English teacher sends Chinglish letter to President Obama

Another day, another crazy English teacher. OK, this one may not be as cuckoo as a certain wife-beaterwe read about a coupla months ago, but he’s still cuckoo. From an advertorial masquerading as a news report dispatched by the China News Agency, we learn that Qu Gang, the founder of a Beijing-based English language school, has written in to US president Barack Obama asking for permission to adapt his inaugural address in 2009 for use in his lessons, and offering to pay expenses for the speech «according to the situation». The speech, wrote Qin, was «very helpful for people who want to learn English pronunciation and build confidence to speak English» and also «like a treasure for English learners all around the world.»

Here’s the letter in full:

On Qin Gang’s blog, we find he has already been happily using Obama’s speech in class to teach his so-called «Presidential Pronunciation» technique. Watch this kid give a live demo of the technique 2:20 into the following video, and you tell me if he sounds more like Chairman Mao or President Obama:

shanghaiist.com