Yi Fan, from Hubei province, is a remarkably enthusiastic and sophisticated man after all the hardships and setbacks he’s been through. As a successful businessman, he has acute insights about the English training sector. In 2001, he studied at GLV for four months, undergoing the total immersion experience which helped boost his English to a high level from a beginner’s level. What’s more, he obtained a new perspective towards life and the world and started to be connected in other ways with GLV.
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GLV’s second campus, Hangzhou GLV, Opened on April 1st, 2007. This is a beautiful time in Hangzhou as the spring blossoms, which are everywhere, give hope and inspiration about fresh, new, life. The campus is situated in the Hangzhou Leisure Park. The opening ceremony was spectacular. Facing arriving waves of distinguished guests and well-wishers, I couldn’t help being gratified and it sent my thoughts from the happy present to the past. Apart from my sincere thanks to all the people who had granted their heart-felt support and help, I was pulled back to my childhood and the promises I had made to my parents.
I’d like to share my stories with you, how I went to work and started my own business with my humble background, how, from being a low level student at GLV Zhuhai I became the Principal of Hangzhou GLV and how my life course was changed by GLV and provided me with a new perspective towards the world.
Unbearable Torment Drove Me to Go to Work
I was born into an ordinary countryside family in Chibi, Hubei province. My family was heavily in debt so my parents couldn’t make the lump-sum payments for my tuition. Whenever the school was open, I had to bite the bullet to follow my parents to implore my head teacher or the principal for a delayed payment. I was very aggressive with strong self-esteem and I always hated the terribly inferior feeling I felt inside every time we did that. Finally, I could no longer bear the humiliation and abandoned my beloved studies and though I cherished school life, I threw myself into the river of many country youth of the time, going southward to work. I hoped I would bring some changes to my family through my hard work. To my dismay, this abandonment of my studies has become a lingering regret for I missed the opportunity to go to university.
I still recall that when I went out to work for the first time, my mother saw me off at the side of our village and told me over and over again, “Take care of yourself when you are outside, I will happy and relieved if you can earn six hundred RMB a month.” “Don’t worry, mom, I won’t come back home until I have some achievements which will make you happy!” I answered.
Seizing Opportunities-From Servant to General Manager
Aimless as I was, I was lucky to find a job in the Roasted Goose Catering Group when I arrived at Huizhou, Guangzhou. I worked hard and carefully starting out doing the lowliest jobs, but desperately trying to excel at work. My efforts paid off and I was put into increasingly more important positions. I was steadily promoted and went from cleaning up to being a lobby manager in one year.
When I was in the position of lobby manager, I got to deal with such things as meeting customer needs and learning the importance, in business, of giving good service. The job required that I manage a staff and I was responsible for making sure that the internal communication was clear. I needed to be adept at assessing and solving many and varied problems as they arose. Balancing the requirements of a profitable business with the human concerns and issues of the staff taught me a lot as I went along. I was fully recognized and praised for I had excellent communication skills and was highly competent as a lobby manager. My company grew dramatically to be the biggest catering group company in China with branch companies located all over the major cities. I worked there for five years and grew with my company, taking management positions in the company’s branches in Guangdong, Beijing, Harbin, Kunming, Xi’an, Shanghai and Qingdao.
In Order to Provide a Happy and Satisfying Life to My Parents, I Decided to Start My Own Company
Four years after my departure from my parents, I flew back home for the first time. Everything was familiar and I knew I was home. I was extremely happy when I found out that my parents had paid off all the debts from the past and decorated our house. Finally I could face my family undisturbed by all the previous complex feelings.
However, I also noticed the gray hairs and wrinkles of my aging parents and suddenly realized the responsibility and pressure on my shoulders. Time and tide wait for no man. I was inspired to set up my own business, for I believed that only through business success could our family course be thoroughly changed. Only through owning my own, successful, business could I provide a happy and satisfying life to my parents who had struggled their whole lives.
Sustainable Success Requires Knowledge - I was Really Eager to Go to School
Shortly after I stopped working for others I established a company in Guangzhou. Within a short time, I enjoyed an early success thanks to years of business management experiences, my communication skills and my previous social network. I obtained a car and a house and got married before I brought my parents from my hometown to live with me, thus realizing my dreams to some degree.
With the development of the business and increasing projects, I began to be aware of the importance of knowledge and wanted so much to go to university. This desire had been buried deep in my heart all along. I made a general survey of the education market and the needs for the managerial personnel in the society. What’s more, I analyzed my status quo and decided to learn English first before I went abroad to further my studies. Learning English would improve my knowledge and broaden my outlook.
* After All the Visits to Different English Training Schools, GLV Was My Choice *
Although I knew almost nothing about English, I did have insights about the market. At the beginning of 2001, I investigated all the English training institutions in Guangzhou and neighboring cities and made some comparison and analysis in multiple areas through a businessman’s eyes.
GLV really impressed me a lot. Despite the poor environment and its ill-equipped condition in a deserted karaoke hall, I found an exceptionally positive spirit among the staff and teachers at GLV. I was attracted by the heartfelt laughter of all the GLV staff and was deeply touched by the working and studying atmosphere which was filled with enthusiasm and care.
In order to know GLV further and find out the mysterious reasons behind such a nice working atmosphere and vigorous involvement of all the staff and faculty, I stayed in Zhuhai for two days to investigate and analyze the teaching features and advantages. I realized that GLV was not a regular language school. It not only boasted a large wealth of foreign teachers and the atmosphere of an international language village, but it also spread, among the people there, the culture and life truths which helped create a warm and close family for all who worked and studied there. Therefore, I chose GLV and have been closely tied to it ever since.
* Experiencing GLV From the Inside as a Low Level Student *
In late October, 2001, my wife and I began attending the total immersion experience English training in GLV after arranging all the family and business issues. GLV at the time was a small scale school with only about fifty students. A total of ten new students entered GLV when we went there and my wife and I became low level students in the same class where an extremely patient Canadian teacher, Mabel Cam, was our skills teacher.
I was totally immersed in the English Only environment all day long and came to know GLV through the eyes of a student rather than that of a businessman. Different perspectives resulted in totally different feelings and experiences, the businessman’s perspective mainly focused on the marketing and commercial things; while the student’s view was concerned more about the culture and teaching methods I personally experienced and felt throughout the whole process.
* The Idea of Working for Ping Really Surprised Me *
Regardless of the fairly small scale, GLV did enjoy the atmosphere of an international language village. Teachers from around the world brought their own cultures and thoughts and applied them to the process of teaching in GLV. When I found that all the teachers and staff considered GLV as their family, I got to make friends with some of them and asked them how they could have such big and heartfelt smiles and why they were so devoted to preparing for the classes and how much Principal Ping paid them each month. Some foreign teachers came up with the same answer without chatting with each other previously: “I am not working for money, I am working for Ping.” And, “GLV is our family,” were the answers from the staff. All of these responses left me wide-eyed and speechless.
Upon hearing these answers, I sincerely realized the personal charms and cultural influence from the Principal of GLV, Ping. In such a material world, it was really uncommon that there were still some people, including Ping, who were willing to give of their own knowledge in defiance of personal interests. It was just too noble to believe and all I thought about then was to meet this mysterious and influential man and to dig deeper regarding GLV. If possible, I’d like to have a conversation and an exchange of ideas, which I believed would help me secure the key to GLV’s success and surely benefit the rest of my life and business development.
* I Moved Up to a High Level Class after Four Months’ Immersion and Presented My Market Analysis to Principal Ping *
I studied at GLV for four months and I went to great lengths to capture every chance to talk to teachers and students. During the Friday Show Time, I scrambled to get up on the stage to give my speech. Thanks to the generous help from the staff and teachers, I made it to the highest level from the lowest one after personally experiencing the total immersion English program. My thanks also went to the English Only environment which helped me obtain my fluent English.
During my time at GLV, I got to meet Principal Ping who was really an ordinary man, but my first talk with him was indeed a demonstration of his peaceful spirit and endless sincerity. Based on my insightful ideas about the market, I truly wanted to do something for GLV as a businessman. I visited all the English training institutions in Guangdong on weekends and compared them with GLV at a deeper level than I had done during the first investigations. After a comprehensive analysis, I found that GLV’s teaching methods and atmosphere was, indeed, the best school for the people who badly needed to improve their English in a short period of time. With my ideas and analysis, I went directly to Principal Ping for the second time.
* Advising GLV to Move to a New Site and Expecting to Become a Shareholder *
With the analysis of the status quo and the trend of the English training market, I predicted that GLV would enjoy sustainable development in the future. However, the fairly small place available as a campus in Zhuhai would soon hold back the development of GLV as more and more students were applying all the time. I suggested that GLV move to a new site as soon as possible and I expressed my desire to become a shareholder in GLV.
Ping appreciated my insightful analysis, but he declined my proposal to join GLV at that time and said that we would cooperate when we could. From then on, I considered myself as a member of GLV. After my continuous encouragement and support, GLV was transferred to a new site which covered three thousand square meters and could hold three hundred students in 2002.
* Being Connected With GLV Not Only Improved My English, But Gave Me a
New Outlook for Life *
Not only had I improved my English, but I had come to know a collection of life truths after many years of knowing GLV. What’s more, I made a lot of friends from around the world. Ping’s thoughts cast a deep, positive influence on me. “One man would better lose wealth rather than the integrity and the courage to honor his words.” “One thousand friends are not enough, but one enemy is more than enough.” “Do small and simple favors as often as possible, but think twice when it comes to really big favors.” All these bywords which all the staff and teachers were quite familiar with, had gradually become the core content of GLV’s special culture.
My dreams had been accumulating as much wealth as possible and getting a mansion and a Benz car before I was thirty years old. After my encounters with Ping I realized that one’s real fortune is assessed according to the people and the friends you influence, the contribution we make to our own family and the country rather than all the money we earn. Meanwhile, I had been trying to get on board the big family of GLV as soon as I could.
* Getting Aboard GLV and Starting Hangzhou GLV *
After five years of continuous contact with GLV in various ways, I came to know Ping increasingly better with each passing day. In order to ensure that more students have access to GLV’s total immersion English training program and make our contribution to China’s English education for practical use, Ping and I established Hangzhou GLV. From the fall of 2006 to April, 2007, we went through all the ups and downs together from planning and site searching to the excitement of the opening ceremony.
Ever since I got aboard, I had been setting aside all my business in Guangdong and came alone to Hangzhou to plan and prepare for the school. I felt proud of myself to be one of GLV family, for I had found a desired, peaceful way of life.
* Success Couldn’t Have Been Achieved without Good Timing, Good Place and the Most Important Element - Good Relations *
All successes come with good timing, good places and good relations. It is Zhuhai GLV’s eight years’ of experience that led to the setting-up of today’s Hangzhou GLV. It was the destiny of history and life for GLV to set foot in Yangtze delta instead of the Zhejiang delta, as much as I was born into a poor family and finally became a manager of GLV.
My growing process is also a period accompanied by good timing, places and relations. This includes the continuous support and encouragement of the Songcheng Group. Without it I couldn’t have made it to today
With the rapid development of the Chinese economy and the approach of the Beijing Olympics, the Shanghai World Expo and the Guangzhou Asian Sports Meeting, the need for practical daily English has been advancing with each passing day. Therefore, we are fully convinced that taking the lead in advocating the Total Immersion Experience English training is good timing. To cooperate with the spectacular Hangzhou Leisure Park and to get to live in an English village without going abroad is a good environment for students. We are gratified to have encouragement and support from all corners of the government. The unity of GLV teachers and staff creates good relations. We will indisputably make a big difference and enjoy an exceptional success as long as we take GLV’s education as our own lifelong career.
* The Dream Changed - I Hoped that I Could Become a Successful Teacher *
Some people used to consider me to be a successful businessman, but I would rather be a successful teacher now. Not long ago, one of my friends was showing off by telling me his net income for one month was 500,000 RMB. I told him that I did really not care too much about monthly income; net income was no longer my top priority..
I would like to be a successful teacher and a principal instead of a successful businessman. To give each lesson my ultimate best, to improve my comprehensive qualities and managerial levels for the better management of GLV and to offer the students and staff positive outlooks toward life and the world are my goals for the future. I shall work, live and deal with everything peacefully. I shall treat my family and all my friends with peaceful intent. I shall face my future life and career peacefully. Meanwhile, I need to stick to my promise which is to take good care of my whole family. This is what I now call success.
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