Helping 13 million people learn English is no small feat, especially in a nation as vast and complicated as China. But then again, we’re talking about a rapidly developing country that best exemplifies the adage ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’ – and Mad About English shows just that, unveiling a huge cross-section of English-loving Chinese brimming with enthusiasm.

Director and Chinese national Lian Pek has crafted a fascinating documentary on China’s campaign to accommodate foreigners in a language once banned by the Communists, just in time for the Beijing Olympics and its accompanying tide of tourists. Rather than taking a detached, academic look at this linguistic phenomenon, the film documents the everyday lives of people covering the gamut of society, including a traditional-medicine doctor, a taxi driver, a policeman, an elderly pensioner and an 11-year-old student – each taking a stab at English for very different reasons.

There’s also ‘Crazy English Teacher’ Li Yang, who taught himself English by yelling out sentences while walking around his university campus. Li is now a motivational speaker and English teacher to thousands – he conducts intensive English boot camps that make evangelical summer camps pale by comparison. Even nuttier is Dr David Tool, a teacher and self-styled ‘grammar cop’ who patrols the streets of Beijing scouting for signs written in poor English. He has only the best intentions, of course, arguing that foreigners may have a laugh at typos like ‘lertainly’ and ‘speclal’ but at the end of the day, the Chinese need to move forward to be taken seriously.

Without ruining anything, it goes without saying that fans of the humorous website www.engrish.com will be rolling in the aisles, but not without a few sobering lessons. At 82 minutes, the documentary gets slightly tedious at times but that doesn’t detract from its overall message: don’t underestimate China.