"When I didn't know about Crazy English, I was a very shy Chinese Person"

With China's many controversial policies in the spotlight as the Beijing Summer Olympics approach, it's refreshing to read about China's more diplomatic side in this week's New Yorker. There are roughly as many people learning English in China as there are people who speak English in the United States. And, incidentally, some of them are conquering their shyness as well.

When I was in college I had a Chinese friend who told me, "Most American people, even if they don't know about something, they say what they think about it. Most Chinese people, even if they know about something, they might not say anything. You are more like a Chinese. You should try to be more American." (I was probably more introverted then than at any other time in my life.)

Li Yang apparently knows what my friend was talking about, urging his students to shout English in order to learn it, a method he calls "Crazy English." I'm practicing my Crazy English.