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Non-stop sleepless English class a lame show
By Lu Jianwei (Shanghai Star)
Updated: 2005-10-17 10:12
A student with a sallow complexion squinted at the now blurry chalkboard and
scribbled on a little scrap of paper.
The classroom was so quiet you could hear a pin drop until the teacher
shifted his weight and attempted to utter a sentence. The student shot him a
reflexive glance before slumping back into his seat as if calmed by a lullaby,
otherwise known as his instructor's voice.
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A mastery of
English can be a strong pusher on one's career ladders in big cities like
Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an. With the number of English learners expands,
The English training has grown into a promising business in China. [file
photo]
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As time wore on, the brightly lit
classroom was host to a sea of sleepy heads, sluggishness setting into every
pore of the students as the minutes ticked by.
BAM! Earth to Joe!
It was finally over! A shadow of a smile flickered over his face, the first
genuine expression he had in hours.
The belaboured student groaned to the camera: "I'm worn out, I think the
class might have harmed my health."
Moments later, he trudged off.
This was the scene at a rare 72-hour vigil between September 9 and 12 in
Shanghai. Apart from eliciting a good round of yawns and arm-stretchings, this
was no ordinary vigil. It was a marathon English course, sleep free.
The stunt was put together in a bid to sew up a Guinness World Record for the
longest non-stop English course.
But what was intended to be a record-breaking event turned out to be nothing
more than a lame show.
A Guinness record is deemed to encourage the re-definition of human confines,
pushing the envelope, or more literally, outdoing oneself. It celebrates human
endeavours, marking historical and glorifying moments.
Fundamentally, it carries a positive connotation. Whereas in this case, the
only benefit one can possibly come up with is the significance of English, which
has been a cliche for a great number of years. It virtually blasphemed the
principle of the record in this regard.
Behind its facade of record-breaking lies the almost blatant thirst to stir a
major media buzz.
Promising to award whoever hangs in there till the last minute with a
handsome amount of money and a bonus trip to England for one student, the
organization practically bought the success of this show.
Although it went out on a limb and ended up drawing tides of criticism, it
finally got all it needed: a publicized brandname, a Guinness record, and
subsequent discussion, which I am now doing, too.
As the saying goes: Rome wasn't built in a day. Learning English calls for a
great deal of time and devotion. In a nutshell, it is no cakewalk whatsoever.
The three-day ordeal wrote the sole message that the students involved could
actually manage to grasp the language simply, in a flash.
Today, information floods our brief lives with an abundance of useless
distractions. To counter this, the media should sift its offerings by leaving
the dregs out. More time, I think, should be given to the underprivileged and
disadvantaged.
Still, I'm wishing those who attended the class a quick
recovery.
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