QIU Zhengzheng is now more of a manager than a classroom teacher, but after being engaged in English education for nearly two decades, he is still seen as a star lecturer by English learners.

People ask online if his lectures are still available, and his speeches, teaching materials and jokes in class are still widely circulated online. His former students still affectionately call him by his nickname, Qiu Qiu.

Qiu is now director of the foreign examination department at the New Oriental English Training School, one of the biggest English training institutes in China.

Born in Qingdao, Shandong Province, the 37-year-old joined New Oriental as a part-time teacher when he was still a student at the Beijing Language and Culture University in his junior year, giving lectures on TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). He became the youngest teacher at the institute.

“This was my first job,” he recalls. “I remember that a class had 600, or even 1,000 students, and it was not a common job for a college student. It was kind of overwhelming.”

Qiu chose the institute over other schools and colleges after graduation, even though he received several job offers, including one from Fudan University teaching Chinese to foreign students.

“I think this is a place where young people exploit their talent,” he says. “And now, having been with New Oriental for years, I can say the time I invested was exciting and I never regretted my choice, even if I had to give up an academic road for it.”

Qiu says he believes teaching a language is a way of spreading culture. Although his lectures were all about interpretation, listening comprehension and examination preparation, his lectures were never boring. His students always praised him as a humorous teacher, and his secret was cultural communication.

His college major, teaching Chinese as a foreign language, gave him a big advantage in his career.

“I once taught Chinese to a class of 18 foreign students who came from 13 countries,” he says. “They came from different cultures and histories, and that background created plenty of highlights in English class. Compared with other English teachers, I had more opportunities to meet foreigners, which helped me collect fresh and vivid teaching material.”

Qiu says his jokes were never meant to kill time in class, but instead expanded on language points.

“The jokes help students consolidate the language points, leaving deeper impressions in the students’ minds,” he says. “So while they felt happy in class, they could also learn something.”

Bank employee Ruan Yang attended Qiu’s lectures several years ago. Apart from his humor and unique teaching method, what left Ruan deep impression was his charisma.

“He is very knowledgeable and has the power to get you attracted to his world,” says Ruan. “I think this is how he inspires and encourages his students to learn and not give up.”

Qian Bei, Qiu’s former student and now his colleague, totally agrees.

“I was once his student and considered him a star. But now that I’ve become his colleague, I find he’s easy to get along,” she says. “Not until now did I realize that it’s really hard to catch up with his level, because what he’s accumulated — both his knowledge and life experiences — is what has made his lectures awesome.”

Qiu says he often comes across his former students all over the world. He has met them at Harvard University, in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights — home to Columbia University — and at universities in Europe.

Recently when he visited Cambridge, he met five students — three postgraduate students and two doctoral students — who once had taken his lectures.

“I have taught about 700,000 students in the past two decades, and I think my biggest achievement is to see my students become, or on the way to becoming, the future elites,” he says.

Meanwhile, the students and their work ethic also push him to provide better lectures. He recalls that once there was a disabled student who had polio, whose mother had to carry her to the classroom to study interpretation.

“It was difficult for her even to write a word down, but she never gave up,” he says. “Now she has passed the intermediate interpretation exams, and is now preparing for the advanced one. She has also been admitted to the university where she dreamed of going. I was touched by her perseverance.”

Outside the classroom, Qiu is devoted to the study of teaching methods. In 2005, he received a master’s degree in education at the University of Sydney in Australia.

He summarizes his own way of teaching English, the “M7 methods,” that help students raise their oral and listening abilities. Qiu explains that the methods, “Maintain, Make, Model, Magnify, Mine, Memorize and Magic,” urge students to establish self-confidence, to imitate native speakers’ tones and pronunciations, to dig deep into the cultural meanings behind phrases and eventually to acquire the logic of the language.

“The method is not only for Chinese students studying English, but also serves foreign students studying Chinese,” says Qiu. “My experience is that languages complement each other, and if you can speak your mother tongue well, you can also speak a foreign language well.”

Qiu has been fond of language study since he was a little boy. Many of his family members spoke several foreign languages, and sometimes they talked in foreign languages at Chinese New Year dinner parties.

“They had a subtle influence on me, and I was very curious about foreign languages,” he says. “And later I became very fond of English-language movies and TV shows, so I started to learn English earlier than most children back then.”

His own experience made him believe that it’s essential for children to start language learning at a fairly early age, so that they can naturally acquire the language.

Joint effort to train future journalists

Shanghai Daily and the New Oriental English Training School are presenting the program “Cradle for Future International Journalists.”

The English-language journalism training summer camp is now open for registration. The camp accepts children between 13 and 15 years old for the junior level and 16 and 18 years old for the senior one.

The domestic course of the event will take place from July 8-12. Another course overseas will take place from July 13-26. Students also may attend both courses.

For more details and the price, call 400-6160-999.