A Deep Dive Into Crazy English

(the wild language learning method that once took China by storm)

For thousands, and quite possibly millions of people in China, their most memorable language learning experience looks something like this: standing inside a packed stadium, shouting English phrases at the top of their lungs, led by a man with infectious energy.

It's a language learning scene unlike anything that this writer has witnessed. What is this mass-yelling approach? And does it have any merit in the language learning space?

What is Crazy English?

Founded by the charismatic leader Li Yang, Crazy English took China by storm in the late 90s and 2000s.

Li Yang, in his own words, was not the best student. As a child, he displayed no special affinity for language learning. After enrolling as a student in Lanzhou University's engineering department, he struggled to keep up with his coursework.

Determined to change his fate for an upcoming English exam, Li Yang decided to experiment with new strategies for learning.

He eventually landed on an important discovery: that reading English out loud was much more helpful than the traditional book-learning methods that he grew up with in China.

What's more, he found that loudly verbalizing the text transformed something inside of him:

“I could concentrate, I felt really brave,” he recalls. “If I stopped yelling, I stopped learning.”

This discovery didn't make him the most popular person in the dorm (he would often practice in the hallway after hours). But as his confidence in his method grew, he went on to deliver his first lecture on the topic at his own university.

A few years after his graduation, Li Yang launched his own company focused on teaching students through his method, dubbed "Crazy English."

The Efficacy of Crazy English

The hallmark of Crazy English is not just reading English out loud — but rather, yelling English with reckless abandon. Students of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to let loose, echoing Li Yang while yelling and motioning in unison.

His subversive method grew rapidly in popularity, and soon, he was filling stadiums with loyal students — many of whom would travel from across the country to participate in his rallies.

Li Yang himself grew into a sort of legendary, cult-like leader, captivating students with his charisma and his unique American-inspired accent.

All this begs the question: Does Crazy English have any validity as a effective language learning approach?

At face value, it's easy to draw one conclusion: that shouting semi-random phrases in English doesn't reflect any form of meaningful communication. This is undoubtedly the biggest shortfall to the approach.

Some advocates for Crazy English draw parallels between the method and Total Physical Response (TPR), a language learning methodology from the 1970s that emphasizes the connection between movement and memory.

But while it's true that Crazy English also capitalizes on this connection, it's not quite as principled as TPR, which often utilizes implicit learning strategies within meaningful contexts.

So while Crazy English falls short, there is also something incredibly unique about the approach: it specifically targets learner anxieties, facing the affective filter head-on.

Crazy English goes beyond encouraging students to accept potential embarrassment; rather, embarrassment is embraced as one of the keys to success. (Li Yang himself declared, "I love losing face.")

A Unique Approach

At its core, Crazy English is more than just a language learning approach. It was created within the context of a rapidly globalizing country, in which English reigns as a highly desired language of power.

(It’s also worth noting that Crazy English is expressly tied to a nationalistic Chinese philosophy, encompassed by the phrase, "Conquer English to make China stronger!")

Learning English, in China and around the world, is not viewed simply as an academic activity. For students, it often is surrounded by the possibility of hope, opportunity, and success — perhaps for one’s country, but more importantly, for one’s own self.

So in the end, the success of Crazy English must be contextualized within its time and place. It certainly isn't the magic, cure-all solution for learning that its founder claims it to be.

But Crazy English does address a very specific need, one that all learners innately desire. It makes a brazen attempt to break through the fears that hinder growth.

And in a world in which English proficiency is viewed as a marker of power and status, Crazy English goes one step further, guaranteeing faithful students a brighter future:

In a video for middle- and high-school students, [Li Yang] said, “You have to make a lot of mistakes. You have to be laughed at by a lot of people. But that doesn’t matter, because your future is totally different from other people’s futures.”

Thanks for Reading!

Do you have any experience with radical learning approaches such as Crazy English? Do you think that such an approach would be effective for your own learning? Let me know in the comments below.

This newsletter is Part 3 in my series, “Methodology Madness” (although it would be far too generous to categorize Crazy English as a true methodology).

Until next time,

Rebecca