One of the first English language learning centers (FLC) in Georgia was founded in 2003 by two young girls, Nino Torozashvili and Nino Zhamurashvili. Their business tandem was formed at the initiative of the English philanthropist John Corlett, whose name the center bears today. There are even more interesting plans in the future, which the founders of the center told us about.
The creation of the center has an interesting history, first of all, tell us how you came across it?
Nino Torozashvili: We are both specialists in English philology by profession, and while working on different programs in different environments, we met the English philanthropist – Mr. John Corlett, who changed our lives fundamentally. Mr. John had a social assistance fund in England, through which he helped poor families, single mothers in Georgia, and has done many good things for our country. We came across each other at John’s initiative and it was decided that the two of us should establish our dream English language learning center in Georgia, which was a new word in Tbilisi at that time. This is how our common work and great friendship began.
Business was an unknown field for both of you, and you didn’t have the financial resources to start the business, how did you manage to turn the idea into reality?
At our age and in the situation in the country at that time, when learning a foreign language was not so popular in a state of general hardship, starting a business was a rather ambitious idea. We didn’t have any experience in this field either, we were trained at Eton English Language School in Manchester, where we were taught all the details needed to manage the center and general business management, however, returning to Georgia, I realized that the experience gained there was completely different from the reality of our country. So it was not easy to do all this. Most importantly, we didn’t have the appropriate financial resources to open the center, John played the biggest role in finding these resources.
Despite our age, he saw enough potential in us, believed in us and thought we were ready to start a business. After returning from England, we opened a school and this is how the history of our center began.
At the very first stage, you launched an exchange program, what results did this give you in the process of attracting new students?
Nino Zhamurashvili: We officially opened the school on November 23, 2003 with 5 children, which was attended by the British ambassador and various diplomats; already in December we organized the first exchange program and sent 5 of our students to a school in the north of England, near Manchester, where they lived with families for a month and studied at school with their peers.
At the end of one year, there was so much interest in our school that in September of the following year we already had about 70 children. We have a very warm and family environment from the foundation until now; over the years, many students have mastered the English language perfectly in our center, our former students are successfully continuing their studies at various universities in Europe and America today. We are personally involved in the learning process as much as possible, this is how we started and in the process of expansion we added both Georgian and foreign teachers, we established new contacts, our projects include summer schools in Great Britain and the USA, we cooperate with universities and schools of different countries. This year in July we were in the Summer School in London. In August, we were in the Summer School of the University of California in America. We are growing according to demand, we have a new building on Davit Gamrekeli Street, where we have been for 1 year.
Why did you decide years later to name the school after John Corlett?
Nino Torozashvili: John, who was our main motivator and was very happy with our every achievement, died in 2008. Since then our center has been named after John Corlett. John has made a huge contribution to the process of both our personal and career formation, during each small and big victory we first think how proud he would be of us.
What are the main goals that students come to you for?
Nino Zhamurashvili: We have general language courses as well as various certificate programs such as Cambridge, TOEFL, IELTS, etc. We prepare entrants for national exams who pass with the highest results.
There is a frequent demand for basic “conversational English”, which direction do you focus more on in the process of learning the language?
With us, the educational process is carried out with world-recognized and well-developed Cambridge and Oxford programs, teaching goes in 4 directions – listening, reading, writing and speaking. The lesson is mainly conducted in English, interesting projects are done, we have planned discussions with foreign representatives of different fields, which will make the learning process even more interesting and fun.
What are your future plans?
As we have already mentioned, we actively cooperate with various schools and universities in Europe and America. In the future, our consultation center will help students to choose the right universities and schools and continue their studies.
In the early 2000s, women in business were very rare in Georgian reality. From this point of view, what difficulties did you have to overcome?
Nino Torozashvili: John did everything to ensure that we had the maximum readiness to enter the business and to succeed in this specific field, he was in constant contact with us even after the opening of the center and we shared even our small successes. For our part, we did not spare ourselves and the result was not delayed, when there is a goal, towards which you start moving without stopping, success is inevitable.We think that we are a good example of how you can set a goal at a fairly young age and achieve it without any resources with great determination and tireless work.
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