Carlos
Carlos not only needed to improve his comprehension and pronounciation, he also needed a bit of cheering up! We helped him with all of these things, and assisted him in getting a promotion.
Carlos (not his real name) had been to us twice before. He was a senior manager in a large communications company and had started with us at an intermediate level of English which enabled him to communicate generally, but not with any sophistication. Also, his accent made it sometimes difficult to understand him. By the time of his third visit, the global recession had hit, his company had had to downsize, and he had been made redundant. He was tired and a bit depressed.
He chose to follow a 9 day ‘Cappuccino’ course format. He wanted to review and extend his overall range of language and continue improving his pronunciation and developing his listening comprehension. In addition to this he wanted to focus on refining his CV, writing a covering letter tailored to a specific job application, and preparing to answer questions in English at interview. While he was with us he applied for two jobs that we saw advertised in the British National Press, and a job back in Spain. (He also got loads of sleep and ate really well).
He notified us on his return home that he had been offered all three posts! The salary for the job he accepted was higher than that for his previous job. English played a large role in his success, in addition to the fact that he was obviously a highly competent professional. In a total of 30 days (including weekends), and spanning three courses, he had progressed from level B1 (independent user) on the CEF (Common European Framework for Languages) scale to C1 (proficient user). His pronunciation and comprehension had substantially improved as well.