At ELC Boston we meet students from all over the world and hear very interesting stories. One student with an especially interesting story is Mischa Thoma. Mischa came to ELC from his home in Switzerland. A manager at TomTom, a Dutch automotive navigation system Mischa began his ELC Business English course in July. He chose Business English because he wanted to improve his English in order to be able to create more business relationships for TomTom. Mischa joined four other ELC students in his Group-5 Business English Course. Together, with his classmates, Mischa practiced making conference calls, writing business emails, and other important business skills including American business etiquette. He told us that his favorite topic by far, was working with his teacher, Craig Farr, to plan his final presentation about TomTom, in English. Specifically, Mischa felt that writing and speaking about his company in English made him feel that he had successfully achieved his goals while at ELC. Mischa is looking forward to applying the his new business English to his career at TomTom upon returning.
During the day Mischa works as an account manager at TomTom by day, but at night Mischa break-dances. He learned how to dance in Switzerland and has been with his dance academy for 12 years. Misha began dancing by taking lessons, but now he teaches lessons. Mischa goes to dance competitions and also wins official dance battles. Mischa is successful at both his business and his sport.
On July 25th, 2014 Craig Farr, a business English teacher at ELC Boston, brought Mischa and the four other Business English students to Boston University to tour the Boston University (BU) business department. During the tour the class was looking around the classrooms when they stumbled upon an empty auditorium. A BU staff member turned on the lights for them. Craig, Mischa, and the other students agreed that the BU auditorium was a perfect place to practice their final business presentations!
Mischa got onto the stage and started to break dance in front of his small class. Yes, break dance! Luckily, Craig caught it on video.
ELC is so lucky to have successful students with interesting stories and many talents. Thank you for sharing your story, Mischa! Make sure to watch Mischa’s video of his dancing at Boston University!
