Luke just wrote in to ask:
I plan to open up a language school in Korea and I am having problems trying to name my school.
Any suggestions or tips would be great. Since I can’t move forward until I name it!!!
PS. I would love to see a blog post about naming your school~ as I think a lot of people have this problem ^^
I just wrote and told Luke that to be honest I’ve never actually had this question before! ๐
But I do know that some of you have amazing names for your schools.
So …. How did you name your school?
It would be great to hear in the comments!
Be genki,
Richard
Earn More From Your Passion For Teaching English!
I’m also toying with the idea of starting a school at some point in the future. My Chinese girlfriend and her friends were thinking of starting up a school and were consulting with me for materials. Now that I’ve found the wealth of FUN materials from Genki, I’m a little more confident we could start a successful school that offers something different than other Chinese English Training Schools. I currently work in one such training chain which purports to use the latest Western teaching philosophies, though in actual practice and structure it is rote flashcard drilling with some games and a really scattered curriculum that the kids really fail to grasp.
Anyways, got a little off topic there. Really interested to see how others named their schools. It is sort of a big decision as it is your brand and you are sort of stuck with it.
Hi Luke,I know exactly how you feel.Naming a school is quite difficult because it seems that the success of a
school depends on many factors including the name of it.So what about , ,,.Anyway, these are some names I have been thinking about my future school.I hope I have helped a bit!
Eng-Power!
You will need to ask yourself if you are going to get a website and email address for your school. Check to see if the name you are thinking of can also be used as part of your online I.D. What you don’t want is to call your school something like: ‘English fun school’ but have a website called ‘Fun English’.
Next, ask yourself if the locals will understand your school name if you use an English title. Also, try to incorporate what the ethos of your school is into the name, there is no point in calling it ‘Mature English School’ if you only teach children. Don’t call it ‘Active English’ if a lot of your teaching is not active. Check out what other schools in the area are calling themselves. Most people will use their own name in the school title, for exanple: Tony Roberts school of English (no idea who Tony is though – just made it up).
Hope some of those thoughts help.
Dillon
This is a great question. And really hard.
I do have a name since 10 years and I really like it, however my students and parents don’t know it and I’m wondering how to get it more out there. I guess it’s too long, but I don’t feel save to use the short version for obvious reasons:
My mail address is a “mac.com” address. As my name starts with “m”
and my focus is to teach “communication” and also cultural aspects, I named it “Margit’s academy of culture and communication”.
Well, I have no posters or signs out at all, so that’s maybe one reason people don’t know the name.
However, I do think most important is that YOU feel comfortable and happy with the name.
Hey Luke,
I wish you all the best with this very difficult decision. I had a very hard time coming up with a name for my school. Here in Japan having a website is a must and many of the names I came up with were already in play on the net. After months of frustration I finally just stuck my name on it and Bob’s English Center was born. Not that I thought anyone would remember a name like that, but in Japan people love to shorten the names of just about everything. Thus, BEC was what I was really aiming for. A short one word title that was easy to pronounce and easy to remember. It also allowed for a simple ‘bec english’ facebook page.
I guess what I’m trying to say is: find a yourself a simple name that people can find on the net and on facebook. I know some people think a website isn’t very important but I’ve actually got quite a bit of business through my site.
Good Luck!
Hi Luke!
I work attached to a Children’s Art School and don’t need a name for my English courses. But if I had to name them, I very likely would take an attractive English word as an abbreviation (for examlple, SPELL – “Sing & play” English Language Lessons.:-)).
And here are some examples for you:
http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/private-education/school-list/
Good luck!
What about “Lucky Luke’s school” :))) or “funny Luke’s school”? or something more srerious like “Windsor Club” try to have some fun finding the name. Regards
Just 2 years ago I had the same “problem” as Luke now: before opening my private school I was thinking hard to name it. I wanted the name to carry some message and my name in it + I didnยดt want to have a name which would spell and pronounce differently (as many English words do). After some time I definitely decided for DamasKus. D and K are first letters of my name and surname and because I changed “C” to “K” it is read the way it is written (“C” would be read in my country something as “tz”. And the message? I explained it on my website. I got inspired by so called “Damascus road experience/conversion”. Although, I do realize that coming to my school may not be as such a significant change in somebodyยดs life, I do hope that my way of teaching and the school environment I have created in my school will in some way change their view on English and education as such.
We called our association (near Paris) English? Oh,Yes!
I like the name of “Allegro”, it is a joyfull name!!!
I also set up my school few years ago but only some of my students can remember my school name while the others remember my name! So, I decided to change my school name to my name because it’s easy to remember. One thing, my school is in Thailand which most of local people here not familiar with English name so I think using my Thai name it will easier for them to recognize my school.
Hope this will help you & good luck.
Call it ‘Fighting! English academy’. Sounds odd because fighting means like physically fighting to native speakers. But to Korean’s it kind of means ‘working hard’ and ‘not giving up’. I’ve often been hiking and Korean people have taken one look at my exhausted face and smiled ‘fighting! you can do it!’ at me. So it’s kind of words of encouragement as well. Although, I can see why you might not want to use konglish in you’re name. But if it was me I would be thinking of what the parents would recognise, and they might not have very much english but would recognise this word. Also, I wouldn’t go for a fully korean name, because obviously it’s an english school.
I recommend using your own name somehow in the title. That way you don’t have to worry about any naming rights or anything !!! Plus, like noot said, its easier for the students to remember the school name ๐
Hi Luke! With the name make sure it has something in it that reflects what you do – i.e. English – because when people do searches on the internet that is what will come up. That is what I found with my school’s name in Japan – the name of the school I took over did not reflect the fact that it was an English school so we were getting no hits when people searched for English schools!
Best wishes!
My wife and I opened a school in Indonesia. Her name is Janti and mine is Paul. We used a little bit from each of our names and call ourselves, Janpau! English Academy. (Yes, we use the exclamation point). It has become part of the way we do things like “Genki”.
I would avoid using your name. People who use their own name succesfully are already well known from their acting or comedy, books, etc. Also it’s harder to sell it and open another branch when you build the value of your brand and location and feel like living in a different part of Korea.
I hope that I can register and build my school in Bangkok and sell it for a couple million baht and then move out near the beach in the South of Thailand and open another one.
Hi Luke, “What’s in a name” this been asked and answered by many but what sells has not. Think of using a cute cartoon picture in your name because this the first thing everyone will remember. And your school name will be part of this. What? You may ask is this guy talking about. Well think about it if it’s cute and catchie and the kids love it , it sells . So do the CDs – DVDs – T-Shirts and school bags and all the other things that go with it. Now some other teacher out there will say your just trying to make “MONEY” , well hell yes you are and when your school takes off and you open an other one ans an other one and ect…. you get it. Think big and you will be great, think small and you will be just like all the other small can’t remember the names english schools that are all ready out there. You do remember this name “The MICKEY MOUSE CLUB” or what about “Genki” . They all started with a catch and they grew to be worth $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
“REMEMBER THINK BIG TO BE BIG”
And we are all trying to open english schools to make money “OTHER WISE” , way do you want help in naming your school. Just call it L.E.S (Lukes English School)
I love acronyms, I would think to a short word which can be the acronym of your English school. How about “Y.E.S.” Your English Successfully?
It’s just an idea! ๐
How about ‘Luke’s English Learning Center’?
How about…
Learned Luke’s Language School for the Lettered Literati
Hi All,
Thanks for the comments ^^ I ended up coming up with Greenish– It’s going to be a home school, the apartment building name is Green apt– so i figured green + English..
I think at the start, I went though acronyms, things representing my country– but nothing really stuck; or, it was already taken.
Unfortunately, greenish was already taken– so we added 109 on the end ~ our room number. So Greenish109 it is! The apt complex we live in is massive– I don’t know how many apartments are there, but I guess around 100.
Naming the school was hard. I think I spent about a month or so trying to do it– it was racking my brain!! I think if people open a home school like me– then they can learn from how I named it.. Basically use the name of the building in your school name and people will know how to find you pretty quick!
Ah.. I should also say, I tried a bunch of business name generators, but honestly they kind of suck.
Thanks Richard for posting this on your site.
Here is the blog we made– but it’s mostly in Korean: http://blog.naver.com/greenish109
PS> If people open a school in Korea your welcome to contact me and ask questions. From experience in Korea I have learnt that opening a cafe/blog on naver.com is highly beneficial– a friend of mine recently opened a school in Korea and the bulk of customers came from this site— not from the flyers he put out or word of mouth. He opened up profitable right from the start. Hopefully I’ll have the same luck ^^
Thanks everyone for an amazing thread!
Some more suggestions I received over email:
“I would call it, ‘Clover’. Everyone knows its good luck :)” – Sean
“The one name that popped in my mind is…….BLOOMING BUDS. Another one, ie school name……LEARNERS ACADEMY . Hope this helps Luke ” – Bharti
“Lucky English (LE)… I take from his name Luke…” – Mirna
“I dont have my own school but if I had i would have named it The initiators Network. Because I wanted to be the first one to Promote e.learning in schools in hyderabad Pakistan” – Afsheen
“I would like to write about some tips to name LUKE’s school.In most of the cases names are given after people who have greatly influenced education in the country where the school is located.he should then seek among Korean people who have achieved big goals in education.
Good luck to him!” – Diana
“Speak English” – Iryna
And from Facebook:
“Took me ages to come up with Bryant English! (jokes) We do also trade as Juice English but Bryant seems to be sticking hard so far…..I chose Juice because children like it! You get goodness from juice, it’s colourful and it gives a lot of opportunities for wordplay when it comes to activities and marketing…..Consider what will translate well and the local perspective; pigs are cute in Hong Kong, not so much in other countries. ‘Happy English’ might work in Europe where ‘IQ Booster’ or ‘Professor Phonics’ could be a better name in East Asia where parents have higher expectations! ” – Bryant English
Richard is so happy in his teaching! the smile on his face just wakes his students up and encourage them.also a good point is that you always have something to share and it’s lively! thanks for all that.
genkily!
I called my school, Debbie’s English School. Also having an Anglo name let’s them know that it’s your native tongue.
Good luck, Debbie
I`m opening a school in a city called Tsu (ๆดฅ).
I`m thinking 1-ๆดฅ-3 English or Tsu English Village.
Not decided yet but I got some ideas from your great comments above!
inglo-world
I’ve opened an Art and English class for children in Tokyo and had a name in mind for a long time as I originally wanted to open an art and craft class for beleaguered salary men and women!
I chose ‘Freyja no Heya’, which includes my name and means ‘Freyja’s Room’ in Japanese and has alliteration, which I thought would help with remembering the name.
I chose this too as I wanted it to have a cosy feeling so that the atmosphere of a room at home as opposed to a classroom was evoked, the subtitle is ‘English Art Class’ but I personally went with catchy and emotive over fully descriptive for the main title to encourage spreading it around. It also includes the native language, which I think will help natives with remembering the name too.
We will see! I’ve only just started!
Hmmm I have been dreaming to start my own school to give it a name I so wish. Someone is selling his collapsed school but I don’t have the money to buy. I feel like crying because am missing the opportunity
My wife suggested these names for our school:
Big Beard English (since I’ve lately had a beard…sometimes big, but not always)
Giving Tree English (popular Chinese story I guess)
Hacker English (she was watching a TED talk from a girl talking about hacking learning…seems to fit Genki, right?)
I spent about a month choosing my school name. I wanted it to reflect my core values and teaching style. When I opened, I wanted the name to be very prominent on signage and advertising. After 3 years in the business, I’ve discovered that while a good name is always an asset, the most important words on your advertising is “Eikaiwa”. A small community school like mine is mostly driven by word of mouth, and most people refer to it as “Anthony-sensei’s school” (not its name). The 10% or so students who find us via Google, or by walking past, see the word “Eikaiwa” and that’s what brings them in. Having a building with “Super fun English Learning Center” won’t necessarily bring in the students but “Eikaiwa” will.
The time I really think about my school name the most is when I tell other foreigners what it is called. Then I start worrying that it’s a stupid name.
Such an inspiring tape of messages here!
Now I’m at this fun stage of naming my school. I’d like the name to reflect the daring, innovative and life-changing nature of my classes. I want to make accent on the confidence that kids would acquire apart from the language.
Here are the words that come to my head:
Superhero English, Pirates English, The school ( maybe too much), Yes-I-can English.
What do you think?
Hi!!
My english schoolโs name is โThe Schoolโ simple and clear..what do you think? Do you like it? ๐
@Evita: That actually is a really good name!
@Anton: All those sound good, just check they aren’t taken already!
I am thinking about “Enjoy and Learn”, but “The School” is amazing!