Summer vacation will be here before you know it, and Kaplan English courses for teenagers are popular destinations for the ESL youth around the world.

The centers are filling up very quickly this year.

Why are these courses getting so much attention?

There are a couple of reasons. [click to continue…]

Read the following story. If you don’t understand, that’s fine, because after you look at the images below, you will!

Running my own business is hard. Balancing the books is probably my least favorite thing in the world. If I wasn’t so worried about Uncle Sam, I’d try to cook the books a little so that I could get a tax break. I work long, hard days to bring home the bacon, but still can’t seem to build up much of a nest egg. Every time a friend comes to visit, I take them out to dinner, but I always have to ask them to go Dutch. I hate feeling like such a cheapskate, and would love to treat my friends to a luxurious meal some day. I daydream about riding the gravy train all the way to an early retirement when the boss gives me the golden handshake just before I take off to live out my life on a beach somewhere.

Learn how to speak English with Kaplan

What’s your biggest challenge?

Have you ever wondered what it takes to be the top in the world at something?

What would you do if you were able to do it?

Double Olympic champion Ilya Ilin from Kazakhstan broke two world records in London on his journey to retain his his gold medal from Beijing.

What has he decided to target next on his list of achievements?

He’s decided to enter Kaplan English courses in London, a city he fell in love with during the Olympics, in order to start mastering the English language.

Ilya will be joining a 10 week semi-intensive course. This course will help him in to develop reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. Because Ilya has already worked hard to receive two gold medals, I’m sure he’s got the mental strength needed to focus his energy on achieving specific goals.

Have you? If you haven’t already, be sure to read about how you can focus your English studies like an Olympic gold medalist to improve spoken English or other language goals you have.

It’s no surprise that a world class athlete would want to improve his English skills. Why?

Well, Ilya says it best:

“When you travel so much in the world, English is something you must know. It can open new doors for friendships and professional connections. I’m very happy to come back to London and get the chance to improve my English.”

I’d just like to add that you don’t even have to travel the world if you want to gain the benefits of knowing English. You can start reaching out to English speakers around the world using social media and other online communication tools. Don’t be afraid to start, and don’t wait to start until you have a certain level. Just start today and see how it goes!

Best of luck with your own English learning goals. Try to make them your gold medal and go for it with everything you’ve got! Oh, and try to make it fun, too!

The world will probably be a lot different in 2020. What do you think will be different?

You can see some predictions in the infographic below, and one of them was really unexpected (for me, at least).

Over one thousand English learners taking Kaplan English courses for teens were surveyed about the future job they most wanted. [click to continue…]