About Berlitz
- home
- » about berlitz
128 years of language learning success
Berlitz is the most experienced global language school with over 125 years of success in language tuition, and we are continuing this tradition of excellence in Brighton.
When it comes to learning another language or understanding the nuances of another culture, no one is better prepared to help you reach your goals than Berlitz. Our courses feature an up-to-date curriculum based on years of teaching experience, taught by native speaking instructors. Each lesson features the proven Berlitz Method®, the most natural way of learning to speak another language.
At Berlitz Brighton we aim to get you speaking in the target language as soon as possible, as much as possible. The Berlitz Method® presents practical vocabulary in the context of real life situations. Grammar is studied to the extent that it aids communication. Instructors use a communicative approach based on listening and speaking, supported by relevant reading and writing exercises, so that students learn as they did as a child - with natural ease.
The Berlitz Difference – Empowering, Lively, Enjoyable
What makes Berlitz different? What can you expect to experience when you participate in one of our language learning adventures?
Personalised learning. Our approach emphasises individual instruction. With small groups and one to one classes, you can be sure you will receive the personal attention you need to help you reach your goals.
The quickest way to learn a new language. A concentration of speaking and listening using the Berlitz Method.
Over a century of experience. Berlitz has been helping people communicate in new languages for over 125 years. We know the unique challenges people face and provide strategies to overcome them.
Global support. Berlitz is the world’s leading language services company, with over 500 language centres worldwide.
Superb teaching. Our teachers are all native speakers. The pronunciation and usage are just what you will hear in the home country of your new language. Our teachers receive special training in helping students reach their language goals.
Expect results. We teach practical language as it is used in real-life situations. As you learn your new language with Berlitz, you will discover new people to talk to, new places in the world to explore, and the ability to more fully appreciate art and culture.
A Little Bit of History
A communicative approach is now common to language teaching but the innovations that our founder Maximilian D Berlitz made in 1878 means that we are the original, and, many would say, the best.
Berlitz was German but emigrated to the United States in 1872 ready to teach languages through the traditional grammar-translation approach. After success as a private teacher, Berlitz joined the Warner Polytechnic College. The college sounded grand but Berlitz himself was the owner, dean, principal, and only teacher.
Needing an assistant to teach French Berlitz hired a young Frenchman, Nicholas Joly, who seemed the best candidate. The assistant arrived at the college having not met Berlitz beforehand, and found his new employer ill and feverish, a condition that only got worse when Berlitz found that Joly spoke no English! Desperate to keep the college running Berlitz instructed his new assistant to point at objects and act out verbs as well as he could. He then took to his bed for the next six weeks.
When he recovered Berlitz expected to face a barrage of complaints from his neglected students. Instead he found them engaging in lively discussion in perfectly accented French with their teacher. The students had progressed further under the French assistant than they ever had done with Berlitz.
Berlitz quickly understood that his emergency measure held the seed of an innovative teaching technique; replacing rote learning with a stimulating process of discovery.
Over time the Berlitz Method has been fine tuned, but Berlitz’s discovery, the success of immersion in enjoyable classes with native speakers remains true today.