My name is Akinde and I'm an ESL teacher.  For 20 years I've helped many professionals reach their language goals. Like all teachers,  I started my career by using textbooks and scripted programs.  At first, I was wary of veering off the course work but over the years I learned how to use the course work as a guide and then a springboard for more meaningful  language learning. The longer I taught, the  more I met students who didn't match the course work and desperately wanted to help them so I learned to get to know them well enough to teach them through their interests. I had one such student who rejected the coursework all together but still came to class eager to learn. I couldn't let the opportunity to help him just slip away so I figured out how to give him what he needed  without the coursework, at all. He worked with me towards being able to rule over business disputes and attend international conferences without a translator. How? We focused on a combination of his needs, interests and his personal life to lead the lessons where they needed to be for him. I helped  doctors, lawyers,  pilots, and other professionals to be able to reach their language goals in a similar manner. Those successes led me to develop my own program that would help my students duplicate the successes my previous students have had.