Mónika Horváth

Mónika Horváth

I am Horváth Mónika, the dreamer, founder and chief executive of the BGC English kindergarten and school program, and also a mother of three wonderful children.

Since my childhood, both sports and English language have always been outstandingly important for me.

As an professional athlete, I had travelled quite a lot around the world and therefore I had the chance to learn the importance of speaking languages.

My university studies – supported by a sport grant – were pursued in the USA; I earned a degree in communication. Returning home I continued my studies and obtained an English teacher’s degree. While having some private students I came across with the inefficiencies of language teaching, the difficulties of the late mechanical mugging kind of language learning.

I was determined to establish a system in Hungary that allows children to acquire the basics of English language in a playful and spontaneous manner.

It was in my years in the USA that I first had a chance to see the work done by the Boys & Girl Club. In the USA this program is not devoted to language learning but to skills development. I was highly attracted by the thematic structuring and the child centered feature of the program. The program was elaborated for children whose mother tongue was English; therefore we set the goal to adapt it to be a tool to teach English as a foreign language.

In 2014 we received the European Language Award founded by the European Union in recognition of our innovative methods deemed a good example to follow in teaching foreign languages.

9 years passed since the program was launched in the first kindergarten English groups. Since then the program has been introduced in three kindergartens and two primary schools. We are responsible for the language teaching of altogether 725 children. The work is supported by 27 native English-speaking teachers and another 10 people assist the program.

I am grateful that my hobby has become a profession for me and day by day I am able to contribute to the future prospects of the children and their families participating in the BGC English program.