laowhy86

Nationalist English Camps

Added 2018-08-22 14:45:04 +0000 UTC

Hey Laowinners!

Recently, a friend of mine has been helping out at Li Yang's Crazy English camp. Read up on this quickly(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_English)

For those of you who do not know what this is, it's a camp where kids spend a ton of money to learn to not be shy while speaking English.

This sounds all well and good, as China doesn't have the best English learning track record. I have met public school teachers who are teaching English at GOOD schools, who don't know how to actually communicate in English. As you all may know, in China, it's all about this tests, so when a program like this is available, it sounds like it can't be a bad thing.

That being said, this being China, it comes with caveats. I won't get into Lee Yangs controversies with beating his wife, but I am concerned with what I have seen in China with kids who end up going to this camp.

Instead of teaching the actual language, this camp has devolved into memorizing speeches, and having shouting matches with each other. The kids are taught to spout nationalist gibberish at foreigners if they meet them, and cannot have the most basic of conversations. If you ever visit China, you will know a Li Yanger if they come up to you and in a loud voice say "Welcome to China. China is making progress! I will never let me country down!". Just wipe the spit flecks off of your face and walk away.