A lot of folks ask me why I started the business, especially since I'd been living a pretty comfy life working at a few private language centers in the DMV area (LADO, inlingua, Mentora and Georgetown to name a few).
I always tell my students that language teaching is of course beneficial for the student but often times equally if not even more beneficial for the teacher. A good classroom dynamic provides an exchange of perspectives, opinions, thoughts and ideas between the teacher and student. The best benefit for the teacher, however, is that he/she encounters the authentic international perspectives Americans so often crave.
The media tells us so much about circumstances and situations in other countries but rarely do we get to actually HEAR from people from these places to get their authentic perspective on situations going on in their countries and around the world.
In every class I've ever taught, I would always take advantage of the fact that I was face-to-face with people from all over the world (even from countries I'd never imagined I'd encounter) who could enlighten me to new information re: culture, politics, language, society, etc. The obstacle that I faced however was that often times, some students who so badly wanted to express themselves, didn't feel comfortable doing so in group settings. Additionally, since all of my classes had pretty substantial age ranges , I found that some of the more..."seasoned"...students were left in the shadows while the younger students heavily dominated group discussions and were always first to raise their hand to answer questions.
I started the business to give a voice to those seasoned scholars and professionals who have worked tirelessly to master English but were sometimes overlooked in group classes. I also wanted to finally give an opportunity to professionals who were at risk of having their jobs compromised due to a lack of adequate English proficiency. Most importantly, I wanted to hear from those who were reluctant to express themselves in group settings to finally provide them with a platform on which they could be authentically them and transparent!