The English Farm was founded by a teacher for teachers. Education comes first. We are not tech-first, but we love tech. We are not business people, but we are savvy. 

Rule one: if it's taking more than 5 minutes, stop and get help. Nobody will ding you for it.

Coach, communicate and collaborate. Internally and externally. 

Teachers can shape training, workshops, meetings

Community

Never economise on food

Signal v noise

We listen

Just English classes

Attention to detail: written asynchronous working.

You don't need to tell me private stuff

Organizational structure

Be yourself

Openness and fairness

Including, diversity, respect

No judgement

If it takes too long, you are doing it wrong

Whatever you do, we will back you up

No stress

Be responsive

Be professional: professional, reliable, consistent. if you aren't everyone else is. spell names right etc.

Always be better (staff and students)

Outstanding service

Use your common sense. We will always back you.

Prescriptivist first--we are teachers, and our students will be judged for their abilities to communicate.

Be curious and learn/develop

Take the initiative.

English is a means to an end.

Take your time. Do it properly.

Don't focus on the test!

Long-term growth (not fluent in 3 months).

Careful communication and respect for time

Calibre of students should be foremost (they need to express themselves); think about them doing AGM in 15 years.

Helpful Farming Tips!

Attention to detail is important!

As I mentioned in our first interview, The English Farm is an entirely virtual team, with our "Farmers" working across the world in a variety of different timezones.  As a result, our important communications are often sent out in writing.  We strongly recommend you get into a good rhythm of reading any communications carefully and ensuring that you follow any instructions or requests.  You'll have a chance to practice that through the training process - you'll hear from your trainers asking you to prepare for the training sessions and providing details on how to join the session.  Matthew will be in touch with you directly to organise Culture Training and your post-training session.  Please make sure you acknowledge receipt of any emails you receive from the team and please make sure you do what is asked of you promptly through the training process. 

Emails can sometimes go astray:

It's also a good habit to get into to regularly check your spam, junk and promotions folders.  If a new member of the team emails you, these emails can often find their way into those folders and get overlooked, and it can be difficult for the recipient to know that is what's happened. Check these folders regularly, and if you can, set up rules for known senders to make sure you don't miss important information.

Be specific with timezones:

You'll also have noticed both Nadim and I made sure you knew which timezone we were in, as well as the timezone of any proposed meetings, whenever we were organising times with you. This is another great habit to adopt - it makes it much easier to organise meetings etc and prevents any back and forth.

We're all happy to help and information helps us do that:

Finally, as a team we are all happy to help out if and when you have an issue.  Please don't think you need to solve everything on your own - there's a whole team of people happy to help!  We do ask that when you raise issues you provide as much helpful information as you can (like context, screenshots etc) and please be courteous and kind to your colleagues.  It's part of what makes The English Farm a nice place for everyone to work! 

Currently, most of our students are going to be consultants, and many of those consultants will be from BCG or BCGDV. Here are some points to remember:

1. Confidentiality
   Please keep any information you hear about their company/clients confidential. Don't let on that you know anything about their company that you've heard from another student (it's fine if you read it in the news or something). 

   It's best to say "your firm/company" instead of their company name since we have other students from other companies, too. 

2. They are extremely busy
   Anything you can do to save their time will look good on you. 
   E.g. Changing any times to JST if you have to talk about time, using bullet points in notes, and/or giving them enough practice/training time in the lesson if you can tell they don't have time to do it outside of their lessons (or help them figure out a way to implement small, doable English habits in their daily routine). 
3. They have a hard time using up their lesson points
   Many students end up using their points in the last two months of their term, so there is a huge rush in April, May & October, November. 
4. They may not be prepared for class
   Your student might not have their textbook with them. You should always have the discussion topic page and/or the G.B.C. questions list open in case they don't. 
5. Confidence
   BCGers tend to be much more confident in their English skills than most Japanese students because they are highly educated and more confident people in general. 
6. Communication & mutual accountability
   Lesson record flags and QA.
7. Homework
   Do it!
8. Onboarding
   Learn the system and the service and talk to students about it.