Canadian company taps into English proficiency contest

A Canadian company hopes that an American Idol-style English proficiency contest in China will give a boost to its interactive language teaching Web site.Toronto-based Lingo Media Corp. says that its subsidiary Speak2Me Inc. will sponsor the 2008 Jiangsu English Star Television Contest.The contest is being run by Jiangsu Broadcasting Corp., which broadcasts around China from its base in Jiangsu, a prosperous province of 75 million people north of Shanghai. Its format will be modeled on Super Voice Girl, a wildly popular Chinese talent show that drew 400 million viewers. To qualify, aspiring English speakers register on the company Web site, speak2me.cn. Early rounds will whittle their numbers down to 5,000 potential contestants, then 500, then a final group of 24 who will compete in a nationally broadcast contest featuring audience judging and off-the-cuff English performances.Lingo Media president and CEO Michael Kraft said the company was delighted to be approached by Jiangsu."They said, 'Look this would be great, because we can give students a chance to practice their English.' We said, 'It's a great opportunity, because we're looking to grow users. Let's do it.'"Kraft said that speak2me.cn has attracted 150,000 users since launching an early version in March offering the chance to converse with online partners or a virtual counterpart in simulated settings.With 250 million Chinese learning English, the opportunities for growth are vast, Kraft said.A full version of the free site will go online in September. To bring in advertising dollars, the site will have users converse in, say, a virtual Starbucks or virtual Smart Car.Lingo says that as a publisher of print-based English language learning systems since 2001, it has "extensive industry and government contacts" that will help it consolidate a position as "the leading online spoken English-language instruction service in China."(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)