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Organisation Chart, Board Members & Teachers

Meet Our Family

Mr Zak Salleh-Chew

Mr Zak Salleh-Chew

Director
I believe an education centre needs to create an environment where making mistakes is OK. Just don’t make the same mistakes!

I believe an education centre needs to create an environment where making mistakes is OK.  Just don’t make the same mistakes!

I started this business from basically, my bedroom back in 2007. Within 3 years, I was running a CELTA centre, and taking on the biggest English teaching organisation in Singapore.

I am extremely proud of the journey of the school and most of all the involvement of our  employees in shaping things.  The future of the organisation is exciting with plans to include online teaching and competency based assessment. Culturally, we have and will include our employees in determining more facets of the business that are traditionally done by “senior management”. I do believe in work hard and go home.

All schools claim to be the best. Best teachers, best prices blah blah blah. Are we the best school in Singapore?  I’ll leave it to our students to judge. What I do know is we try our best and we are DEFINITELY different.

Mr Chong Kok Jong

Mr Chong Kok Jong

Academic & Examination Board Member
Dr Amy Rashap

Dr Amy Rashap

Academic & Examination Board Member
Arthur Elfin Chiang

Arthur Elfin Chiang

Academic & Examination Board Members
I’ve often been described as a ‘people developer’.

Well, hello! I’m Arthur and I’ve been involved in the Education and Learning & Development industry for more than 10 years. I have a blend of practising experience in ESL, ESP and academic teaching in public and private schools, teacher education, and the full spectrum of Learning and Development, and Education Quality Assurance works.

I’ve often been described as a ‘people developer’. I enjoy grooming emerging educators into high performers – especially in the areas of classroom teaching/training, curriculum design and development. Because of my strengths in visioning and influencing, I’ve also successfully expanded business portfolios by identifying new opportunities, synergising resources and collaborating with key stakeholders. What tingles me most is my ability to overcome challenges of working with people of diverse personalities (sometimes quirky!) – getting them to put aside their differences to achieve the common end goal.

On a personal note, I’m an animal lover, with a soft spot for the homeless ‘furry kids’.  Their easy contentment with the simple things in life is something that everyone could learn from.

Wayde Nash

Wayde Nash

Academic Staff
I enjoy the beauty and the challenge of the English language, and I love sharing it with my students in a friendly and fun way.

I started my teaching career when I left Australia in 2009 and I have loved every minute of it. I enjoy the beauty and the challenge of the English language, and I love sharing it with my students in a friendly and fun way. I am dedicated to working with my students to help them to achieve their language goals and become more confident as English speakers.

My wife is a wildlife veterinarian and her work has allowed us to live in some amazing places including the Singapore Zoo and a bear rescue centre in Vietnam. In my free time I love running crazy distances in the forest, eating delicious vegan food, and meeting new people, so come and have a chat some time.

Zee Ryan

Zee Ryan

Senior Teacher
I love helping students learn useful language skills that they could use in their daily lives.

Fresh out of university, I decided to take on an English teaching job in Istanbul, Turkey to give myself a chance to experience living outside Singapore for a few years. Never did I realise I would enjoy teaching English as a Foreign Language to adults so much that I couldn’t find the same pleasure in any of the other jobs I had tried upon returning to Singapore.

So here I am – almost 10 years of teaching later. I love helping students learn useful language skills that they could use in their daily lives. My favourite courses to teach include Conversation and Grammar.

I teach the following:  Certificate in General and Conversational English. Certificate in Conversational English and Pronunciation, Certificate in Workplace English and the Certificate in Pronunciation and Presentation.

Shamus Choy

Shamus Choy

Academic Staff
I was more interested in helping individuals grow and be more confident of themselves.

Before entering the teaching profession, I worked as a copywriter for 15 years, producing marketing and corporate communication materials in English and Chinese. Most often, I lent my writing skills to creative agencies, crafting contents for brochures, magazines, commemorative books, annual reports, websites, electronic mailer, corporate videos and various other communication tools. Occasionally, I also did translation work between English and Chinese.

For a considerable amount of time, I pondered over the idea that I could put my language skills to better use. I was more interested in helping individuals grow and be more confident of themselves, than slaving away as an accomplice in perpetuating marketing myths for big corporations. Finally, I decided that I should teach. So here I am.

I teach the following:  Certificate in General and Conversational English. Certificate in Conversational English and Pronunciation, Certificate in Workplace English and the Certificate in Pronunciation and Presentation.

Sharon

Sharon

Academic Staff
Richard Rowe

Richard Rowe

Academic Staff
teaching – its much more satisfying

Although I’ve spent most of the last 20 years working as a consultant in the Telecommunications industry, my educational background is quite a bit different. I have a Bachelors degree in Philosophy from one of the oldest universities in the US. I spent much of my youth studying selections from the spectrum of eastern and western philosophy. Logic led to computers; which led to networks, which led to telecommunications.

A couple of years ago, I earned my(CELTA) with an eye towards an active retirement. When the time came, I planned to spend my days teaching English to students somewhere in Indonesia. I took up teaching evenings while consulting full time as a way to get valuable classroom experience. Teaching has never been exhausting in the way that corporate consulting was. Even after the longest day consulting, I always felt energized by interacting with students. I have since given up on the corporate world to focus on teaching – its much more satisfying and I can’t imagine going back.

In my free time, I’m refitting a sailing yacht which I one day, hope to sail around the Indonesian archipelago. The specialized language employed on a sailboat harks back to an earlier age and it has fascinated me since I was a teenager. I also spend time tutoring and entertaining my two young children Isaac and Asha.

I teach the following:  Certificate in General and Conversational English. Certificate in Conversational English and Pronunciation, Certificate in Workplace English and the Certificate in Pronunciation and Presentation.

Ruth Li

Ruth Li

Academic Staff
I love connecting with people from different backgrounds, learning about different cultures, and learning about different ways that people see the world.

I started my teaching career after several years of being a homemaker and serving in various volunteer positions. I moved to Singapore in 2008 with my Chinese American husband and have been raising two bilingual and bicultural kids here.

On this journey of motherhood, I have also become conversationally fluent in Mandarin myself, and as a result had the opportunity to get to know many amazing educators and friends who I never would have known if I didn’t learn their language. I love connecting with people from different backgrounds, learning about different cultures, and learning about different ways that people see the world. Now that my children are a little older, becoming an English teacher was a natural career choice for me.

Outside of teaching I also love reading, writing, sewing, and the great outdoors.

I teach the following:  Certificate in General and Conversational English. Certificate in Conversational English and Pronunciation, Certificate in Workplace English and the Certificate in Pronunciation and Presentation.

Donna Donald

Donna Donald

Academic Staff

I teach the following:  Certificate in General and Conversational English. Certificate in Conversational English and Pronunciation, Certificate in Workplace English and the Certificate in Pronunciation and Presentation.

Mimi Engstrom

Mimi Engstrom

Academic Staff
Every student, no matter what their background, comes together to gain new insight and improve their English skills.

I started my teaching career straight out of university moving from Florida, USA to taking up a post in Japan.  It was an incredible adventure being on my own and immersed in a new culture.  Moving to Singapore has enabled me to learn more about the diversity of people and the melting of cultures in one place.  I’ve been able to teach both children and adults over the course of the years as a teacher of English as a second language.  I gained new insights and skills after taking up the Cambridge International diploma for Teacher and Trainers in 2013.  What I enjoy most is getting to know the students. Every student, no matter what their background, comes together to gain new insight and improve their English skills.  We have fun sharing in the process.

Things I love outside of the classroom are: walking and hiking, baking, and various hand-crafts and occasionally poetry.  I have also been volunteering for a non-profit organization called Room To Read to promote global literacy since 2009.

I teach the following: Certificate in General and Conversational English. Certificate in Conversational English and Pronunciation.

Hazel Westney

Hazel Westney

Academic Staff
the classroom can be a caring community, a place where we can build confidence and learn from each other.

Two years ago a Japanese student taught me the saying, “ichigo ichie,” which can be translated as “treasure every encounter.”
It isn’t easy to learn a new language, but the classroom can be a caring community, a place where we can build confidence and learn from each other. As a teacher, it is wonderful to see students use new language to share ideas, stories, traditions, experiences, and hopes with new friends from all over the world.

As a younger person, I studied music, art history, English literature, and philosophy at the City University of New York and State University of New York. After working for charitable organizations for many years (in San Francisco and New York) as an administrator, manager, writer, and editor, I earned the Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (University of Cambridge) and started teaching. I have also completed the professional development courses, “Understanding Language: Learning and Teaching” (University of Southampton) and “Professional Practices for English Language Teaching” (British Council). As a lifelong musician, I particularly enjoy teaching pronunciation and natural speech. My personal interests include the performing and visual arts, hiking, gardening, and, of course, travel!!

Why not . . . open the door and enter the classroom?  “ichigo, ichie”

Amy

Amy

Chinese Student Support

Can you be a trainer? Or do you think you can run a school?

Come join our CA International College family!