after the start of the semester, each supervisor had only seen the graduate students he had led, and he had no deep impression of the other graduate students, and he could not name them. After sitting down, Associate Professor Zhang said:

"Today is the first time to give a class to you, and I can't name several students, so let's introduce ourselves first. According to international practice, girls are preferred. ”

Five female graduate students stood up one after another and said:

"My name is Yang Xinxin, and I am from the direction of Russian literature."

"My name is Lou Xinhua, and I am in the direction of German literature."

"My name is Huang Hongkun, and I am in English literature."

"My name is Xue Yujiao, and I am in the direction of German literature."

"My name is Lu Xiqian, and I am in the direction of Russian literature."

"The girls have been introduced, and it's time for the boys." Associate Professor Zhang said.

Wu Dao was the last graduate student to enter the foreign literature major, and subconsciously felt that he should be the last to introduce himself, so he did not stand up, but waited for another male graduate student to introduce himself first. However, another male graduate student saw that Wu Dao was older than him, so he deliberately asked him to introduce him first. The two men looked at each other, but neither stood up. Seeing this, Associate Professor Zhang smiled and said:

"The two of you are humble, isn't it the same who introduces you first?" He looked at another male graduate student and said, "Zheng Tao, let's introduce me first." ”

"My name is Zheng Tao, and I'm studying English literature." Zheng Tao stood up by his mentor and felt very embarrassed.

Finally it was Wu Dao's turn, he stood up, looked at Associate Professor Zhang and the six classmates, and said:

"My name is Wu Dao, Koutian Wu, the Tao of the road, and I am in the direction of French literature."

After speaking, Wu Dao sat down again. Associate Professor Zhang said to him:

"Are you a graduate student who transferred from a major in modern and contemporary Chinese literature?"

"Yes." Wu Dao said.

"After so many years, you are the first graduate student to transfer from another major to our foreign literature major. Why did you turn around? ”

"Because I like the major."

"That's a good reason, we welcome you."

Hearing Associate Professor Zhang's words, the other six graduate students in the class applauded and expressed their welcome to Wu Dao. Wu Dao felt flattered, and he instantly had a good impression of his tutors and classmates majoring in foreign literature. After the applause, Wu Dao said to Associate Professor Zhang:

"I will definitely study hard and do my research hard."

Graduate classes often have no fixed duration, sometimes one hour, sometimes two hours or more. Associate Professor Zhang's class took longer because of the self-introduction session, and it was already 5 p.m. when the class was finished. Lu Qianqian is a graduate student of Jeju University, and she is very familiar with the school and the surrounding environment.

"Today is the first time we have classes together, that is to say, from today we officially started our graduate school life, this is a memorable day, why don't we go to dinner in the evening and then go to karaoke."

Several female graduate students first expressed their support, and Zheng Tao and Wu Dao later agreed. Lu Qianqian said again:

"Everyone talks about their age, in a row of order, so that it is easy to call it."

Everyone said their age one by one, and it turned out that except for Wu Dao, who was one year older, the rest were all the same age. So, the other six people said their birth months separately, and this was finally the order. Wu Dao was the oldest of all people, and people called him Angkor. Below Wu Dao, there are Yang Xinxin, Zheng Tao, Lou Xinhua, Xue Yujiao, Huang Hongkun, and Lu Qianqian.

Lu Qianqian asked everyone what they wanted to eat, and everyone said casually, she said:

"Then I'll take you to a special theme restaurant."

The people followed Lu out of the school, turned a few more corners, and arrived at a restaurant called "The Sixties". Wu Dao found that the store's façade and signboard were all bright red, and after walking into the store, the most seen was the portrait of Chairman Mao, and there were many things commonly used by people in the fifties and sixties, even the waiters wore green military uniforms. Zheng Tao said:

"It's really back in the '60s."

"That's what makes this store special." Lu Qianqian said.

Everyone entered a private room, and when they saw the furnishings inside, Yang Xinxin said:

"Oh my God, where did you get all these enamel cups, old tables, and old benches?"

"If you look at the water cups, there are still words written 'serve the people' and 'labor is the most glorious', and the water cups are still damaged." Lou Xinhua said.

"People are such a theme, of course they have to do the same as in the 60s, otherwise what else is it called a special theme?" Zheng Tao said.

"These things are not old, they are specially made by someone in the store, and there are no safety issues." Lu Qianqian said.

The people sat down one by one, and the waiter in military uniform brought up the menu. Lu Qianqian asked everyone to order, and Wu Dao saw that the names of the dishes written on the menu also had the characteristics of the fifties and sixties. He suddenly thought that if Grandpa Wu He came to eat in this restaurant, he would be very happy, and if he had the opportunity in the future, he would definitely bring him once.

When the food was served, people talked and laughed and ate it. Wu Dao listened quietly to the conversations of others, and only said a few words when others asked him. It's not that he doesn't want to say it, it's that he doesn't know what to say.

After eating, everyone paid their own money. Lu Qianqian took everyone to a nearby KTV to sing, and bought some melon seeds and drinks on the way.

In the private room of the KTV, at the beginning, seven people took turns ordering songs to sing. Wu Dao liked Xu Wei's songs the most, so he ordered "Once You" and "Blue Lotus". He hadn't sung for a long time, and although he was familiar with the lyrics and melodies of both songs, he kept going out of tune when he actually sang them, and he couldn't sing them when he got to the high notes. After singing two songs, he had the intention of retreating. In addition, the lyrics of the two songs are more pathetic, and Wu Dao touches the scene again, and is sad about the past, which reduces the interest in singing even more. Later, he stopped going to the front to order songs, but just sat on the couch and listened to others. Occasionally, when someone else ordered a well-known song and asked him to sing it together, he would get up and sing a few words. In the back, the microphone was "occupied" by two people who liked it very much, and they became what people called "Maiba".

The seven of them sang in the KTV until 10 o'clock in the evening before returning to the school dormitory.

Later, the seven of them gradually formed a routine of having dinner together every week and singing songs every month. Although Wu Dao's relationship with the other six graduate students became more and more intimate, he found that no matter how hard he tried, he could not seem to truly integrate into the collective. His affection for them has always been inferior to Zhao Wu and Jing Like, for him, these graduate students can only be regarded as good friends at best, and Zhao Wu and Jing Like are confidants.

Graduate life is more leisurely than undergraduates, there are only a few classes a week, and public classes are attended by more than 100 people, and no one cares if they go or not, even if half of the students don't go, the teacher will still finish the lecture step by step. For graduate students of various majors, only the courses offered by the tutor of the major must be taken, because the number of professional courses is very small, at most more than a dozen people, and the tutor and the graduate students are very familiar with each other, and it is clear who went and who did not. The entire group of graduate students can be called idlers, but Wu Dao is not so idle, and even very busy.

According to Tian Mowen's teachings, as soon as Wu Dao got the library's library card, he began to go to the library to borrow relevant works on the study of French literature. Graduate students can borrow 20 books at a time in the library, and he borrows more than a dozen books each time and takes them back to the dormitory to read. After reading it, go back and borrow so much. In addition, he also started to learn French. He bought a concise French textbook from a bookstore, then an mp3 and downloaded the audio on the Internet to listen to it.

It was very difficult to learn French on his own, and Wu Dao took a public French course. There is only one class of public French per week at Jeju University, and the duration of the school is only one semester, so you can't even finish half of the textbook. Wu Dao went to listen to a few classes and found that he could only learn some very basic things there, and the learning progress was very slow. He had already taught himself what he was learning in class, so he had no interest, and after three lessons, he stopped going.

The best place to learn French is at Alliance Française. There is a Alliance Française near Jeju University, and Wu Dao made a special trip there. But when he saw the tuition standard, he gave up again because he couldn't afford it.

There is no charge for public French classes, but you can't learn useful content, studying in the Alliance Française, you can improve your French level, but you can't afford to pay the tuition, and there is only one way left in front of Wu Dao, that is, to insist on self-study. After understanding this, Wu Dao put more energy into self-study of French. It starts with letters and pronunciations, and then moves on to simple grammar and phrases. In order to make it easier to learn, he often went to the school playground alone and practiced the pronunciation of French words with mp3s.