Wall Street Journal "Big Innovation" Program Picks Chinese Language School of Connecticut as a Finalist

http://blogs.wsj.com/biginnovation/

Chinese Language School of

Connecticut

http://blogs.wsj.com/biginnovation/2011/08/15/chinese-language-school-of-connecticut/

Business: Chinese Language School of Connecticut
Headquarters: Riverside, Conn.
Industry: Education
Product/service: Mandarin Chinese as a Second Language
Number of full-time employees: 6
Year begun: 2002

What was the challenge your business was facing as a result of the economy?

Our company, the Chinese Language School of Connecticut, had lost about 15% of its revenue each year from 2008 through the first half of fiscal year 2011 from regular programs, and both corporate and individual fundraising were down dramatically.

What was the innovative idea you put in place?

We launched iVuChinese, our online distance-learning program, in July, 2011. iVuChineseused disruptive, simple-to-download and widely-available technology to access our online Chinese learning tools while students are online with a native speaking, fully trained, CLSC instructor.

What significant milestone has this innovative idea lead to since Jan. 1, 2009?

iVuChinese has hit goals in several ways: by increasing projected tutoring revenue by 25% this year alone; by expanding our programs and allowing anyone across the globe who has a personal computer and a set of headphones to learn Chinese using our award-winning, fully accredited curriculum; and by promoting all of our programs since iVuChinese has been picked up by many different media sites, schools, and forwarded to hundreds of individuals.

Please explain your innovation at greater length.

We adopted our two daughters from China in 1996 and 2000. Our older daughter, Emily, started asking, “How do I say ‘dog’ in Chinese? How do I say ‘flower’?” I realized how important it was to allow her to understand her native language and culture, so I worked with a native Chinese-speaking friend to start Chopstix, in 1999. Chopstix was a volunteer-run preschool Chinese program that donated all net proceeds to U.S. nonprofits working with children in Chinese orphanages.

When Emily was 5, I enrolled her in a traditional, “cultural” Chinese school, where we were the only non-Chinese speakers. She still loved learning Chinese, but this experience gave me the opportunity to work with some of the professional, highly dedicated colleagues I met there to form the nonprofit, dual-accredited Chinese Language School of Connecticut, in 2002. CLSC teaches Mandarin Chinese using U.S.-based immersion techniques and age-appropriate, interactive activities to students ages 18 months to adult via various programs.

CLSC hummed along from 2002 through 2008. We started to see a slowdown early in 2008, but it really wasn’t until 2009 that many of our programs began to be undersubscribed. At the same time, China’s emergence as a global powerhouse, with economic growth far surpassing the rest of the world, was becoming clear to most educated people, so our tutoring program began to expand dramatically. This continued through 2010, but in early 2011 we realized that our current, “local school” business model was not sustainable in the current business environment.

So, in spring of 2011, we started to develop and test our iVuChinese online distance-learning program. iVuChinese offers students (ages 7 to adult) the opportunity to learn Chinese using only a personal computer and a set of headphones. They may work with a custom-designed program, or can access our online Chinese programs, but are working one on one with a native speaking Chinese CLSC faculty member the whole time. iVuChinese allows students to practice speaking, reading, writing and listening to Chinese, all while online with their instructor.

We launched iVuChinese in July 2011, and results so far have been terrific. iVuChinese will allow CLSC to meet our objectives this year of both hitting our financial goals, but also by allowing even more students to explore the exciting challenge of learning Chinese.