What Makes a Good Language School?
Who would have thought? Exactly 12 years ago, all my friends in New York called me absolutely crazy when I told them that I wanted to move to China, to open my own English training center. I remember so clearly, because it gave me that much more impetus to do my very best to prove them wrong!
Then again, when 99 people say it’s a crazy idea, and only 1 says it’s not, it’s usually the 99 that may be right! And so it was, or so it seemed, as I struggled through my first four years in Shenzhen, opening a very mediocre English ‘school’ for adults in an extremely unsuitable office space of 77㎡.
A difficult start to opening my own small school
Walking outside, wandering through the subway station below, going in and out of small shops, asking if someone wanted to study English with me, it took me a full 11 days to get my first customer, who agreed to fork over a whopping 480 yuan for four classes over the next month. It got a little better over time, (although I’m not exactly talking about the quality of the classes) and I was able to make a somewhat decent living, until the police, fire department, and education department found it fit to close me without official licenses down at once.
99 Naysayers : 1
Crazy Me : 0
Alright, so that was not what made a good language school, and saddled with a debt of all the students who had signed up that I was unable to repay immediately, I decided it was time to learn some successful school systems, teaching methodologies, and tricks of the trade to do better the second time around. I moved to Shanghai, applied at EF posing as an ‘excellent children’s teacher’, and did exactly that.
I learned from the best, yes believe it, even Ross Thorburn was one of my facilitators! Although I wasn’t at all that excellent children’s teacher I had pretended to be yet, I learned quickly, and within one year, I felt confident enough to say goodbye to Ross & Co.
Greedy business partners
I found two Chinese business partners, and do it on my own. Surprise, surprise, EF’s systems worked superbly, teaching methodologies were absolutely helpful, and marketing my school, which was now 600㎡, didn’t involve going from subway shop to subway shop anymore. Within 3 years, we had recruited more than 500 students, and if it hadn’t been for the greediness of my two other partners, I may have been there still until now. However, some proverbial thing did hit the fan, and all I could do was sell my share at a steep discount, being back at square zero.
99 Naysayers : 2
Crazy Me : 0
The good things (let’s call it my positive thinking)
- I didn’t have any debts this time;
- I had actually been able to save a little money, which I had to invest 100% in my own school, this time without partners except my wonderful Chinese wife;
- I still had my brain, my two hands and two feet, no matter who had tried to stop me before. I had started to believe a little in letting things go, and somehow, I turned my resentment to my ex-partners into gratitude for teaching me one of life’s valuable lessons.
The bad things
We had to start all over again, not sure if the business was going to grow as well as it had in Shanghai, and pack up all our things and move one more time, this time to a smaller city.
I’m not going to say it was a breeze, and I still have my naysayers waiting for me to fall again, but now, a full 3 years later, I can say that I am still standing, my school is growing despite Covid setting us back about 100 students, and we are still using Mister Thorburn’s methodologies, with some tweaks and changes of our own.
Keeping hold of teachers is important
The biggest difference I feel between us and almighty EF is that I found teacher turnover was way too high at EF, so I tried to find a way to keep my teachers. I’m not sure I would be successful if I open more than one training center, but at least for this one, with four foreign teachers and four Chinese teachers, we haven’t had one leave us since our opening day.
Getting things right
Motivate the students, yes, as per TEFL preaching, do the outside marketing, yes, as within private school boundaries, location is key, parent communication is paramount, giving the students real progress, helping them become confident in their new language (and even in their own), these are all musts to make a good language school, but the one and only thing that stands out for me is your teacher team. You make that solid, positive, energetic, motivated, and enthusiastic, and your school really will grow, no doubt in my mind about it.
Teachers often got disgruntled at the small EF schools
We got lots of training at EF, and at their fancy corporate office in Shanghai, it really was portrayed as the perfect company to work for, but as soon as you got into these smaller EF training centers, all you saw was disgruntled teachers who couldn’t wait for their contracts to finish.
Good people make the school tick
I don’t say that I have all perfect personalities in my teachers, sometimes moody as can be one day, sometimes hung over as can be another day, but when it is show time, I tell you, these teachers are my gold. They put all of the personal stuff aside, jump up and down with a huge smile for the children (according to the right methodologies), and from the bottom of my heart, I believe that is what makes a great language school.
We get knocked down, but we get up again
Thank you very much for enlightening me during this TEFL Lemon 180-Hour Higher Certificate TEFL course. Yes, I will use some ideas, and yes, I will forget some, but I hope the future is great for all of you aspiring teachers, even the crazy ones with crazy ideas in your home countries, and I just want to use this as a great shout out to all of the crazies as well as the totally normal ones out there: One for all, all for one, like a bunch of musketeers we go through this maze of life!
We get knocked down, but we always get back up again! Let’s live a little, because we just have this one life!
by Emmanuel Hemelsoet