English teacher wants to buy Obama speeches
By Liang Yiwen |
July 10, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AN English teacher has written to United States President Barack Obama to ask for permission to use his speeches in his English lessons.
Qu Gang, founder of a private English training institute in Beijing, intends to buy the copyright of Obama's speeches and is asking the president to name his price.
There has been praise for the teacher's innovative teaching methods, but also criticism of the move as a shameless promotion of his institute, New Way English.
Qu said he posted the letter to Obama last Friday and he expected it to reach the White House in 10 days.
"We sincerely hope to be authorized by you to use the content of your speech in our commercial English teaching activities," he wrote. "If there is any expense for the speech, we'd like to buy it according to the situation."
Qu told Shanghai Daily he expected that Obama would charge little in the way of fees for the authorization considering that it was to be used to support English education. He said a sum of less than 200,000 yuan (US$31,386) would be acceptable to him.
Qu introduced so-called presidential-style English into his institute about two years ago. Students are taught to read presidential speeches out loud and imitate Obama's inflections. Qu said Chinese people were usually very shy to speak out and the president's eloquent speeches helped students build confidence quickly.
But some people said he just wanted to use the US president to boost his institute.
"It's crazy of him to write to the US president," said James Shen, a local office worker.
Others mocked the letter. "Kenneth" commented online: "How great the teacher's Chinglish is!" Other commenters said the children were almost shouting when learning, which could harm their voice.
Qu Gang, founder of a private English training institute in Beijing, intends to buy the copyright of Obama's speeches and is asking the president to name his price.
There has been praise for the teacher's innovative teaching methods, but also criticism of the move as a shameless promotion of his institute, New Way English.
Qu said he posted the letter to Obama last Friday and he expected it to reach the White House in 10 days.
"We sincerely hope to be authorized by you to use the content of your speech in our commercial English teaching activities," he wrote. "If there is any expense for the speech, we'd like to buy it according to the situation."
Qu told Shanghai Daily he expected that Obama would charge little in the way of fees for the authorization considering that it was to be used to support English education. He said a sum of less than 200,000 yuan (US$31,386) would be acceptable to him.
Qu introduced so-called presidential-style English into his institute about two years ago. Students are taught to read presidential speeches out loud and imitate Obama's inflections. Qu said Chinese people were usually very shy to speak out and the president's eloquent speeches helped students build confidence quickly.
But some people said he just wanted to use the US president to boost his institute.
"It's crazy of him to write to the US president," said James Shen, a local office worker.
Others mocked the letter. "Kenneth" commented online: "How great the teacher's Chinglish is!" Other commenters said the children were almost shouting when learning, which could harm their voice.
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