社情说 | 教中国人说地道英语，她说自己是天生创业者 Meet Seshnie from SpeakSpeak

Seshnie出生于南非，在英国长大。2012年，他来到中国，并于2017年成立了SpeakSpeak。SpeakSpeak是一个英语语言培训机构，致力于普及文化知识以帮助中国人自信、准确地说英语。

Born in South Africa and raised in the UK, Seshnie came to China in 2012 and founded SpeakSpeak in 2017. SpeakSpeak is an English language tutoring agency that seeks to help Chinese people speak English confidently and accurately with cultural knowledge and real purpose.

Sesh在宁波诺丁汉大学学习的时候爱上了中国。2013年，回到英国时青年失业率高企，她开始当志愿者来好好运用她的时间。在英国慈善机构做志愿者，以及在中国学校里的教学经历，激励她成为一个教育创业家。

Sesh fell in love with China whilst studying at the University of Nottingham Ningbo. When she returned to the UK in 2013 she was faced with a huge youth unemployment rate, and started volunteering to make the best of her time. Volunteering in the UK, plus teaching in China, both at schools and through a charity, was what inspired her to be an educational entrepreneur. 

在与Sesh的对话中，我被她的个人信念深深地打动了。这很明显是源自于她对教育怀有最真挚的热忱，使她想要为此做出改变。

Speaking to Sesh, I was really struck by her self-belief that was so strong. It"s clear this comes from a real passion to drive change. 

我感觉天生就是来干这个的。我经常觉得自己可以做一些有意义的事情，以某种方式帮助人类。所以，我把强烈的个人信念、技能与中国学习英语的强烈需求匹配起来。

I feel like I was born to do this. I’ve always felt I’ll be able to do something significant that can help humanity in some way. So I paired my strong self-belief with my skill set and the strong demand for learning English in China. 

所以当你问我这是一个机缘巧合吗？不是。我不相信巧合。我相信我生命中的每一部分是为了此刻的我作准备。

So when you ask me if this was an accident, no, it wasn’t. I don’t believe in accidents. I believe every part of my life was preparing me for this moment.

不仅仅是因为我喜欢小孩，也因为他们的父母给他们安排了固定的计划。成人们太忙碌了以至于他们的时间表非常不稳定。教小孩意味着课时固定，你可以从中实实在在地看到进步。

Not only do I love children, but they also have fixed schedules set by their parents. Adults are just too busy to have stable schedules. Teaching kids means regular classes where you can actually tangibly see progress.

我们鼓励四人为以小组，因为我们发现一对一的教学对小孩会有一点压力。看到学生们能够互相帮助真是太棒了，不仅是在英语上，更是在他们学会了轮流等待的礼仪。

We encourage small groups of 4, because we find that 1-on-1 teaching can be a little stressful for kids. It’s amazing to see students help each other, not just in English but they also learn common courtesies like taking turns.

我感到特别自豪的是找到了我们的第一个辅导老师，发现他们非常适合这个工作。并且，我们发现这个商业模式行之有效，也完全可以提供相应收入给他们。我们现在已经拥有九位辅导老师了。

I was particularly proud of finding our first tutor, finding that they’re so suitable for this job, and with it, finding that our business model worked and that we actually can provide this person with income. We now have 9 tutors overall.

另一个重大的里程碑是我们聘用了中文助理。我认为很多企业家不委托他人，因为他们不相信任何人。学会信任他人，并委以重任，是很棒的体验。

Our other big milestone was hiring our Chinese assistant. I think lots of entrepreneurs don’t delegate because they don’t trust anyone else. Learning to trust someone else with that responsibility was great.

我们在北京以及上海都有业务，所以能够在这两个城市都有空间办公是非常棒的。裸心社APP非常有用，我已经通过APP和很多人开了会。每周二晚上六点半至七点半，我们在湖南路有一个免费的英语角。所以，我们不仅仅回馈裸心社，还能提高我们的商业形象。

We’re in Beijing and Shanghai so it’s great being able to use space in both cities. The app is really useful and I’ve already had a lot of meetings with people through the app. We also have a free English corner here at Hunan Lu every Tuesday from 6:30pm to 7:30pm, so we’re not only giving back to naked Hub, but also raising our business profile. 

我希望看到裸心社能够有些活动讲讲关于创业的一切。创业维艰，孤独常伴。裸心社已经有瑜伽、健身等常规活动，如果还有一个平台可以用来聊聊企业家的奋斗，那就太棒了！

One thing I’d like to see is a space to speak about being an entrepreneur. This journey is so tough and lonely, and just as we have yoga and fitness sessions at naked Hub, I think it’d be great if we could have a platform for just talking about the entrepreneur experience: our struggles, our motivations etc.