Crazy teacher says mistakes are good

(學習重點：加了黃色螢光標記的詞組；學習英語的態度)

The man chosen to train volunteers to speak English at the Olympics says Beijing lags behind cities like Shanghai when it comes to speaking the language. "Beijing is still bad at English, the taxi drivers do a terrible job, they are too lazy," said Li Yang, founder of the popular language school Crazy English (瘋狂英語). "According to our government, the level of English has improved a lot, with five million [more] speaking it."

Li insists the problem can't be solved by a campaign or a single course. "It has to be a comprehensive project," he said.

Li was invited by the Beijing Organizing Committee to train 20,000 of the 100,000 key volunteers as part of an ambitious project to educate people to speak English.

In three-day intensive language training camps from 6.30am to 11pm, up to 200 sporting terms, venue names and phrases were drilled into students, including: "Can I help you? Don't worry. I'll find someone to help you."

Li said confidence was the biggest obstacle as most students fear losing face.

"Yell it," he told more than 300 students at a training session in Beijing. As students stood up and raised textbooks high above their heads, Li asked them to yell repeated: "Today I truly believe this unique journey will completely change my life."

Printed in bold letters on T-shirts worn by teachers is the slogan: "I enjoy losing face, I enjoy making mistakes, I enjoy meeting challenges, because I enjoy being a success, just follow teacher Li Yang." (失敗乃成功之母，自己錯過的，記得以後也不能再錯)

Describing himself as a businessman and not a teacher, Li has turned his own success into the running of over 100 summer camps a year, charging 3,388 yuan (HK$3,858) for an eight-day training camp in Bejing and up to 18,000 yuan in Guangdong.

"I never went abroad … I even failed in my college English exam," confessed the 38-year-old Jiangsu native.

Carol Chung in Beijing
The Standard, 14 August 2008