It takes others 9 to 12 years to learn English, but Yuexi Academy aims to condense the grammar framework covering all learning stages into 28 hours: an English general education experiment based on the concept of "AI imparts knowledge, humans guide growth".
When most parents are still troubled by their children's struggles with memorizing words, reciting grammar rules and their resistance to English learning, an original English education project founded in Chongqing in 2024 is reconstructing the logic of K12 English learning with extremely short class hours. Chen Fengjun, the founder, graduated from the English (Science and Technology) program of University of Science and Technology Beijing in 2001. She once worked at Microsoft, Nokia and Lenovo, and is herself a "shortcut beneficiary" of English learning: she passed both TEM-4 and TEM-8 with excellent grades without targeted preparation, and was qualified for simultaneous interpretation without receiving professional training. After interacting with a large number of K12 families, she found that the pain points of current English education have become increasingly prominent: the existing system requires a learning cycle of 9 to 12 years, fragmented grammar knowledge makes it difficult for students to build a global cognition, most children have resistance and fear of difficulties, which not only makes learning boring, but also makes them develop the habit of relying on teachers, resulting in a lack of self-learning ability. At the same time, home-school collaboration often only focuses on grades while ignoring students' psychological development. With the original intention of sharing her own efficient learning methods with children, combined with the learning rules of the language talent period before the age of 12, Chen Fengjun launched the Yuexi Academy project, targeting the general English education track, and exploring a new education form where AI teachers teach "what to learn" and human teachers teach "why to learn" and "how to learn".
The project was officially launched in April 2024. Chen Fengjun independently completed the framework construction of the original general English courses. In July of the same year, the first version of offline courses was developed and launched to the market. After two and a half years of iteration, a stable mixed-age small-class training system has been formed, serving a total of 60 students, and is currently in the late stage of R&D and verification. In the process of project advancement, it also got help from senior students: the first version of the rules for the board game *Grammar Clearance: Strategy Team Battle* was created by a senior student who took the general education course during the summer vacation of the second year of junior high school. The finished product has been upgraded through three playtests, and test users are being recruited in Chongqing and Beijing to verify its effects. Looking back, Chen Fengjun admitted that the biggest challenge is the lack of a core team, and she is exhausted from advancing the project all on her own. At present, she hopes to find like-minded partners to become co-founders and jointly promote the development of the project. Up to now, the project has achieved three clear phased milestones: accumulating feedback from general education course students with detailed data, completing the stage performance report of the first international exchange training camp experimental class, launching the finished product of the *Grammar Clearance: Strategy Team Battle* card board game and starting the verification process.
Different from most English education products on the market, the core innovation of Yuexi Academy directly hits the pain points. Its original "full grammar lecture" module can explain the entire grammar knowledge framework system from the first grade of primary school to the third year of senior high school in 28 hours. The entire 40-hour general education course covers four major sections: psychological development and healing, pronunciation, phonics, and the full-stage grammar framework system, finally forming a 78-class-hour mixed-age small-class system where students from primary school (including zero-based learners) to senior three study in the same class and gain different benefits: primary school students lay a solid pronunciation foundation and build confidence, junior high school students restore interest and build a grammar system, and senior high school students sort out the knowledge structure to sprint for high scores. The project takes the division of labor between "AI teacher + human teacher" as the core method, takes mixed-age general education courses and international exchange training camps as verification carriers, and takes the *Grammar Clearance: Strategy Team Battle* card board game as the scaled customer acquisition touchpoint. Its guiding ideology is closely centered on "using English, supplemented by AI, to guide self-learning". The final change is not only reflected in the improvement of scores, but also the transformation of learning attitude, and some students can try to learn independently under the guidance of their parents.
At present, China's K12 English education market is huge, and users have strong demand for efficient, low-resistance learning solutions. The experimental project "International Exchange Training Camp" boldly launched by Yuexi Academy based on general education courses, with the goal of "helping primary school students reach the English proficiency of the national college entrance examination (except for writing) within one year", is about to complete the acceptance of the first experimental class by the end of November 2026. Based on the experience and lessons learned from the first experimental class, the second experimental class will be launched in December 2026 for further iteration. Once it passes the verification, it has the potential to grow into an alternative solution for K12 English teaching, with broad market space.
In the next stage, the project will complete the final result evaluation of the first international exchange training camp, launch the second experimental class to verify the feasibility of the core goal, and promote the verification and iteration of the grammar clearance board game at the same time. Currently, Chen Fengjun is looking for like-minded core team members to join and jointly promote the commercial implementation of the project. In the long run, the project will explore and improve the AI-era education model of "AI teaches knowledge, humans guide growth", to realize the large-scale implementation from courses to products.
Many parents of early students have feedback that their children used to have serious resistance to English, even dragging their homework to the very end to finish. After taking the general education courses, they no longer fear difficulties, and can even take the initiative to memorize words and practice pronunciation. Their grammar knowledge has changed from a messy tangle to a clear system. While their grades are improved, their overall learning state has also been completely different.
The project has not yet carried out financing at present. Its business model combines course training and card board games, with revenue coming from offline general education course training. It has not yet achieved large-scale profitability, and all promotion relies on word-of-mouth communication from parents of senior students. The founder has no extra energy to invest in market promotion.
Looking back on the two and a half years of entrepreneurship, Chen Fengjun said that she left her job in large enterprises to do education, just wanting to help more children avoid the detours she took back then, use the right methods during the golden period of language learning, not only learn English well, but also learn to study independently. This is more valuable than just improving scores. Even though it is harder to move forward alone now, seeing the transformation of the children makes her know that this cause is worth sticking to.