WELCOME TO ETC VANCOUVER
My name is Jane Solovyov and I’m the principal/founder of ETC English Training Centre.
In 1991, I completed my University education in Sapporo, Japan, and with the wealth of knowledge and my newly found passion for teaching, I opened up ETC English Training Centre in September, 2001.
All of the teachers at ETC follow a particular style of methodology and curriculum that I have developed over the years. It really works! I’m so proud of our learners and our ETC style of teaching.
Our special classes truly make you fluent speakers which brings confidence, more understanding for culture and empowers you with speaking skills to voice your ideas using English.
INTERVIEW IN
Jane Solovyov’s first lesson in growing a small business came hard and fast – on the same day that the jets slammed into the World Trade Center towers.
“I had an appointment on September 11, 2001, to sign my first lease with the landlord,” said Solovyov, who was opening ETC English Training Centre when she woke up to the news. “I phoned the owner and said, ‘Can we postpone the appointment?’ I feel so terrible thinking about business and signing a lease when so many people have lost their lives.’”
The landlord’s reaction was quick and unequivocal: “‘Jane, business is business,’” Solovyov related. “‘We have an appointment and we are going to sign the lease.’”
The importance of separating her heart from her head has stayed with her, as her business has grown from just her teaching 20 students alone to having four full-time teachers instructing 70 to 80 students.
“The challenge is to be centred and to ride out the waves of economic change, your audience, changes with your staff, anything that comes your way,” she said.
That “anything” includes raising her now seven-year-old daughter on her own and running a business at the same time, which has forced her to set priorities.
Looking back, Solovyov says she would have taken more courses in leadership and “finding the right people to work for her,” asked more questions rather than “shooting first” and educated herself about business, including leases.
At the same time, says Solovyov, you can think about things too much before opening your business “and you get scared of leaping.”
“You really have to just do it.”
