Club English
“Good English can improve your chances of succeeding, whatever career you choose.”
The English Club began in 1972 at World University Service, Chennai, when a small group of volunteers—Narayanan, Muthu Veerappan, Aparna and Amaran—came together to teach English to 35 Tamil-medium high schoolers.
At the time, high schoolers in Madras moving on to college faced a real hurdle: the medium of instruction switched suddenly from Tamil to English, and many struggled to keep pace.
The classes were an instant success and ran for about three years. As the founding volunteers themselves moved on to college, the programme moved with them—becoming part of several college campuses. From there, English learning spread further into Tamil Nadu’s tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Tamil Nadu today has the highest English literacy rate of any state in India.
20 million+ students reached 15,000 schools
As the need for English evolved, so did The English Club’s offerings:
- TOEFL Preparation — dedicated training in the Test of English as a Foreign Language for students planning to study in the US.
- English for Nursing—As nursing students found growing opportunities to work in the Middle East, good conversational English became essential, so we built a customised course just for this group.
Every English Club teacher has their own way of making the language stick:
- Padma reminds students that good English improves their chances of succeeding—whatever career they choose.
- Sashi encourages students to pick up English by watching English movies.
- Jaideep gets students learning through cricket commentary.
- Dammu curates English videos on YouTube for students to learn from.
- John encourages students to read English newspapers and magazines.
Learning at The English Club goes beyond the syllabus:
- Quotable Quotes — relevant quotes shared with students; some frame their favourites and hang them on the classroom wall.
- Jokes in English — circulated to keep the mood light.
- Essay-Writing Competitions — to build strong writing skills.
- Inspiring T-Shirts — printed with motivating messages and sold to the younger generation.
- Author Fan Clubs — for Chetan Bhagat, Sudha Murthy, Enid Blyton, P. G. Wodehouse, Alistair McLean¹ and Simon Sinek. Members meet periodically to discuss their favourite authors’ work.