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'Showtime English' - talk like Obama
June 18, 2010, Friday
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A young man from a poor village in Yunnan Province has shot to stardom of a sort by coming up with "Showtime English" - learning that imitates Barack Obama, TV idols and rock stars. Xu Wenwen reports.Learning English is considered essential for many young Chinese who want to get ahead. Many start at an early age, so it's not so difficult, but others find it challenging, especially if they start later.
Though the College English Test certificate is no longer required for graduation in China, most students are working on English as fluency is considered essential to many enterprises.
It can be a hard slog, especially for those who lack a gift for language. But there are ways to enliven the process.
Consider the story of Wan Xiaogao, a poor youth from Yunnan Province, and his success with what he calls "Showtime English."
It is 7am. Students at Hangzhou Dianzi University are learning English: some of them recite US President Barack Obama's inaugural address - with power and body language. And some recite lines from English-language TV series - dramatically and with body language.
This approach - reciting popular or celebrity words - has been called "Showtime English," and its inventor is said to be Wan, who just graduated this week.
Wan is such a huge fan of learning English that he has filled more than 60 notebooks during his college days. He has extracted the essence into a 70-page textbook titled "Magic in Your Life" to teach younger students.
Wan's "Showtime English" requires a lot of emotion.
"When the sensation comes, cry out if you should, laugh out if you should," says Wan. "Only by enlivening yourself first can we enliven the language."
In his book Wan includes many tips and time-savers, such as reciting a basic sentence type and replacing words as appropriate in new sentences. He identifies 48 phonetic symbols in one speech so that students can imitate a speaker repeatedly until they grasp the correct pronunciation. This comes with audio aids.
Wan has come a long way.
In his freshman year, the youth from a poor village in Qujing, Yunnan Province, was at the bottom of the English placement test and he spoke with an odd Yunnan dialect accent.
Wan was undaunted and he continued learning grammar and vocabulary in his first two years, but he didn't improve too much.
Then on January 20, 2009, he watched Obama's inaugural speech and was swept up in the president's passion, charisma and confidence.
"Then I realized that imitation, from accent to body language, is the best way to learn a foreign language," he recalls.
"From then on, I stepped into a vivid, interesting English world and left a world of tedious learning."
As he grasped the possibilities of "Showtime English," Wan started to imitate many celebrities' speech and lines form TV series. He himself grew more confident and self-assured, he spoke faster and with more emotion. Some say his accent is that of a native American.
Then students came to him for advice and instruction, making him a "star teacher" and inspiring him to write his book last winter vacation. Since March he has been holding free classes.
Wan's ambition goes beyond teaching English. He says his goal "is to make younger schoolmates understand how to spend their four years in college. I organize class early every morning to get them into the habit of studying hard."
His ascent has been rapid. Armed with good working English, Wan will enroll, with a full scholarship, in a master's program in Politecnico di Milano (a science and technology university in Milan, Italy) studying environmental engineering. The courses are taught in English.
Since Wan will be away, his "students" are continuing studies with their own classes and passing "Showtime English" on to lower grades, just as Wan did.
Though the College English Test certificate is no longer required for graduation in China, most students are working on English as fluency is considered essential to many enterprises.
It can be a hard slog, especially for those who lack a gift for language. But there are ways to enliven the process.
Consider the story of Wan Xiaogao, a poor youth from Yunnan Province, and his success with what he calls "Showtime English."
It is 7am. Students at Hangzhou Dianzi University are learning English: some of them recite US President Barack Obama's inaugural address - with power and body language. And some recite lines from English-language TV series - dramatically and with body language.
This approach - reciting popular or celebrity words - has been called "Showtime English," and its inventor is said to be Wan, who just graduated this week.
Wan is such a huge fan of learning English that he has filled more than 60 notebooks during his college days. He has extracted the essence into a 70-page textbook titled "Magic in Your Life" to teach younger students.
Wan's "Showtime English" requires a lot of emotion.
"When the sensation comes, cry out if you should, laugh out if you should," says Wan. "Only by enlivening yourself first can we enliven the language."
In his book Wan includes many tips and time-savers, such as reciting a basic sentence type and replacing words as appropriate in new sentences. He identifies 48 phonetic symbols in one speech so that students can imitate a speaker repeatedly until they grasp the correct pronunciation. This comes with audio aids.
Wan has come a long way.
In his freshman year, the youth from a poor village in Qujing, Yunnan Province, was at the bottom of the English placement test and he spoke with an odd Yunnan dialect accent.
Wan was undaunted and he continued learning grammar and vocabulary in his first two years, but he didn't improve too much.
Then on January 20, 2009, he watched Obama's inaugural speech and was swept up in the president's passion, charisma and confidence.
"Then I realized that imitation, from accent to body language, is the best way to learn a foreign language," he recalls.
"From then on, I stepped into a vivid, interesting English world and left a world of tedious learning."
As he grasped the possibilities of "Showtime English," Wan started to imitate many celebrities' speech and lines form TV series. He himself grew more confident and self-assured, he spoke faster and with more emotion. Some say his accent is that of a native American.
Then students came to him for advice and instruction, making him a "star teacher" and inspiring him to write his book last winter vacation. Since March he has been holding free classes.
Wan's ambition goes beyond teaching English. He says his goal "is to make younger schoolmates understand how to spend their four years in college. I organize class early every morning to get them into the habit of studying hard."
His ascent has been rapid. Armed with good working English, Wan will enroll, with a full scholarship, in a master's program in Politecnico di Milano (a science and technology university in Milan, Italy) studying environmental engineering. The courses are taught in English.
Since Wan will be away, his "students" are continuing studies with their own classes and passing "Showtime English" on to lower grades, just as Wan did.
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