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Learning English, the CRAZY way
The New Yorker has a great article on Li Yang and his method of learning English through shouting. There's still some debate about whether his methods are linguistically sound, but without a doubt, he is quite an interesting language teacher.
China intends to teach itself as much English as possible by the time the guests arrive, and Li has been brought in by the Beijing Organizing Committee to make that happen. He is China's Elvis of English, perhaps the world's only language teacher known to bring students to tears of excitement.
[...]To his fans, Li is less a language teacher than a testament to the promise of self-transformation. In the two decades since he began teaching, at age nineteen, he has appeared before millions of Chinese adults and children. He routinely teaches in arenas, to classes of ten thousand people or more. Some fans travel for days to see him. The most ardent spring for a "diamond degree" ticket, which includes bonus small-group sessions with Li. The list price for those seats is two hundred and fifty dollars a day—more than a full month's wages for the average Chinese worker. His students throng him for autographs
(ELHAM)Tags: English, language learning
April 24, 2008
