Job Discussion Forums

tofuman · Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 937

I had a brief experience with one of the CE franchises. I confess that I was overcome by greed and reentered the ESl business(?)

The person that initially contacted me seemed to be a great guy-- honest, , concilatory, pleasant to deal with. He gave me a decent salary and travel bonus. After a few days, other people in the company wanted to decrease my hours, send me to a different location, etc. Thanks to info from this board, I realized the "fix was in." I said no to everything, asked them why Chinese could never make a deal and stick to it, collected my pay, and left. Thankfully, they did pay me before I left.

I thought the basic approach of CE made sense. It emphasized oral English. The text had some great articles for discussion. The dialogues concerned me. The language is very informal, completely unsuitable for talking to anyone but a close friend. It could get a person into a fight. Expressions like "Get that straight, Buddy", "Hey guy, what's up", and "You don't know what you're talking" about seem inappropriate for ESL classes.

I question the story of the Crazy English founder. I find it hard to believe that he learned to speak fluent English without an accent by shouting at trees. My guess is that he is an ABC or CBC with a business degree that saw an income opportunity, conspired with others to run a scam, and made his move.

That type of deceit is probably seen as a good thing to inspire other Chinese in their English learning. The CE franchise had some gangster types hanging around, probably feeding at the trough, that didn't speak a word of English, including their local marketing director. Perhaps that is why they needed me for a few days, to offset the obvious shortcomings of some of their staff and administration.

I was disappointed that things didn't work out. I thought I was onto something.
_________________________
A kinder and gentler Tofuman?
Not yet.

tw · Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 3898

benno · Joined: 28 Jun 2004 Posts: 501 Location: Fake Mongolia

yes he is a good business man,
selling a product that is basically garbage
i remember seeing him on TV recently for the first time.... chris t he had a terrible accent...whats with all the "man" this and "man " that sh ite, and hye was speaking way to fast and too loud
go to the west speaking like that ..you are liable to get a beaten

but the chinese just lap up this stuff...cant get enough of him

and then we have da shan
yikes
no wonder they are all crap at english

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

Well, so long as there are people like you that believe in the value of "oral english" there will be crooks like Li Yang that exploit you and the paying public.
Li Yang is an upstart with little intellectual power but an enormous ego drive who claims he studied German and found that the grammar was beyond his ability; hence his motivation to practise english without teaching its foundations - grammar among them.

No, his crazy approach makes zero sense unless you think people shouting at the top of their voices actually get their poor self-confidence boosted.
apart from boosting (albeit only momentarily) their self-confidence it does little else, least of all in the realm of improving their English.
The reason why Li Yang is so successful is because he enjuoys state protection and the media regularly give him the thums-up.
he married an American woman - which probably also stands him in good stead.

They do pay well, though - I hear some Chinese teachers easily make 10 thousand a month.

writpetition · Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 213

benno · Joined: 28 Jun 2004 Posts: 501 Location: Fake Mongolia

yeah right
the point is can we understand what you are yelling at me?
no i cant so shut the **** up! and leave me alone

tw · Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 3898