About an hour ago I finished watching what is perhaps the most touching documentary I have ever seen: Mad About English by Singaporean filmmaker Lian Pek. I saw the trailer on Youtube several months ago. The film chronicles Beijing's mad dash to learn English in the year leading up to the Olympic Games.
Throughout the film, several Beijing residents are followed: a taxi driver, a doctor of Chinese medicine, a 74 year old man, a foreign English teacher, and a little girl attending an intensive English camp sponsored by Crazy English founder Li Yang.
The taxi driver was perhaps the one that hit home most to me. If you have been in Beijing for any length of time, you notice very quickly that English speaking taxi drivers are hard to find. I am usually able to get home with just telling them my street name: Haidian Nanlu (Haidian South Road). But sometimes (like today), you get a cab driver who wants more information so I say one of the most useful things I have learned in Chinese: Wo jiu zai Haidian Nanlu san shi si hao. Fu jin. Li, Suzhoujie dietie zhan, bu yuan. (I live at Haidian South Road, building 34, the Suzhou Street subway is nearby.) If they can understand my garbled pronunciation, that usually gets me there, usually convincing them I am fluent so all the way home they tell me stories (in Chinese), to which I nod and smile. The cab driver in the film wants to learn English to serve his country during the games and be able to speak to the foreigeners who ride with him so he can present a good image of China.
The elderly gentleman was the most emotional to watch. He began teaching himself English at age 68 and now at age 74 his dream is to be a volunteer tour guide in the Forbidden City. Thousands applied to do this and only 200 were selected. Did he make the cut? You'll have to watch to find out. I will just say that his English is light years ahead of my Chinese (as is the English of most Chinese people.)
Watching Li Yang lead his military style English camp was interesting as well. Li is a very unorthodox teacher. His primary method is shouting English phrases as loud as you can until you learn them perfectly. It is kind of like the Chinese educational system on steroids. The film follows one girl of about 11 years old who has dedicated herself to learning English to get a better job and be able to take care of her parents in their retirement years. If only most of the American teenagers I taught were half as dedicated to their future plans as this young girl, America would have an extremely bright future ahead.
At its heart, this film is a look into the life of a people desperate to show the world the strength of their country. You get the sense that learning English is a patriotic duty. As an American living here, it makes me appreciate the people that much more. They go out of their way to accomodate us here, which is why it makes me so mad to see a foreigner complaining that this is "not like America." No its not, and why should it be? This is China. If you want to live in America, go back home. If you plan to stay here, learn some Chinese or stay a mute. I wish more laowai (foreigners) would see this film.
Click on the video below to watch the trailer:
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