Crazy English
A few years ago in Fuzhou, I arrived in class and discovered my students whipped into a frenzy. "What's going on?" I asked. "Oh, the Crazy English guy is speaking at our school!" Crazy English? I had no idea what that meant, and gave the matter no further thought. Later that day, when walking past the soccer field on my way home, I heard a booming voice yell "persistence!" followed by thousands of others chiming back in unison. I've never thought much of mass rallies, and this Crazy English meeting certainly seemed like one to me. No thanks.
Last year, while in the northern Yunnan town of Zhongdian, I walked into a China Mobile store to add money to my phone. The clerk, a tall young man, began speaking to me in an unusually loud voice. "I have been told the best way to meet foreigners is to talk to them so I want to talk to you how are you my name is Michael are you well good well welcome to our city this is beautiful isn't it well what kind of phone card you want to buy?"
When I mentioned the incident to a laowai resident I met later that evening, he knew of the clerk. "He's just one of these Crazy English followers." Ah ha.
I knew Crazy English was popular, if scanning the English-learning textbooks at my local Xinhua bookstore is any indication. But in this New Yorker profile, "popular" isn't the right word for it. Crazy English is huge.
The profile is interesting and well-written, and goes into the odd relationship between mastering a foreign language and fervent patriotism. For those of you too busy or disinclined to read a seven-page magazine article, here's a brief description of Crazy English:
The movement was begun about fifteen years ago by a failed engineering student in western China who discovered he could only learn English well by shouting it aloud. He managed to improve so rapidly that soon he was completely fluent in the language, placing second in a provincial competition. His success sparked adherents, and sensing an opportunity, the student (named Li Yun) set up a business that has grown into a nationwide phenomenon. If you teach English somewhere in China, chances are one of your students either uses or has experimented with Li's method.
What's interesting about Crazy English is that it challenges the classically East Asian notion of "losing face". When learning a language, the only practical method is to make a lot of mistakes and learn from them. In Chinese society, students are often reluctant to speak up because they fear embarrassing themselves with their poor English.* Whatever else one may think of his methods (or his ego, or political beliefs), Li Yun corrects this flaw and it is not difficult to see why he has been so successful.
*To clarify, adults everywhere have trouble learning foreign languages for the exact same reason, but the difficulty is amplified in East Asia for largely cultural reasons.
