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SINGAPORE: There is nothing out of the ordinary for a Chinese person who wants to pick up the English language.
However, multiply one person by the population of several cities in China, what you will get is a nation gripped by the English fever, or as they call ‘ying wen re’.
Award-winning journalist and the first Singaporean anchor to be hired by CNN, Pek Siok Lain said that it is difficult not to be surprised by the sheer amount of passion and effort the Chinese have put in to master a foreign language.
"The sort of hunger and passion is really worthy of emulation," exclaimed Lian Pek, a name she goes by.
With her first movie aptly titled "Mad About English", Lian Pek decided depart from journalism to dive into her passion for film-making as it gives her “more space to breathe, in terms of the visuals.”
However, she also explained that even as a journalist, she was already writing a couple of plays before, so essentially she is just "moving closer from fact to friction in terms of the story-telling."
She explained that her story, a docu-comedy of the Chinese’s quest to learn English was spurred on by China winning the bid in 2001 to host the 2008 Olympics.
Since then, there has been a mad scramble to be conversant in English before the dawn of this year’s Olympics.
The past seven years have fueled a great amount of national pride and it only compelled the Chinese to use the English language as a vehicle to "tell the world about their culture", she explained.
Casting aside naysayer’s views that the English movement is a governmental propaganda effort, Lian Pek said it is a milestone simply because the people were learning from the heart.
The light-hearted moments come about when you would laugh at the unintended funny shopfront signs and billboards, or the locals who are so earnest during the learning journey.
It is important to note that this docu-comedy does not aim to mock at the Chinese for their efforts, but it is more of a tribute to a handful of those resilient folk who risk embarrassment in order to pick up English.
Asked to share some of the more memorable experiences, Lian Pek recounted the time when she witnessed an English teacher teaching a crowd of close to ten thousand in a stadium.
She laughed at the memory of how it almost seemed like a rock concert, with thundering applause and the people whooping and yelling in English.
That scene also served as a challenge as she had to capture the frenzy and craze, picking from the many angles that were presented to her.
While the Chinese locals are refining their English language skills, the whole experience of filming in China was also a big Chinese lesson for Lian Pek.
"It was a bit of a refresher course in Mandarin for me!" the director said.
So if you want to have an insight about the English fever in China, do catch "Mad About English" in the theatres on August 7!
- CNA/jk
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