Our mission
Onolingo’s mission is to support our customers as they acquire knowledge and skills to use English effectively and confidently. By using proven methodologies we aim to ensure that our customers accomplish their learning goals as quickly, and cost-efficiently as possible.
Our history
Founder, John Moen, began his career as a teacher of English as a second or foreign language in San Diego, California, in 1997. John, who is American, founded Onolingo’s predecessor, Smart Flower Language School, near Frankfurt, Germany— in the lovely community of Walluf, to be exact, in 2012. Smart Flower Language School provided in-person (off-line) language training to companies and individuals in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main region of Germany. In March 2020, however, in-person training was stopped as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, all courses and workshops have been conducted entirely online.
In early 2022, Smart Flower Language School was rebranded Onolingo English Training in order to better reflect that our students are now located around the globe.
Our concept
English is a global language. That means that there are many reasons why people choose to learn it. Onolingo’s concept, therefore, depends upon understanding what our customers’ aims are, setting realistic learning goals, and then following through to ensure that our customers successfully reach their goals.
Our teachers
Our teachers are university graduates who hold a qualification in teaching English as a second or foreign language. Onolingo teachers are native-speakers, and have at least ten-thousand hours teaching experience, which is equivalent to about six years of full-time teaching. Above all, our teachers are empathetic, and love what they do.
Our methodology
“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat everything as if it were a nail.”
— attributed to Abraham Maslow and others
You wouldn’t try to build a house with just one tool. For the same reason, you should not try to learn a foreign language using just one method.
Onolingo’s methods are based primarily on the Natural Approach, which emphasizes realistic communication in the classroom. This means that during lessons the teacher does not lecture. We answer participants’ questions, explain grammatical concepts, suggest more natural ways of expressing an idea, and offer learning tips, among other things, but we do not lecture. Instead, we involve our learners in various communicative tasks and activities. This learning by doing approach, which is often fun and exciting, develops competence to use English naturally, and more easily. Moreover, course participants develop confidence to use English well, not just in the classroom, but out in the real world. Participants might be presented with a problem, for instance, that they have to solve cooperatively, using English to communicate with one-another. The knowledge and skills that participants acquire, therefore, develop in a natural way.
We take your learning very seriously, and that’s why we like to have fun in the classroom.
The research is clear, high-stress environments are not good environments to learn in. That doesn’t mean that your language training is all fun and games, though we do often play games, and occasionally have fun.