A couple of days ago I received a call from Gavin to let me know that one of my students at my Smith’s School of English Horie school had called up the head office to quit my school from July of this year, but that during that phone call she went on and on with nothing but praise about me and the school. He mentioned the student’s name and asked if I knew her…
“The student who has been studying with me for about two years now but would be going overseas to New Zealand soon because she received a job offer…..”
Of course, I said!
Not only do I know her, but I encouraged her all along to not give up on her dream, and throughout the past year or so I have helped her with preparing her paperwork, editing some English replies to emails, etc…it’s been a pleasure and an honor to be part of this.
You see, she has had a dream to work overseas since she was a very young girl, but then came marriage, career, children, responsibilities, etc…so that dream was put on hold, but not forgotten.
I have always told her that I truly admire her courage to not let anything stand in the way of her and her dream, and a couple of weeks ago, after about a year of searching for the right job offer and a tremendous amount of effort and energy on her part, the perfect job offer came along, and she is off to New Zealand at the end of June!
By the way, Gavin also told me that after hearing her story head office would like to create a place on our website called something like “Dreams Come True” where we and our students can share our stories and hopefully encourage others to not give up on their dreams. Great idea!
I asked my student if she would be willing to share her story on the Smith’s School of English website, and she is more than happy to.
Check here; I think you will enjoy the story. (All in Japanese)
http://www.smithweb.co.jp/dream.shtml (Its the 2nd story from the top)
You can also check out what other current students have written about the schools.
http://www.smithweb.co.jp/sub/horie/sub1.htm
http://www.smithweb.co.jp/sub/horie/sub3.htm
http://www.smithweb.co.jp/sub/kamishinjyo/sub1.htm
I’ve also been known to have an outing or two with students from time to time.
Here’s one from summer of 2006
http://www.smithweb.co.jp/sub/horie/sub2.htm
They’re always great fun, and I’m thinking of what to plan with them next…
Alessandro “Alex” Stanciu
アレッサンドロ“アレックス”スタンシュー
Smith’s School of English Horie/Yotsubashi
月謝制のスミス英会話堀江校 / 四ツ橋校
http://www.smithweb.co.jp/school/horie.shtml 大阪市英会話
Smith’s School of English Fuse
月謝制のスミス英会話布施校
http://www.smithweb.co.jp/school/fuse.shtml 東大阪市英会話