Select a region
A thriving local business, Accent Language School, has been acquired by Italian-born local resident Anna Lisa Detassis.
Founded in 1990 by former owner Chris Blin, the business is the premiere language services provider in Guernsey, offering English as a foreign language, as well as foreign language tuition for everyone from pre-school children to university students and local businesses.
Accent, now in its 25th year, employs some 30 part time specialists and teachers, offering seven languages both locally and off island. For the first time this year, Accent is partnering with the prestigious Choisy College to offer intensive French language courses for local students just across the water in St Malo.
Mrs Detassis, who has been teaching Italian and German at a number of local schools, has more than 20 years’ experience in senior roles in marketing, communications and business development, having worked in multinational companies in Germany, Kazakhstan, the USA and Russia. She moved with her young family to Guernsey in 2008, working in the financial industry as a marketing specialist. Mrs Detassis has always been passionate about different cultures and languages, speaking six of them fluently.
“With Accent I have found the perfect match, combining my love for languages with my experience in developing successful brands and businesses,” she said.
Having worked at Accent on a part time basis for the past two years, Mrs Detassis has helped to develop new opportunities such as the after-school language club run in a number of local primary schools. Leveraging the successful language franchise “La Jolie Ronde”, tailored for three to 11 year olds, which Accent introduced to the island many years ago, over 120 pupils each week are learning four different languages.
“It is very exciting to see the tremendous response young children have towards learning a new language and we hope to be able to bring this to all primary schools in the island,” she said.
Accent has been successfully running its Easter and summer language schools for a number of years, which attract more than 500 students annually to the island and have played a significant part in promoting tourism in Guernsey.
“We have developed some very strong relationships with groups from all over Europe. For instance, a Spanish party has been coming back to our Guernsey summer school for more than 20 years,” said Mr Blin.
“A strong factor in this has been not only the quality of our teaching and activity programme but also the warm hospitality of the host families who provide accommodation throughout the summer. For the first time we are now also offering local students the opportunity to mix with these exchange students while they take part in intensive foreign language courses over the summer,” he said.
The company also caters for business professionals, whether they are secondees from abroad wanting to improve their spoken and written English, or local business people who need to communicate professionally in other languages.
Accent’s sister business, which specialises in translation services, remains a going concern in its own right, owned and managed by Mr Blin.
