From Teaching English in Hong Kong to Setting Up Connected Business English: Hannah’s Story

Connected Business English combines industry specific expertise with experienced language teaching, supporting both companies and professionals around the world to improve their Business English and reach global career opportunities.

As founder, Hannah Jones has lived, worked and studied in Beijing, Hong Kong and Mumbai, along with having more recently spent a lot of time in Madrid. It has been a combination of all of these experiences that have led to Connected Business English becoming what it is today.

Here we speak to Hannah to find out more about the journey.

Can you tell us about yourself?

I'm originally from North Wales. I grew up by the sea, not far from Conwy and Snowdonia, which are both beautiful locations for our cultural immersion courses. I love travelling, music, languages, cities, mountains, meeting new people and learning about new cultures. I went to university in England, where I studied alongside many international students (particularly on my Economics course), including many students from India and China. I spent some time in Beijing and Hong Kong between studying. I loved my time abroad! - learning Mandarin and exploring China. Upon graduating, I moved straight to Hong Kong to teach English.

When did you first start teaching?

Over 15 years ago! I taught English in Hong Kong - at a secondary school - designing and teaching lessons to groups of 30 students from 11-19 years old. Alongside teaching at a secondary school, I helped run English events at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and volunteered in my spare time at a young offenders’ institute to support people in learning English. From this point onwards, I have always really enjoyed teaching English.

What were the earliest stages of Connected Business English’s journey?

After Hong Kong, I moved to Mumbai in India, where I worked for a start-up company. Here, I met people from all over the world (including more Chinese and Hong Kong friends!) and discovered the importance of a common language to work with a truly diverse and international group of people. I travelled a lot across India during this time. I loved studying and working with people from all over the world. I found it hugely energising to meet people from countries I knew very little about, and saw the benefits of a diverse, broad, global network. I was always determined that one day I wanted to set up something like Connected Business English, where I could apply many of these same values.

What did you learn about the challenges of moving to a new city/country?

I built an international network whilst living in Mumbai and Hong Kong, and got to understand the challenges of moving to a new country/city, along with the importance of building a network, understanding the culture and learning the language - I picked up basic Cantonese, Mandarin (and enough Hindi to give rickshaw drivers directions) along the way! Learning the language and building a network both help you to adapt to a new place.

Through working with people internationally, I was also recognising the challenges many people were facing with language barriers, such as struggling to understand accounting terminology during studies, not being understood in US meetings due to accents, and adjusting to the cultural differences and colloquialisms following moving to the UK. Other challenges people shared included struggling to speak to a new CEO due to lack of confidence in speaking English, and not feeling able to communicate with an international team on a project due to poor language skills. All of these first-hand insights helped me realise the importance of industry-focused support for people to help them not only to grow confidence in, but to excel in these areas.

What about your own career, how did that progess?

I moved to London, and planned to only stay for three years to complete my accountancy exams… ten years later, I had built up a successful career and experience in accounting, which included five years leading finance teams as a financial controller, responsible for multi-billion pound portfolios and leading teams through major organisational changes.

Alongside my career in accounting, I continued to develop my teaching skills. I acted as a mentor to new graduates, supported the apprenticeship team, and ran accounting workshops for non-finance professionals. I successfully completed Cambridge English’s CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) course - spending time in Madrid teaching English to adult learners from across Spain and South America - including NGO workers, a published author, and a retired paediatrician. This included assessed teaching and lots of written assessments. I loved it.

I wanted to combine my accounting background with teaching and international perspective. I looked to bring together experts from different fields - law, science and English teaching, to combine our knowledge to deliver specialised Business English training and provide tailored training for companies and professionals all over the world.

Tell us a bit about Connected Business English?

We provide Business English training to both businesses and individuals.

We have a mix of experience across Connected Business English - a combined experience which includes 10+ years as an accountant, 10+ years as a lawyer, 10+ years as a clinical scientist and over 30 years as English teachers - so we are able to provide expertise in these fields.

We have worked hard to design courses which are relevant to industry, making sure we're keeping up with the latest updates. We regularly interview people from science, tech, law and accounting in our blog as part of our efforts to share the latest insights.

We tailor our courses to the industry or individual's learning needs. We work closely with learners to understand their current English level, challenges and what they need to improve, and then continue to work with them to improve this throughout the course. Our support doesn't just end in the classroom, we set regular homework, activities, run networking events around the world, and many of our course packages include round-the-clock Business English support, for those times when learners have a quick question about their English!

We pride our service on understanding and working with learners’ individual needs to ensure that we are able to support them in achieving their own personal goals, many of which will vary from learner to learner. It is always a delight for us to see our learners grow in confidence and we look forward to doing this for years to come. We are engaging with universities, professionals and companies around the world to provide Business English support, and are really enjoying it!

Do you have any experience as a language learner?

Yes! I grew up learning Welsh in primary school, followed by French when I reached secondary school. I later studied Chinese (Mandarin in Beijing followed by lessons in London), and picked up some basic Cantonese when living in Hong Kong (just enough to order food in a restaurant!). Most recently, I have been learning Spanish, which has been mostly picked up through travelling around Spain.

Do you have any funny stories as a language learner?

Yes, so many! I learnt French for 5 years and got an A in my exams... but the first time I met a French person, I wasn't able to speak to them! "Do you speak French?" "Un petit pois" I replied... not realising that I made no sense - "a little peas" instead of "a little!".

I have had many moments where I've made mistakes in Spanish, last year, I had a problem with my hire car in Spain - I visited a garage and had no idea how to describe the problem! Instead, I pointed at my car and said "mi coche es malo" (my car is sick / bad)... the mechanic looked at me surprised... and so I just repeated myself and pointed again, before taking out google translate! But, I always believe the important thing when learning a language is that we try. Particularly when trying to improve speaking fluency, it is really important to try to speak the language, to be immersed in situations where you're forced to speak the language, and to always attempt to use every bit of the language you know! It is a great way to improve!

What would be your advice to English learners?

Don't be afraid to try! Immerse yourself in the language, practise, ask for help and of course attend some classes.