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.

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]

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.