By Forest Wu
Published in New Modern Times Magazine July, 2002

Li Yang's style of Crazy English has aroused the ambitions of many Chinese to "conquer" the English language. One distinctive and unique language school called GLV (Gateway Language Village) located by the South China Sea is quietly creating an English environment teaching people how to use English in a natural and peaceful way. Its founder is a Chinese graduate student from American Purdue University, a native of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

"I never taught my students, I've only created an environment for them to learn."
-- Albert Einstein

In GLV, you should be very observant. For you might see an aged but humble old man talking with students. You probably would think he is a retired old man from a middle school, there to make some extra money. The truth is enough to startle you: as matter of fact, he has a Master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Doctorate of Engineering from the Technical University of Mariah in Germany! He worked for the World Bank for years. Now, he is working in a school that is appears not to be very big. He is right beside you helping you to practice using English.

An International Village in Zhuhai
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." This phrase when used to describe GLV is not at all a cliche. For the above example is not the only case here at GLV. There are people from Canada, America, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, and Columbia, etc. Deputy Director Gordon Kerr from the UK has over 30 years of experience in the fields of publishing and management education. Sandra Lee, from Kauai, Hawaii, is an English language teacher with a Master's degree in Psychology and many years experience as a public speaker, counselor and professional trainer in the USA. Alan, an honest and peaceful man, has worked in GE and AT&T for years. One day, he realized that it was time to make a change in his life. So, he too came to Asia. Jon Bolstad graduated from the University of Wisconsin. Joy Mercado, from the Philippines. And Shon-tiyon Horton, graduated from Howard University.

From this point of view, GLV is truly like an "International Village"

The Founder of Gateway Language Village (GLV) is from China.
Ping Hong is 41 years old, but he looks like someone who has just turned thirty, much younger than his age. He has a distinctive and clear voice when speaking. He is from Hangzhou, Zhejiang. He completed his Master's degree at Purdue University, Indiana, and now, as the Director of Gateway Language Village, he leads a team of teachers from all over the world (all from English speaking countries.) He is enjoying a busy life with his all-English environment and Total Immersion English program. All the English teachers in GLV call him "Ping," as does all his staff.

Ping returned to China in 1993. He worked for Hainan Airlines, and a joint venture company. He also tried publishing. But he couldn't find the right match. He then decided to pursue a career in education.

GLV was originally an English Club, "The International Peace Club," a place for local people to practice English in their spare time. At the beginning, there were only three or four people in attendance at the English club. There were times when they sold water, one yuan for a cup of water; and sold roses, five yuan for one. Now, GLV has expanded into a large language school that has more than 20 teachers from different countries. Hundreds of people from multinational companies are sent there for English training - companies like BP (British Petroleum) and Carrefour. GLV is now a well-known Total Immersion English School in China.

Enlightenment From a Slide Show
Ping was born and raised in a poor family. His mother was once a child bride to a family that did dye works while his father was a tinsmith. Even though the family was poor, his hardworking parents lived a simple life; their kind manner affected and nurtured their children.

Ping used to go to the West Lake for walks when he was little. There, he saw foreigners who came to China for a visit; they lived in five star hotels, took luxury buses and used high-tech cameras to take pictures. He felt inferior, and that Chinese people were second-class. He wished he could go abroad to live an ideal life just as those people did. After years of hard work, he finally went to the US and was employed as a TA (Teacher's Assistant) in a university. After some time living in America, he felt lost. He had difficulty getting used to the practical American culture with his romantic and idealistic character. On top of that, America was not the paradise he had imagined. He became very unhappy. Then, an American woman named Jene Bellows came to visit his school. She gave a speech sharing her experiences living amongst the Chinese, and showed slides of her travel experiences in China. Ping was touched when he saw various pictures that showed the different lifestyles in China. One picture in particular influenced him, an old person from the countryside wearing an honest smile. Simple and pure, China was in fact the spiritual home he'd been looking for, but he didn't realize it until he met this American lady. After the speech, he approached her and they began a long conversation. They became good friends. The speech reminded him that he was from China too and it inspired him to return to China for his career.

The most meaningful trip of his life was returning to China from abroad.

Friends All Over the World
Ping didn't know very much about running a business when he started GLV. His greatest advantage was that he was good at making friends. His dream in building an "international village" attracted many teachers. Good teamwork became GLV's advantage.

Some teachers are getting half the salary here that they can get in Guangzhou or Beijing, but they prefer to stay here. Why does this happen? It's because GLV focuses on its teaching quality, they feel successful when they see their student's progress. In addition, teachers are well treated in GLV. When most schools are concentrating on advertising and other school facilities, GLV spent three years on improving the service of the staff and teachers, as well as the teaching quality. It has earned high compliments.

Claudia Swan, the principal of GLV, is one of the most experienced language teachers at GLV. "We have a supportive team, we work together and consult with each other. It is why we are successful," she said proudly.

Kelly Crain is from Canada, her original plan was to stay in China for one year but she has been working here for more than two years now. She likes Zhuhai very much and is hoping to become a local resident. She thinks there's good spirit in the leadership team. They are very good to the teachers, "Whatever problems you have, they will solve it for you."

Send Students to an English world
You are my sunshine
My only sunshine
You make me happy
When skies are gray
You'll never know dear
How much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away

Nobody knew that it was Kevin's birthday today. At 9:30, he was still doing the warm up in the hall, singing the song "You are my sunshine." Everybody was enjoying the melody when at the end some of the GLV staff walked onto the stage with a birthday cake. When people realized it was their teacher's birthday, everyone started to sing "Happy Birthday" to him. For this journalist, studying in GLV as a "spy," and all the other students we were deeply moved by this scene. At that moment, they felt they were living in GLV rather than just studying English.

This was exactly how Ping wants the school to work. He says, "The best way to learn a language is to create a language environment. The students should be in a state that is peaceful, a holistic lifestyle, and forget about the pressures of studying. They will be able to improve faster." That is what the school is like in reality, everybody uses English to communicate with others and talk with teachers in a relaxing wayˇ-using English to communicate between people from different cultural backgrounds.

Deputy Director Gordon Kerr also supports the total immersion environment. He once said there are two ways to learn English, one is consciously and the other is subconsciously. Most of the time we learn English subconsciously. "Do you read a book to play basketball? No, you come over, I throw you the basketball and you catch it. During the process you learn the rules. Learning English is the same."

GLV is different from other schools. It insists on a Total Immersion training model, in addition, it evaluates the levels systematically and uses systematic teaching material, with a heavy emphasis on teaching quality. Because GLV has developed a unique learning style and learning environment, it has achieved good success.

Dream of an International City
GLV and Ping's vision is not just to be a good school. Here are some of their goals: "I hope GLV will develop into an international city. Providing an environment where you live, study, and entertain yourself using English only. A real "window to the world." The window to the world in Shenzhen is for tourism only. GLV will be a "window of the world" with real people representing different cultures from different countries." Ping also has some other ideas, such as to have a Total Immersion English island. "We can also use a cruise ship to learn English. We can travel around the world while learning and using English," says Ping. He mentioned that he would probably launch a Chinese training program in the future using the same model.

Jene Bellows has given Ping the most support for returning to China. Seeing the success of the school, he is very thankful to Jene. Jene Bellows came to China often. Over the years she often stayed with Ping's family. They were close from when she first met his mother, a great woman who went through many difficulties bringing up six children. Though there were cultural differences and both had different experiences, their spirits were the same. The two women were deeply touched when they shared their life stories and tears came down from their eyes. "From certain points of view, both of them are my strong and successful mothers," said Ping.

The combination of western and eastern culture is what has made Hong Xiu Ping unique. An unusual Chinese, he sees things internationally with a bit of a "late modern" attitude. He is not from a western country, and it shows in his strong ties to his homeland and culture. What could he do? What should he do? It seems that opening up an "International Village" and an "International City" is his fate. His dream is coming to fruition. A much bigger, modern building, not far from the current one, is under renovation. That will be the future site of GLV.
You cannot have a future without dreams.

GLV was started in December of 1998. It is famous as the place for total immersion English training with English as the only allowed language for communication at the school. There are over 20 ESL certified native English teachers as well as a few native English speakers who work as language coaches (they are called "CA's") to ensure an English only environment. At the moment, the ratio of students to native English speakers is about 4/1, probably the highest for any language school in Asia.

GLV has trained a few thousand students from all over China as well as Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea with excellent results.