Crazy English

The Great English Awakening:

Pupils in the Hands of a Crazy Demigod

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One thing happened in March 2009: Li Yang came to HuaiYa Senior Middle School. This is the story.

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Part 1: night of the living dead

It was a routine Sunday evening. I was just drifting into boredom when I got a text message from a student informing me that the famous Li Yang was coming to HuaiYa ZhongXue. Do you know who Li Yang is? Probably not. But in China he is a celebrity of fanatic popularity. He's not an actor. Not a singer. Not a basketball star. Not an Olympic gold medalist. Who is Li Yang? He is an English teacher!

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Our minds are controlled by our environments. Must be. Since being in China, I have heard again and again of Li Yang, the guy who learned English so well and so quickly and who promises the same to all students if they just follow his "crazy" methods... I have heard of Li Yang from students... from people I meet on the train... from men on the street who ask if my English is better than Li Yang's. This guy must be an English-speaking, English-teaching superhero! Well, in 8 months all this fanfare has gotten to my head. And so at that moment reading the text message informing me of Li Yang's arrival, even I felt the wooziness of disbelieving excitement at the notion of seeing and potentially meeting the famous Li Yang.

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At first, I truly didn't believe it. I thought the student had sent a joke text. Why was Li Yang coming to HuaiYa Senior Middle School? The school is in a small town. Why? Was he really coming? Come on...

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But then the calls started. Students calling my cell phone. Students knocking at my door. Students who were normally zombies at this time of the night were ALIVE... and coming to eat my brain. They wanted me to give them ideas... ideas of how to get Li Yang's attention. They wanted me to tell them jokes, stories, words of wisdom, etc. with which they could charm Li Yang. They wanted to practice speaking with me.

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Part II: a new dawn

I awoke to the excitement of thousands of students speaking English across campus. There was a sense of enthusiasm... and in some a sense of desperation. Must impress Li Yang.

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I had numerous appointments, one after another. Practice speaking with this student. Help this student make a giant flag to hoist into Li Yang's line of sight. Then some teachers saw me and asked me to visit their classes and offer words of encouragement and advice. So there I was talking to class after class of students I had never met before. Busy morning!

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If I wasn't excited before (but I was!), I was definitely excited now. Hype hung in the air, and I was breathing it in too. Mob mind: seeing 3,000 people going crazy, how could I not go crazy? Plus, I must say, it was very invigorating just to see the optimism... and hopeful to think how this optimism for English might make teaching it easier in the weeks to come. So, yeah, I was giddy too.

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Part III: the Great Awakening

Li Yang came... late, as expected. He talked... 95% in Chinese... so I didn't understand what he said. The 1% of what he said in Chinese that I managed to understand just so happened to be the words of mockery he used to refer to me.... "old foreigner," "ghost/devil foreigner," "dog." But don't worry, he mocked others too. He told the headmaster/principal that he looked like an old woman. He told one of the English teachers that he looked like Deng Xiaoping (a dig at his short height). He made fun of Obama. He made fun of Hu Jintao. It was something of a roast. Nothing to get uptight about.... I suppose....

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In general, his agenda was to inspire and encourage. He aimed to eradicate laziness, apathy, bad attitudes, defeatism, inferiority, shame, etc. Thumbs up! He also shared some of his methods of learning English. Li Yang, some of the other English teachers, and I each took turns leading the students in shouting English sentences. This is the crazy English method. It's also the part of the performance that I found most lacking in substance. Oh well, the encouragement was worth it. Here are some pics and captions.

my little 'tete-a-tete' with Li Yang

One of the marketing gimmicks of "Crazy English"... add a touch of nationalism, and you'll rope the patriot extremists into the market. You may also provoke global division, but hey!... at least you're selling books!

The above picture shows just one example of nationalism--a relatively harmless example at that. Unfortunatley, nationalism is written into the fabric of "Crazy English." It was everywhere. In fact, after greeting me and telling me how much Li Yang loves America (in English), he then proceeded to boast to the crowd (in Chinese) his love for the Americans who will soon be begging to learn Chinese. At that point, I guess he'll be a celebrity in America teaching us all "Crazy Chinese."

Cult of Personality

...and little red books

Shiny, Happy People Speaking English

Shiny Happy People Holding Hands

At some point, the Li Yang performance got personal. Suddenly students everywhere were crying uncontrolably. And they were being invited up to the stage not to practice speaking English but instead to share some moving story in Chinese and then to sob their eyes out. I'm not sure what was being said, but it seemed they were professing their love for their parents and their appreciation for all the hard work that their parents have done. Not a dry eye on the field...

After this, Li Yang turned up the stereo to the tune of some easy listening music. He then asked all the students to hold hands with other students and listen carefully to his words (spoken in Chinese). So then the hand holding began. Illustrated directly above. Also illustrated directly below.

unity conquers the world

Part IV: the feast

After the English Revival, the important people scampered off to an isolated location. As the resident foreigner who happens to speak English, I am in that circle of people, I guess. Fist, the photo opportunities. Then Li Yang sat down with the English department to recommend methods of instruction. Spoken all in Chinese, I have no idea what they said but I assume it was a suggestion for the students to practice speaking more in and out of class. Thumbs up! Li Yang was very thorough and careful in his suggestions. He gave alot of his time at this point. This shows a sense of his genuine interest and care in the mission.

Li Yang teaches teachers how to teach... and I just hear... it's called "tingbudong along with the conversation"

It is also worth noting that at this point, there were no more references to me being a "foreigner ghost" or a "dog" or anything like that. It was all professional from this point on. Who is the real Li Yang? Who should Li Yang be? It's something of a dilemma I think... sell mockery and nationalsim in order to sell books and sell the important mission? Or be professional... and boring... and accomplish much less? What would you do?

After this, ... er, I mean after yet another round of photo opportunities and autograph appeals... they formed an even smaller circle of VIP and yet I was still in the circle. So we enjoyed a big feast. Li Yang was again very kind, courteous, serious, and genuine to me. The food was over-the-top, and we just barely begun to satisfy our stomachs when Li Yang announced his need to end the night here. At this time it was about 9:00pm. He had been with us since about 3:00. That's quite generous!

In the final meetings, Li Yang had been very friendly to me. He praised me highly to the leaders of the school. And he offered me his name card and his business phone number and an invitation to work at his Crazy English Camp this summer.

Part V: after the fire, the fire still burns....

I'm writing now from the perspective of a few weeks removed from the event. I have teetered back and forth in my assessment of the event. Initially I was very excited, pleased, and grateful for what Li Yang had done. After stewing the night and morning, however, I let my sensitivity to the mockery sour my opinion considerably. I found it difficult to justify. And I became decidedly opposed to Li Yang when my students began to call me "guizi"... "foreigner ghost"... I also thought he didn't offer students enough good methods, particulary students with advanced vocabulary. What should they do?

After talking with students (who all assured me the mockery is harmless) and after watching how students continue to practice English, I have jumped back into the camp of appreciating what Li Yang has done. To this day, students still carry around their little red Li Yang books. They are reading Li Yang's other books. They recite his quotes with passion. And this very afternoon we are having an English Week Party where the students will sing songs, tell stories, tell jokes, act out plays, etc. in front of all their student body. I can imagine that their courage to do this was inspired in part by Li Yang's words.

I have also benefitted from the experience. I have found the Li Yang crazy speaking method to be energizing and fun. It is a new tool to use with students with less motivation, poor vocabulary, shyness, or laziness to participate. Also, I have noticed more students from classes that I don't teach approaching me with the confidence to speak. They say I appeared friendly and inviting when I was speaking at the Li Yang gig. So that's really cool. Finally, I have been asked by the school leaders to lead crazy English sessions in the evenings in front of ALL the students of grade 1 and grade 2. This keeps the spirit alive, makes me feel powerful, and endears me to the praise of the leaders. Win-win-win!

Clearly I have a mixed opinion of Li Yang and Crazy English. Overall, however, I approve and appreciate.