Englishlink...your global online English school

EF wins BOCOG English Training

Congrats to English First (EF) for being selected as the Official Language Training Supplier of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. They also provided training for the Seoul Games in 1988 (it has been a long time between drinks). EF has 80 schools in about 50 cities in China so I am not surprised they won the contract!

From what I understand, officials in Beijing want the locals to be able to say 100 sentences in a chosen language before the Games begin. Interesting goal, is there any context required of these sentences?

Visitor: "How do I get to the Stadium?"
Beijing Citizen: "Have you visited the Great Wall?"

Having worked in management in the Olympic Village at Sydney 2000, I know exactly how troubling a lack of language can be. Luckily I'm a native-speaker of English and being so, assume EVERYONE has some English. Having said that, you should have seen us all explaining food hall etiquette or bus timetables in made-up sign language!

I can't imagine many of the athletes and officials who will move into the Village, or most visitors to the Games, will know a single word of Chinese (except for the odd cuisine reference), so the onus is on the Chinese to get messages across.

Good luck to EF and the citizens of Beijing as they prepare for the Games ahead – they really are magic to be involved in!

But we all know Sydney staged the best Games ever...

New Friends in the Middle East

I was recently lucky enough to attend the annual ICEF Middle East Workshop at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers in Dubai.

The event had 293 participants from 42 countries making it the most international student recruitment workshop of its kind in the Middle East.

For two and half days I had meetings - like speed dating really - with education agents from around the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.

I was really pleased with contacts I made and have established a partnership with at least 6 agents from that region already, including from Kuwait, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. I never imagined we would have such interest from these countries. I know little about Arabic culture, so developing these relationships will be a great experience.

And Dubai - what an intriguing place! The newness of it is quite stark, but the old town sure has character. From my hotel room on the 34th floor of the Emirates Towers all I could see (once I focused past the cranes - 30% of the world's total I have heard) was the desert in the distance. It dawns on you that they are truly building a new city in the middle of nothing. If you are ever there, you must go on the evening desert tour - brilliant.

Next stop - the ICEF Moscow Conference. Looking forward to that!

My First Blog!

Recently, I have found myself posting my thoughts and feedback on more and more blogs. I began wondering: "could the adventures of Englishlink be of interest to other bloggers?"

Well why not? We have launched the world's first video-driven on-line English school and are attracting learners from all over the world. The ESL market is one of the biggest & hottest global industries and I am sure we will have a good story as we break into it.

So, welcome to the new Englishlink blog! I hope there is enough news and ‘wow, I didn’t know that’ features to keep you coming back.

Lesley