The Chinese are white-hot this summer on the study of English, with large crowds of avid learners sweating it out in classrooms on the hottest of days.
On July 14, the last day of registration for the full-day summer sessions at Beijing New Oriental School, the long, zigzagging lines of anxious students and parents under a scorching sun congested nearby streets, China Youth Daily reported Friday.
The Beijing New Oriental School provides a wide range of English training programs and has an excellent reputation for its tailored courses that prepare students for various English proficiency tests.
"We enrolled a record large number of students this summer," said Hu Min, head of the privately-owned school.
Some students do not mind sitting on windowsills or even standing at the door when the 300-people auditorium is fully packed. Anyway it is better than having to wait for another month or two, they say.
In sharp contrast, most classrooms are half empty at a relatively unknown English training center nearby even though its tuition fees are about 50 percent less than at Beijing New Oriental School.
Insiders say a clear-cut divide is seen in China's English training market, with smaller, less known schools being out-run by well-known and popular schools like the Beijing New Oriental School, the Wall Street Institute and Dell English School.
The comment is echoed by Yu Minhong, president of the New Oriental School. "When the New Oriental was founded 10 years ago, there were several hundred other English schools in Beijing, all of about the same standard," said Yu.
Today, however, most students prefer to cram into the few most highly reputed schools that have taken a lion's share in the 20 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) market.
The New Oriental School made its name by helping its students to get better scores in the GRE, TOEFL and IELTS tests which qualify them for further studies abroad.
The school has impressed students with its good faith, high efficiency and team of teachers of high-caliber.
Teachers at New Oriental School are required to be informative, have a sense of humor and to appeal to students. With an average age of 30, they all speak between 150 to 200 words per minute and have their own ways of making their classes lively and interesting.
The Wall Street Institute, on the other hand, is a haven for the high-income group.
Located in the comfort of a five-star hotel in downtown Beijing, the Wall Street Institute uses imported teaching software and offers one tutor to a maximum of four students. All at a very high cost.
A complete set of courses at Wall Street costs 124,100 yuan (US$15,000) all up, three to four years' salary for an average office worker.
Over 9,000 students are taking courses at Wall Street Institute despite its expense -- for some students, the high cost promises more than good English. "You get to know many rich people here, successful businessmen in particular," said a Miss Chen, "They might be of help to you in the long run."
The eastern metropolis of Shanghai also has a high market potential. The Wall Street Institute invested 40 million yuan (US$4.8 million) to set up branches there and very quickly attracted more than 1,000 trainees, mostly from foreign companies.
The Beijing New Oriental School is also expanding nationwide. Its Shanghai branch, which opened two years ago, recruited 40,000 students in 2001, 60 percent of whom said they were preparing for further study abroad.
Experts say that the thriving English language training market can be attributed to the Chinese people's strong desire to speak English. With China's entry to the World Trade Organization, more Chinese have come to realize that English is a must in the more open China of today.
Given these circumstances, all English language schools will have to explore new ways to survive the intense market competition, said Hu Min, head of Beijing New Oriental School.
(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2002)
