IZI English Community-run community-based education and tourism projects which have operated in Da Nang for 4 years with free-of-charge courses have proved highly effective. IZI hinges on ensuring that learners have easy access to English learning and innovative, communicative approaches for the sake of their better study and job performances.

Participants at IZI Da Nang-offered community-based tourism project confidently conversing with foreigners in English

More than 2 years ago, Do Trung Dung, an IT engineer from FPT Software Da Nang, always resorted to the help of an interpreter during his working sessions with foreign partners, which was the biggest obstacle to his job.

While working with his foreign partners, he realised that an inadequate command of English left many of he and his colleagues at a disadvantage compared to their English-speaking partners.

“I used to attend lots of English courses in the past, but the knowledge gained through these courses was still modest. Therefore, my communication skills were not good,”, complained Dung.

By chance, surfing the internet and access information on free classes held on weekends by the IZI English Community, Dung showed no reluctance in registering for such a certain course.

According to Dung, through weekly gatherings in such open spaces as cafes, the participants have a lot of practice in listening and speaking, while, in the past, he focused more on reading and writing skills.

After 2 years of taking IZI Da Nang-launched English classes, Dung has matured from a shy English speaker into a confident employee at his company with his English proficiency improving considerably.

He is now able to communicate in English directly with his foreign partners and clients without needing an interpreter as previously. Recently, Dung has been assigned by his company to work with clients from the USA and Europe.

As for Bui Thai Son, a first-year student from the Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunication at the city’s University of Technology and Science, having joined English classes at IZI Da Nang for 4 years, his English skills have also showed many positive improvements.

In addition, Son showed his deep interest in IZI Da Nang-launched community-based tourism programes featuring with many field trips and highly practical experiences through which the young can cultivate English knowledge, and gain a deeper insight into cultural traditions and historical values of this European country.

Meanwhile others said they are quite surprised at the IZI community-learning model, which creates a dynamic, friendly milieu, and encourages everyone to join, share their experience and help one another better their English skills,

According to Huynh Pham Thanh Duyen, IZI's Chief Representative in Da Nang, IZI organised 2 projects in the city, namely Community-based Education and Community-based Tourism.

In the Community-based Education, anyone who wants to learn English can attend English sessions offered at certain coffee shops every Sunday afternoon. The meet-ups last about 3 hours each and are hosted by IZI members.

These weekly sessions take various themes, focusing on improving participants’ pronunciation and target native-like ease and confidence when speaking in public or communicating with expats in English.

At these events, the young are encouraged to take the stage and shared their experience in learning English, and showed their expectant audience of dozens of members how to pronounce English words correctly and bolster their ease and confidence in communicating with foreigners.

The sessions drew mostly students to start with, but have now become a rendezvous for high school pupils, white-collar workers, and even retirees.

With regard to Community-based Tourism, the participants can participate in practical English sessions held right at tourist sites as a good way to enrich their knowledge about traditional culture, in tandem with enhancing teamwork skills.

In the past 4 years, IZI Da Nang has organised a total of 245 free English programmes and more than 40 experience-exploring training programmes, all of which have attracted a combined total of more than 10,000 young people.

“Some hurdles and difficulties facing IZI are considerably relieved by its members’ noted progress in English”, affirmed a IZI Da Nang member. In recent years, IZI has flourished and its membership burgeoned exponentially.