Imagine a diplomat in China who will influence future generations to love America and see it as a peaceful fun nation to be friends with. That’s what is happening and Walt Disney is doing it.
The Financial Times says that Disney Publishing Worldwide is opening English language schools in China and plans to have 148 schools in the country by 2015 earning well over $100 million.
The curriculum features Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, the Little Mermaid and other Disney characters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6U29dSm7FA
Enrolling children in this privately funded Disney language school is not cheap. It costs between $1,800 and $2,200 annually depending on which publication you read.
The Economist in Middle Kingdom meets Magic Kingdom pegged the price at $1,800, and says, “(Disney) has ten schools in Shanghai, five in Beijing and plans to double that number in the next year, slowly extending from China’s two largest cities to surrounding areas.”
I’ve written before about how important an education is to Chinese parents so it shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that Disney isn’t having problems finding students. The challenge is to find enough qualified teachers. Each classroom has “a local and a Western instructor.”
Disney’s language schools are where the West truly meets the East without the bully tactics of real politicans.
See Teaching English in the Middle Kingdom
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
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