E N G L I S H S C H O O L BROCHURE ENGLISH IN A QUARTER OF THE TIME! 1 aENGLISH IN A QUARTER OF THE TIME !a Introduction The brochure is divided into three parts. The student can, if he wishes, initially just read Part The Callan School has invented a Method that One, which proves the claims of the Method, teaches English in a quarter of the time taken by then later read Part Two, which goes into greater any other method on the market and con- detail, whilst Part Three is mainly about fees and sequently has reduced the cost of studying to a terms and conditions. The student should then quarter. keep the brochure for future reference, as it contains all manner of information and explanat- Because the truth of such an extraordinary claim ions. cannot be proved in a few words, the student is asked to read very carefully this rather long If, of course, the student accepts the logic of the brochure and also the Preface found at the front Callan Method’s claims, and has already decided of the Student’s Book that the School will loan to sign on at the School, he need not read this him during his Trial Week. He will find that it is brochure in any depth. The brochure is really for impossible for anyone to read the Preface and those who need positive proof. not be totally convinced that the Callan Method really does teach English in a quarter of the normal time. P PART ONE E Clearly it is well-worth the student’s time to read this Preface (even though it might take him an hour or so) as it will save him three-quarters of his studying time and three-quarters of his tuition fees. The Cambridge figure Like the Preface, this brochure is mainly aimed According to figures published by the University at the extreme sceptic who finds it difficult to of Cambridge, it takes the average beginner believe that a method can possibly exist that student, studying 3 hours a week, at the average teaches English in a quarter of the normal time – private school throughout the world, about 350 it sounds humanly impossible! People who are hours (4 academic years) to reach the level of not sceptical by nature believe it after a mere the internationally famous Cambridge ten-minute explanation, purely on the strength of Preliminary exam. The Callan Method, as used its main evidence. The extreme sceptic, on the by Callan Method schools throughout the world, other hand, needs to have all his questions gets him there in a mere 80 hours (one academic answered before he can accept the Method’s year), and to the Cambridge First Certificate in claims – and it is these answers that this 160 hours (2 academic years) compared to the brochure provides. 700 hours (8 academic years) taken by other methods. The Callan Method has always had to face this problem of disbelief. Unfortunately, that which The guarantee and free lessons is difficult to believe is easily attacked – especially by those who have a vested interest in Because the Callan School does not expect attacking it, which is why this brochure and the anyone to believe this – as it sounds quite Preface to the Student’s Book have to be so long. impossible – it gives every student a written The proof of the Method has to be exhaustive, guarantee that, if he (or she) fails the Cambridge otherwise it is in danger of being misunderstood exams (or any other exams at the same level) in and ridiculed. the number of hours the School predicts, it will give him free lessons until he is successful – the There is no need, however, for schools in number of hours never being more than a quarter London to attack the Callan Method, as it is of those taken by any other school in London. freely available for them to use. 2 The School also gives a guarantee for the 90% Pass rate student’s London studies For the Cambridge exams, the Callan School has The School also guarantees to get the student to an average pass-rate of about 90% compared to a certain level of English whilst he is in London, the national average of about 70%. As a typical as he might not intend taking the Cambridge example of its results:- In one Preliminary exams or will not be in London at the time the examination session, out of 38 students taking exams are given. The School uses the Cam- the exam, only 4 failed, and 3 of those that bridge exams only as a yardstick to compare its passed had never studied English before, and had Method results with those of other methods. studied an average of only 66 hours with the Callan Method. Payment on results Valid by law At Callan Method schools abroad, if the student is sceptical about the claims of the Method, he The Callan guarantee is not just some kind of can, if he wishes, pay on results, that is, he does publicity gimmick. It is valid by law, as it is not pay in advance, but at the end of each Stage severely against the law in England to give of the Method. If he is not satisfied with the worthless guarantees. If the School did not keep results, he does not pay. Such a system should to the terms of its guarantee, the student could prove to even the most extreme sceptic that what contact the “Consumer Protection Council” (a the School is saying is true, as under this system, British Government organisation) Tel: 0181 369 the School does not get paid until it has 2007, or write to P.O. Box 1155, London SE25 produced the guaranteed results. At all other 5WY, and ask it to take legal action against the schools, the student is always asked to pay in School. advance (with no refunds). Illegal advertising Refunds It is also severely against the law in England to At the Callan School in London, it is not make false statements in publicity. The School possible to use the above system of “Payment could therefore not put on the cover of its books on Results”, as there is a constant movement of “English in a quarter of the time !” if it were not students coming and going from all over the true. It could be prosecuted by the Government world, studying one hour to three hours a day, under the “Trades Description Act”. This alone for three weeks to nine months, causing proves the claims of the Method must be true. enormous organisational and administrative problems. In place of such a system, the School The logical argument gives the student a refund at the end of his studies. If, for example, the student had paid for And then, of course, there is the logical a three-month course in advance, and the School argument. The School is not selling fake gold has guaranteed to get him to paragraph 500 of watches on the corner of the street. If what it the Callan Method in that time, and when he was saying was untrue, it would soon acquire a comes to leave, it is found that he has reached bad reputation. Only a fool would claim to teach only paragraph 450, i.e. 10% short of the target, English in a quarter of the time if it were not the School refunds him 10% of his fees. true. Callan Method schools abroad teach English to the employees of major international In addition to this type of refund, the School companies, and such companies do not pay, or refunds the student if he has to cut short his convert to, the Callan Method until it is proved studies for whatever reason. For example, if he to them to their total satisfaction that the Callan has paid three months in advance and then finds Method really does teach English in a quarter of he has to return to his own country after the normal time. completing only two months of his studies, the School will refund him his third month’s fees – It is also well to remember that the Receptionists charging him a £15 administration fee. No other and teachers at the Callan School are not paid to school in London (possibly in the world) does tell lies. Many of the Receptionists themselves this. have studied at the School with the Callan 3 Method and passed the Cambridge exams – categories (usually into only just Beginners, reaching the level of the exams in a quarter of Intermediate and Advanced) at any given hour, the time they would have taken at any other which means that almost every student finds school in London. himself in an unsuitable class, and when he asks to be moved, the school refuses, because it has Trial Lessons nowhere to move him to. Some schools have as few as 5 or 6 classrooms, which makes it Before signing on, the student is given a week of impossible for them to grade students at all. Trial Lessons (except in July and August) – which he pays for only if he signs on. This is to The Callan School, on the other hand, with its allow him time to read the Preface of the book 70 classrooms, can grade them far more he is loaned and to see how the Method works. accurately into 70 categories, or levels, and place Virtually no other school offers him this, as them into suitable courses exactly at their level- other schools are afraid he will not sign on. which means they learn much faster. It is very important for the student not to panic In order to maintain the personal touch and a when first going into a Callan Method class or to friendly atmosphere, the Callan School has jump to the wrong conclusions about the divided itself into departments which the student Method, as it will be quite new to him. The can relate to. understanding of the Method and the feeling of its effects come after about four or five weeks. The School enters more students for the Cambridge exams It cannot be stressed enough to the student the importance of reading very carefully the Preface Because the Callan School gets its students to to his book, as it will convince him totally that the level of the Cambridge exams much quicker the Callan Method really does teach English in a than other schools, it enters more students for quarter of the time taken by any other method on these exams. In fact, it enters over 700 students the market, and that “English in a quarter of the a year, which is more than any one of the 1000 time!” is not just some kind of publicity slogan. schools in England. The average school enters To get such a message across verbally to the only 50 to 100 students a year. student would take a School’s Receptionist a whole hour or more. Maximum of 12 to 14 students in a class The Callan School is the largest in London Schools in London put a maximum of 8 to 20 students in a class, with the average maximum The size of a school can be an indication of its being 14. The Callan School tries to keep its successful teaching method. With its 2000 to maximum to 12, but with the enormous success 3000 students, its 70 classrooms, and its 70 or of its Method, this is not always possible, which more teachers, the Callan School is the largest means it sometimes has to put 13 or 14 in a school in London – probably in Europe. The class. The only alternative to this would be to second largest school has only about 450 turn students away. students, whilst the average school has only about 15 classrooms. The Callan School has Although the maximum is 14, it is well to grown to its present size until now with almost remember that the average is only about 9. The no advertising – most of its students coming School keeps accurate statistics, and finds that from word-of-mouth recommendation of friends. each week the average almost never exceeds 9 per class, which means that the student, during A large school means more accurate the course of his studies, will sometimes find grading himself in a class of 14, then perhaps later in a class of 10 or 7, or even 5, with the overall Generally speaking, at a small restaurant or a average being 9. At other schools, if their small hotel, one receives a better quality of maximum is 14, their average can quite easily be service. This is not so with a school. As the as many as 12, as they do not have sufficient average school in London has only about 15 classrooms to enable them to spread out their classrooms, it can grade students into only 15 students. 4 Smaller classes at unpopular hours. Preliminary, whereas the Callan School, as Harmony is more important than size of stated previously, takes only 100 hours (about 3 class months) and charges only £489. For the First Certificate these figures are double, There is usually a better chance of being in a i.e. approximately 1200 hours (24 months) at a small class at the Callan School if the student cost of £7876 at the other schools, compared to studies early in the morning or in the afternoon. 200 hours (6 months) at a cost of £978 at the What is far more important, however, than the Callan School. number of students in a class is the harmony of the class. Like a rowing team, if the students in Naturally, students who are not complete begin- a large class are able to move together harmon- ners will take less time, whilst those who are iously at the same speed as each other, they will below average will take more time. learn faster than a small class of students who learn at different speeds. As the above figures show, non-Callan students abroad who take 350 hours to reach the level of Naturally, in a class of 14 the student receives the Preliminary take 600 hours in London. This only half the speaking time of a student in a class is because, having to study 3 hours a day in of 7, but the amount of reading, writing and London, they learn very little in their third hour, listening time remains the same. Being in due to tiredness. London, however, the student is able to enjoy more speaking practice outside the classroom than he would in his own country. If the student 50-minute lessons wished to be in a class of a maximum of 7, it would mean having to pay double – which most As lessons at the vast majority of the schools in students would not be willing to do. London (including the Callan School) last 50 minutes, the Callan School’s 100 hours for the Students in England require more Cambridge Preliminary will equal 120 fifty- classroom hours minute lessons, and the 600 hours of the other schools will equal 720 fifty-minute lessons. The fees in the survey are based on the student Whilst Callan students studying abroad take only paying 12 weeks at a time in advance. 80 hours to reach the level of the Cambridge Preliminary, in London, they take 100 hours Since the original Survey was carried out, three (25% longer). This is because in London they of the schools on it have moved out of central have to study in mixed-nationality classes, as is London. So their prices are not included. also the case at other London schools, which means that they are studying with students who have different problems from themselves – the problems of a Spanish student being quite different from those of a Japanese student. Also they study more hours a week over a shorter period of time, which can be quite tiring. The Survey of London schools s In order to find out how many hours the other schools in London take to get their average complete beginner to the level of the Cambridge exams, a student carried out a Survey (shown below), and discovered that the average London school takes approximately 600 hours (about 12 months) and charges £3938 (at 1999 prices) for the complete preparation to get its average beginner student to the level of the Cambridge 5 CAMBRIDGE PRELIMINARY FIGURES S The monthly figures in the Survey are based on s 3 lessons a day, except the Callan School No. of No..of Cost-of figures, which are based on 2 lessons a day. School Lessons months complete At-3 preparation For a student to pay around £8,000 at one of the lessons £ a day other schools in London for a complete preparation for the Cambridge First Certificate 1 Sels 540 9 4,784 when he can get exactly the same result at the 2 Cambridge 576 9½ 3,6 92 Callan School for about a mere £1,000 is like a man paying £8,000 for a non-guaranteed car 3 Davies 648 11 - when he could have exactly the same car 4 Central 648 11 3,311 (guaranteed) for £1,000. It is sheer madness. 5 Inter. Hse 648 11½ 6,669 6 St Antony’s 688 11½ - Too good to be true 7 Pitman 688 11½ - 8 St Patrick’s 720 12 5,040 These figures are so phenomenal that the student 9 Regent 720 12 5,5 58 cannot be blamed for thinking them ridiculous 10 Oxford Hse 828 14 3,0 30 and an insult to his intelligence. They are too good to be true. Therefore, they cannot be true. 11 Montaigne 828 14 1,532 There must be some trick somewhere. The 12 Eden 972 16 1,827 student cannot see where the trick is, but it must be there. Like watching the magic act of sawing Averages = 720 12 3,938 CALLAN 120 3 489 a woman in half, he might not know how it is done, but it is obvious that there is a trick in it. (at 2 lessons a day) Differences = 600 9 3,612 As previously stated, the problem with the Callan Method is that it is so exceptional it is CAMBRIDGE FIRST CERTIFICAT E E extremely difficult to believe. How can a method teach English in a quarter of the normal No. of No.of Cost--of time? In one year instead of four! Nonsense! School lessons months complete At--3 preparation Impossible! Fortunately, these figures can be lessons £ checked by the student. All he has to do is take a day the cost per lesson each of the other schools charge (when students pay 12 weeks in advance) 1. Sels 1080 18 9,568 and multiply it by the number of lessons each 2. Cambridge 1152 19 7,384 school tells him it takes to get its average 3. Davies 1296 22 - complete beginner to the level of the Cambridge 4. Central 1296 22 6,6 22 First Certificate, and compare the figures with those given him by the Callan School on his 5. Inter. Hse 1368 23 13,338 guarantee. 6. St Antony’s 1376 23 - 7. Pitman 1376 23 - The schools on the Survey serve only as 8. St Patrick’s 1440 24 10,080 an example 9. Regent 1440 24 11,116 10. Oxford Hse 1656 28 6,0 60 The 12 schools on the Survey could have been 11. Montaigne 1656 28 3,0 64 any of the 30 or so schools in central London, or 12. Eden 1944 32 3,6 54 anywhere else in the world, as the situation is the same at private schools of English throughout Averages = 1440 24 7,876 the world. The 12 schools are no better and no CALLAN 24 0 6 9 78 worse than any other school. They represent a (at 2 lessons a day) cross-section of schools, serving just to show, in Difference = 120 0 18 6,898 reality, how long the average school takes to get its average student to the level of the Cambridge exams compared to that of the Callan School. 6 One lesson compared to 7½ lessons teach 18.3 words a lesson when all the other schools teach only an average of 3.1 words? It will be noticed that the two cheap schools on the Survey take an average of 900 lessons to get It cannot, therefore, be stressed enough that their students to the level of the Cambridge these figures are correct, as is everything else in Preliminary compared to the 674 lessons of the this brochure, and can be checked. It is the other ten schools and the 120 lessons of the Callan Method’s extraordinary results that make Callan School. This means that the Callan stud- its claims so difficult to believe. Nonetheless, ent learns as much in one hour (paying £4.08) as they are true. he would in 7½ hours (paying £14, i.e. £1.87 a lesson) at one of the cheap schools. Name of school No.of Cost per words Word taught per Taught It is the cost of the complete preparation lesson that counts 1) Sels 4.1 2.17 2) Cambridge 3.8 1.68 It is, however, not the cost per lesson that counts, but the cost of the complete preparation. The 3) Davies 3.4 - two cheap schools charge an average of £1680 4) Central 3.4 1.51 for the Cambridge Preliminary compared to the 5) Inter. House 3.2 3.03 Callan School’s £489 and the £4583 of the other 6) St Antony’s 3.2 - ten schools. 7) Pitman 3.2 - 8) St Patricks 3.1 2.29 The number of words taught per lesson; 9) Regent 3.1 2.53 and cost per word 10) Oxford House 2.7 1.38 The following Chart shows how many words per 11) Montaigne 2.7 0.70 lesson the student is taught at each of the 12 12) Eden House 2.3 0.83 schools on the Survey. As can be seen, the aver- Averages = 3.1 1.79 age is 3.1 words per lesson. These figures are arrived at by dividing 4400 words by the total CALLAN = 18.3 0.22 number of lessons the school takes to get its Differences = 15.2 1.57 average beginner student to the level of the Cambridge First Certificate. The speed of learning does not depend largely upon the student Cambridge University publish a Lexicon of the 4400 words that the student taking the First The student might think that what he learns at a Certificate is expected to know. Naturally, the school depends largely upon himself, and that a student is also taught how to use these words cheap school is therefore just as good as any correctly in any sentence together with the other. This, however, is not the case. The speed grammar that goes with them. at which a student learns depends to a great extent on the quality of the school and its As can be seen, in comparison with the average teachers, but above all on the method it uses. of 3.1. words taught by the other schools, the The student cannot progress any faster than the Callan School teaches 18.3 words a lesson. class he is in. The Chart also shows how much each word Sels, Cambridge and the Berlitz taught costs the student. The average is £1.79 a word compared to the Callan School’s 22p. The figures given by the two schools Sels and These figures are arrived at by dividing the Cambridge on the Survey are rather low, and are complete cost of the preparation by the 4400 therefore probably not for complete beginners. words taught. The Berlitz is not included in the Survey as, at the time, it did not take complete beginners or Again, these figures are absurd! They are prepare students for the Cambridge exams. ludicrous! How is it possible for a school to 7 The protest of the schools The ethics of the other schools The schools on the Survey tried to take legal As the Callan Method is freely available on the action against the Callan School, complaining open market for any school to use, it could be that it was not possible to define an “average argued that the schools in London are them- student” or a “complete beginner” and that the selves behaving unethically by not using it, and figures on the Survey were incorrect. Such com- are therefore obliging their students to study four plaints were not upheld. There is an “average” times longer (i.e. 20 months instead of 5) than is in every field of human activity, and a “complete necessary. beginner” is obviously someone who knows virtually no English, whilst as for the correctness Some schools have lowered their hours of the figures, these were given by the schools themselves to the student who conducted the When the student carried out the Survey by Survey. asking the schools how long they took to get their average complete beginner to the level of The schools were obliged to drop the action the Cambridge exams, they did not realise they against the Callan School, for, if they had shown were under investigation and so gave him the that they did not know the correct figures for the correct figures. Today, some of those schools “average complete beginner”, it would have have lowered those figures to 300 hours (5 made them appear incompetent, whilst if they months) for the Preliminary and 600 (10 months) had refused to give the correct figures, it would for the First Certificate, which they know very have appeared that they had something to hide. well they cannot achieve, and which are still In any case, whatever the schools might claim to treble the Callan figures. Any student making be the real figures, they are of no value if they enquiries should ask to see evidence of the are not supported by a written guarantee. schools’ claims. The Callan School gives its Without giving a guarantee a school can invent evidence in the form of a guarantee. any figures it wishes. The real figure is 1688 hours The ethics of the Survey In reality, the figures the schools give the The Survey proves quite unequivocally that the students are not the real figures at all. Anyone Callan Method teaches English in a quarter of who has been in the English-teaching profession the time taken by any other method on the for any length of time knows that the real figure market. Under the Fair Trading Act it is against is 1688 hours for the First Certificate (including the law in England to falsify such Surveys. The 338 hours of homework). The student who carr- Callan School is therefore being quite legally ied out the Survey was told this in confidence by and ethically correct in publishing the above four people working in the English-teaching figures. By law it is the customer’s right (under business. the Trades Description Act) to know exactly what he is buying before he buys it, and also it is The Polytechnic figures perfectly legitimate to publish comparisons between various products if what is said is true. These figures are also confirmed by the For example, Volvo have in the past advertised Polytechnics (now sometimes called univers- in the following way: “Why is the Volvo twice ities) in London that run three-year courses for as good as the Fiat, Ford and Volkswagen?” – foreign students wishing to prepare from zero for Answer: “Because it only needs servicing every the First Certificate. Unlike many private 6,000 miles, whilst they need servicing every schools, these Polytechnics employ teachers with 3,000 miles”. degrees in English or foreign languages, so if they cannot get a result in less than 1688 hours, Not an attack on other schools private schools certainly cannot. The Survey is not, however, an attack on other schools. As already stated, it just serves to show how the Callan Method results compare with the traditional methods used by other schools. 8 The slowest Callan student is faster than put pressure on their private schools, state the fastest non-Callan student. The record schools and universities to use it. for the Callan Method is 87 hours Check the Callan figures with the other compared to 400 hours by other methods schools The ex-Principal of International House, one of the largest and longest established schools in If the student finds it difficult to believe that the London, has stated that he has never known, in other schools take so long to get their students to his 39 years of experience, a student to pass the the level of the Cambridge exams, he can ask Cambridge First Certificate in less than 400 them how long they will take to get him, hours. The record for the Callan Method is 87 personally, to the level of these exams, and will hours, achieved by a student at the Olivetti they give him a guarantee. He will, of course, company in Italy. Any Callan student taking 400 find that they do not give guarantees. Therefore, hours would be considered painfully slow. any figures they give him will be worthless. They will also tell him that, how quickly he No homework learns will depend on him. This, of course is true (even the Callan School has fast, average and slow students), so he has to ask them how With the Callan Method, there is little or no long they will take with him personally if he homework. With other methods, the student has turns out to be an average student. to do 15 minutes of homework for each hour spent in the classroom, thus adding 25% to his studying time. £1000 Reward In order to help convince the sceptic that the The other schools in London are afraidd Callan School really can teach him English in a quarter of the time taken by any other school in o.of the Callan Method d London, the Callan School will give him £1000 if he can find any school in London (not using Quite naturally, the other schools in London and the Callan Method) that gives all its students, at abroad are afraid of the Callan Method. The the beginning of their studies, a written Callan School has offered the Method to them guarantee of success in the Cambridge free of charge, but some have refused to use it Preliminary and First Certificate exams (and free (or even try it), and so they attack the Callan lessons if they fail) in less than four times the School and its Method. They think that, as the number of hours guaranteed by the Callan Method teaches English in a quarter of the School. For example, if the Callan School has normal time, they will lose three-quarters of their given the student a guarantee for 100 hours income. They fail to understand that, when (excluding, of course, the percentage added for something becomes quicker, cheaper and easier, lateness and absenteeism) for the Cambridge more people, i.e. customers, avail themselves of Preliminary, it will give him £1000 if he can find it and come onto the market. Teachers are also a school that will give him a guarantee for less afraid of the Method, as they erroneously think it than 400 hours. takes away their independence in the classroom, and lowers their social status, as anyone without Little has changed since the time of the qualifications or experience can learn to teach pharaohs with it in five days. As the student well knows, if he goes into any The Method is on the Internet and inet bookshop anywhere in the world, he will find an enormous number of books on the teaching of the shops s English as a foreign language. Some claim to have discovered a new and more effective way This opposition to the Method, however, has of teaching, and virtually all will have pictures now been overcome by the Method being put or photographs of well-known places and onto the Internet and into the bookshops famous pop stars or film stars. Every few years throughout the world for anyone to use. The many of these books are replaced by more up-to- students in their home towns will now be able to date versions under different authors’ names and 9