The business of language

Michel le Quellec, President of Wall Street English (Thailand), the local franchisee of the UK-based Wall Street Institute, recently opened his 9th branch in the Thai market at Bangkok’s Central World.

It’s the first Wall Street English tutorial service here dedicated to executive and other VIP students who prefer one-on-one coaching to achieve English proficiency.

“Our VIP centre is aimed at mid-level and senior managers who need special treatment and encouragement to complete a course. We’ve found that 20-30 per cent of students on average will stop before they finish the course.

“This model was first tested in China, where business has been booming over the past few decades. There are a lot of Chinese business people who want to learn English on a one-on-one basis to avoid mixing with younger people in ordinary classes. One of the oldest students is 75.

“Here in Thailand, we expect to enroll about 200 VIP students paying Bt150,000 to Bt200,000 each for a 15-24 month programme.

“In fact, our teaching method is unique. We call it the blended method, which includes multimedia features, small classes, club activities in a total English environment, plus our CRM software that effectively tracks students’ performance.

“We also offer a money-back guarantee on our teaching method, which has helped more than two million students worldwide succeed in learning the language.

“The Central World branch is our 9th in Thailand and the 450th worldwide for Wall Street Institute, which marks its 40th anniversary this year. Now, we also have about 10 corporate schools in Thailand, including the ones at Siam Commercial Bank, the Ministry of Commerce, the Port Authority of Thailand, TOT and Bamrungrad Hospital.

“Altogether, we have about 100 teachers and another 100 tutorial assistants, as well as around 15,000 students in Thailand plus some 35,000 alumni.

“Earlier this year, we also launched the ‘Best Investment’ campaign to convince students that investing in English proficiency has an attractive return and is affordable, as they can expect a 15-20 per cent salary hike after finishing our course, or an extra Bt1 million after six years.

“In 2011, we also launched the ‘Too Shy to Speak English’ campaign after we found that shyness is a major hindrance for many Thais who want to speak the language.

“Over the years, we have invested a total of US$12 million in nine retail outlets here, and we’re committed to further expand our network in Thailand.

“Recent research shows that 56 per cent of respondents in Thailand believe that English proficiency will make their life and the country better economically, as it will lead to more investment and jobs.

“The problem for Thailand is that there aren’t enough qualified teachers, while most teaching methods here are inefficient, so we need to change the teaching method and retrain the teachers. We also have to overcome the cultural problem of shyness and encourage students to dare to make mistakes because you need to make mistakes while learning a foreign language,” he said.

According to Quellec, the Asean Economic Community, which will become effective in 2015, will make English proficiency even more important for Thai executives, as businessmen in most other Asean countries use English as the common language.

Besides the Thai market, Quellec is also expanding the Wall Street English franchise into Vietnam and Myanmar. In Vietnam there will be a total of 10 schools, in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

Regarding Myanmar, three schools will be opened in Yangon and Mandalay starting in 2013.