Helen Doron Educational Group, an international English education franchise, is poised to make further inroads into the South Korean market by tapping into the country’s unfazed demand for learning English.

Helen Doron is a British linguist and educator known for developing her own method of teaching English, dubbed the Helen Doron method, which mimics the natural process of learning a mother tongue. What started as a small language class in northern Israel has now grown into a global franchise with 1,000 learning centers in over 35 countries, including Korea, China and Indonesia.

“Our time-tested methodology and abundant learning materials are our greatest assets,” founder Helen Doron told the Asia Pulse Maeil Business Newspaper. Doron recently visited Korea to celebrate the opening of the third learning center in Dongtan, south of Seoul. It currently has two more centers in Ilsan and Busan.

Besides the current three centers, the organization plans to expand its franchise by diversifying its educational offerings in Korea, where learning English borders on a national obsession. Its learning centers in the country would range from an education center that offers preschool to high school curriculums, to other platforms, such as experimental centers and study rooms.

The Helen Doron method applies the principles of music learning to English education and relies primarily on repeated hearing. The brain of a child under 10 years old is more responsive to speaking and listening than reading and writing when acquiring a new language, according to Doron, which is why it is important to surround them in an English-speaking environment in their daily lives, not just at school or language institutes.

The learning experience should also be as stress-free as possible when targeting children, said Doron. While there are many other language classes that try to make English learning fun, what makes the Helen Doron method different is its educational expertise and wealth of materials built over the past 30 years.

Its extensive data trove includes over 850 educational music material and hundreds of animation and musical videos. The kindergarten curriculum alone covers a range of subjects, from math and science to music, art and chess.

The group’s research and development center regularly gathers success stories from its global network and uses the information to update its material and curriculum every year, according to the company.

By Lee Yu-sup

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]