Some kids, as young as toddlers stumble into a small building set in between a fast-food joint and a dusty drug store. The students enter into a box shaped room, it looks like a run down school room with the addition of interactive video screens. These interactive video screens allow the kids to touch Disney related icons. The interactive system helps the kids to learn English. For example, when they show a picture of Mickey Mouse with a paintbrush and paper it would say, ”Mickey Mouse is painting”. Pictures and words help the students learn.
This type of schooling costs around $1,800 a year. For people in China this is a large sum of money just for English classes. But, Disney claims that this type of schooling produces impressive results in t he children. Each classroom has a local and western teacher to help the students. The teachers and programs use pictures and words that the students can relate to and to help the information sink in better.
There are 10 schools in Shanghai and 5 in Beijing. Disney plans to double that number in the next year. The older schools already have waiting lists for the classes, but training and staff are limited and when they aren't the teachers can’t always get to the schools. Disney hopes to keep doubling their numbers every year.
Disney’s focus groups - the people who discuss the pros. and cons. Of the English classes with recent statistics- find that for Chinese parents, “education means everything”. English in particular is viewed as a ticket to the wider world or English helps their kids succeed when it comes to finding a job or living in an English speaking country says Mr. Sugermen, manager of the Disney English Programs.
Children’s English –language education in China is growing by 12% every year and will reach $3.7 billion by 2012. Adele Mao, an analyst at OLP Global, a research and consulting firm, thinks the market is already near $6 billion a year and is growing by 20% every year.
The rewards are huge not only for the students and their families but also for Disney. Since the children have become so attached to Mickey and Goofy, they will probably ask their parents to buy them toys of Mickey and Goofy and to go to the theme park. That is why the classes are also beneficial for Disney.
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