This proverb reminds me of a popular British TV show, entitled “Opportunity Knocks”, in which talented individuals (and sometimes animals) would showcase their talent, and at the end of the series win a prize and quite a bit of fame. Some of the participants went on to become quite famous and successful later on in life.

The moral behind this proverb is that we should seize an opportunity when it occurs because it may never happen again. We can apply it to language learning however. When we are trying to improve our linguistic skills, we should never pass up an opportunity to practise.

Practising opportunities could come in very small things: listening to a song on the radio in English, for example, reading the ingredients on a can of tomato sauce in French, coming across an interesting headline on the internet. However there may be greater opportunities: a foreign couple have moved into the apartment across the hall and need help with finding their way around your town, a new colleague has joined your team and he’s a native-Spanish speaker, you decide to go on holiday to an Italian-speaking country.

If you’re not so lucky to get landed with such opportunities, you can simply create your own. Elite Learning offers a suite of services, from online language learning, to telephone practise, to face-to-face and in-company courses. You can simply contact us and we will help create practising opportunities for you.

You do not need to wait for opportunity to knock – you now have the luxury of creating the opportunities for improving your linguistic skills yourself. In these modern times, we cannot afford to waste time waiting for opportunities to present themselves: we have to go out and be pro-active.  

Life is full of complicated tasks. There are a thousand things to be done, and the time to do them in always seems too short. Thus we find ourselves looking for ways to simplify our lives – achieving our goals but in the shortest time and through the easiest way possible.

This is why Elite Learning offers proofreading services. You have taken the time to put your new marketing material together, to write that ever-so-important presentation, to re-vamp the text of your website, to create the best email templates for your employees to use…but you’re not sure of the quality.

Don’t waste your time on re-reading what you’ve written. Simply forward it to Elite Learning – we will correct it and send it back to you, ready to be printed, published, used. You can be sure that your work is error-free and as professional-sounding as you are.

However good a person’s linguistic knowledge is, it’s always beneficial to get a professional to have a look at your work, and iron out any small imperfections.

We also offer the service of writing for you…put your main ideas together, and we will create a text (be it for a publication or a presentation, for example) for you.

Stop making things difficult for yourself – there is a team of professionals who are here to help make your life easier. We guarantee that all your documents will be treated in the strictest confidence…we know how important they are to you: you wouldn’t be getting them proofread if they weren’t!

For error-free work every time, make use of Elite Learning’s proofreading services. 

…but you can’t make them drink

We have all heard this proverb…it exists in many languages which goes to show that this is true of people the world over: we can help, show or encourage someone to do something but we can’t make them do what they are unwilling or unable to do.

At Elite Learning we encounter people who would like to improve in a particular language – and thus are “willing to drink”. However we find that it is very difficult to get individuals to do things in that language which are outside their comfort zone. Just to give one example: you are faced with a learner who is very willing to read and write in the target language, but is very reluctant to speak. This may be for a number of reasons, e.g. they do not wish to lose face by making a mistake, they dislike the sound of their voice when speaking that language, they feel that they cannot think fast enough to keep up a conversation.

This is why we are committed to creating an environment which is conducive to learning; an environment which encompasses the perfect conditions for learning; an environment in which the learner feels totally at ease with him/herself, the trainer and thus the language.

When we feel comfortable with the “water” we are to “drink”, with the “vessel” we are to “drink out of”, the chances of success are instantly multiplied.

So for language learning that takes your dislikes into account, and helps you overcome that which you do not feel comfortable doing, choose the language learning provider that is not only aware of such hinderances, but who also has strategies to help you overcome them.

Don’t let what makes you uncomfortable stop you from learning – trust us with your language learning experience, and we will ensure that you will be doing what you thought was not possible! 

This proverb is one that we at Elite Learning live by. We do not do things by halves. We realise the importance that our learners place on being able to communicate well in another language. Thus we do everything that is humanly possible to help them achieve their goals.

One of the most important things is to have trainers who are not only highly qualified and very experienced, but also who possess a certain passion and dedication to their work. All our courses are tailor-made, and this is what makes us successful language providers.

We put the learner at the centre…it is the learner who has to feel comfortable with the learning environment, the trainer and the learning materials. We go out of our way to make our learners feel comfortable – this will in turn lead into more effective language learning.

As a learner your job is to tell us what you want to learn, where, how and when – we will take care of the rest. And we take our role in your learning process very seriously. We want to see each of our learners succeed…that is for each of them to become independent and confident language users.

So for a service that is tailor-made to your needs, and delivered by dedicated professionals, you need look no further. Sit back and enjoy the experience. Your linguistic skills will greatly improve in no time at all. 

Other forms of this proverb include “in for a dime, in for a dollar” and “in for an inch, in for a mile”. The meaning remains unchanged: once we decide to do something, we should commit ourselves to it completely; once we start something, we should see it through to its end.

This is the basis of effective and efficient language learning. Too many times we meet learners who complain that although they have invested a lot of time, effort and money in learning a particular language, they still feel that they are not confident users of the language.

This is, many times, due to the fact that they have not “embraced” the language completely. By this I mean that in order to function well in a language we have to start thinking in that language. You have probably heard this a hundred thousand times, and it has perhaps become a bit of a cliché. Nevertheless, from my experience with language learning and teaching, it is very true.

I have realised that when I, or any of my learners, start to talk to themselves in the target language, then they have achieved the final step…the confidence and mental frame of mind to start thinking in that language and thus perform very well.

Putting ourselves wholeheartedly into expressing ourselves well in a second/foreign language does not always come automatically. This is where Elite Learning’s guidance comes in. Over the years we have helped many people achieve their linguistic goals. We will teach you strategies to employ in order to be able to use the language more effectively. Your learning will definitely grow at a very fast pace…we never give up: in for a penny, in for a pound. 

In life it’s great to have ambitions. We are encouraged, from an early age, to aspire to do great things. And it is these aspirations that lead us to set our goals for life…whether it be to become a famous singer, a successful business person, own a house with a big garden and enormous pool. As we grow older we learn to channel our passions and ideas into more reachable goals.

However we should never let go of the hope of achieving great things. This can be applied to language learning. We should strive to be our best…that is to achieve native speaker competence in our second (or perhaps third or fourth) language.

With Elite Learning this is possible. We have designed ways to help learners achieve this goal. With our strategies learners almost effortlessly become better at listening to a second/foreign language, speaking, reading, writing it. They become as comfortable using the target language as much as they do their native language.

Therefore do not hesitate to hitch your wagon to a star…the days of dreaming of having better linguistic skills are over – with Elite Learning this dream can come true today. With us your chances of achieving linguistic success are not only improved, but guaranteed. Aspire to having great German, Italian, French, English, etc and with us, you definitely can.

This proverb is taken from the Bible and refers to hiding a candle (thus the light) under a container that was used to measure grain (a bushel). It is used of people who conceal their talents, skills or abilities.

It is a fact that in order to learn new things in life we strongly depend on our talents and abilities. We then apply these qualities to the new skill we are working hard to acquire.

At Elite Learning we strongly believe in using what talents, skills and abilities learners possess, in order to help them acquire new linguistic skills. We are committed to making language learning not only fun, but less of a difficult task, by focusing on what learners can do best.

We identify your learning style and design materials to fit in with the way you learn best. We will focus on areas you are comfortable with, in order to then help you achieve proficiency in the areas which you consider your weaknesses.

Forget about only focusing on what you can do well. By bringing to light what you do less well, we can help you improve. Trust us with working on getting your linguistic skills up to speed, and then you can throw the bushel away and shine. 

It is the right of the person who is paying for a service to get exactly what they want. When we are paying for something, it is not right to be told that we can’t get what we want because such a thing is unavailable, impossible to provide or not standard.

Elite Learning has become a leading language services provider because its main objective has always been to provide services in the way people want.

We offer online language learning around the clock, using a variety of different ways, depending on what the learner finds most appealing.

We also offer proofreading services, by a team of highly qualified professionals – we proofread any type of document and stick to deadlines given by the client.

We also offer face-to-face language training, in a variety of locations, chosen by the learners themselves. Since we have a pool of trainers, we are able to cater to the different wishes of learners.

For language training that lets you call the tune, that caters to your every need, whim or fancy, employ the piper that can offer the service that you expect, require, deserve: Elite Learning.

Many times in life we find ourselves in a situation which is bad or in which we are not comfortable. When we decide to (or have to) put up with it, that is not change it or complain about it, we use this proverb.

With Elite Learning as your language training provider you will never have to grin and bear it. We take our time to get to know our learners personally – their needs, wants, preferences, hates. On the basis of this information we pair learners with a trainer that will best fit their profile, learning style and type of language or skill they would like to focus on.

We also bind ourselves to do our utmost to ensure that Elite Learning’s service is to your satisfaction. We go out of our way to meet all our learners’ requirements. And this process begins even before the beginning of the course. Each learner is asked to complete an online pre-course assessment, which has been specifically designed by Elite Learning. What makes this assessment unique is that we not only gauge language level, but also needs for using the language, learning style and general preferences.

Each course is designed for each individual learner or group of learners. All our teaching materials are tailor-made in order to ensure that you learn what you need to, in a way that is the most effective for you and your learning style.

So for a language learning experience that will tick all the boxes, choose the provider that will tailor-make the experience for YOU.

In today’s competitive society where each person has their own interests at heart, it is usually the strong and determined who succeed.

Therefore it’s important in the business world that we are strong and determined…whatever language we’re speaking. It is a fact that we can express ourselves perfectly in our native language, but when it comes to getting our exact message across in a second or foreign language this may sometimes be problematic.

This is due to a number of reasons, not least important is the fact that we do not always manage to choose the right words that convey the right feeling. Words not only carry meaning but also connotation: what a word invokes for our audience in addition to its literal or primary meaning. We instinctively know the connotation of words in our first language, but this is something we have to formally learn in a second/other language.

And it is this connotation that makes what we say sound powerful, strong, full of determination. A word’s underlying meaning is what makes our discourse more meaningful.

At Elite Learning we are committed to help you develop your language skills so that you can use the second/foreign with the same ease as you do your native language. We will show you ways to choose words that convey the exact meaning that you have in mind.

Forget about sounding clumsy or inexact…Elite Learning will enable you to be able to choose your words so that your messages in the target language come across as strong and determined as they do in your native language.