Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream" speech has to be one of the most inspiring but overused speeches of all time. Nowhere is this truer than among English learners in Beijing.

It surprises me how many times I have walked through a university campus in the early morning hours only to have the quietness ruined by a heavily accented declaration of "I have a dream!" Many times the culprit is widely gesturing before an audience of trees as they continue the speech obviously prompted by the earphones, whose loud volume saves them from any worry of embarrassment.

Being an English teacher and hearing countless students begin their speeches with "I have a dream" has largely ruined Dr King's wonderful speech for me. It just seems so clich and that's a shame because it shouldn't be.