Letter from China: Crazy English, by Evan Osnos

Great profile of Li Yang, founder and chief evangelist for Li Yang Crazy English. Sure, it’s over 6,000 words long, but it’s worth it.

“‘The jury is still out on whether he actually helps people learn English,’ Bob Adamson, an English-language specialist at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, said. The linguist Kingsley Bolton, an authority on English study in China, calls Li’s approach ‘huckster nationalism.’ The most serious charge—one that in recent months has threatened to undo everything Li has built—holds that the frenzied crowds, and his exhortations, tap a malignant strain of populism that China has not permitted since the Cultural Revolution.
…
‘How can we make Crazy English more successful?’ Li Yang asked me, his voice rising. ‘We know that people are not going to be persistent, so we give them ten sentences a month, or one article a month, and then, when they master this, we give them a huge award, a big ceremony. Celebrate! Then we have them pay again, and we make money again.’

He turned toward the assembled employees and switched to Chinese: ‘The secret of success is to have them continuously paying—that’s the conclusion I’ve reached.’ Then back to English: ‘How can we make them pay again and again and again?’”