Stephanie Sun / Chairwoman

It seems that quite a lot of people are curious about what kind of person the founder of Eagle is. When they find out that that the founder of American Eagle School, this prominent figure in the world of English education, is none other than me, some people are surprised, and others are just disappointed. This might be because I don't seem to possess advanced English skills and because my head does not sport the glowing halo of a linguistic scholar. Obviously people just can't quite put it all together. How could an ordinary person like me start an English education organization that is totally in step with North America and on track with the rest of the world? The answer is because I'm "ordinary."

Just like all the other fourth grade, fifth grade, and even sixth grade students in Taiwan, I went through a painful studying experience. For the sake of advancing to the next grade, Chinese, English, and mathematics became the priorities for studying. For most people, Chinese was a subject that you could excel in as long as you gave it a little effort. For mathematics there were bigger differences between students, since apart from hard work, natural talent was key. However, English was tricky. No matter how high or low your grades were, we all studied vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure. But when faced with a foreigner, everyone became as silent as a June bug in January. No one could even get a few words out, let alone converse fluently. This kind of experience was branded deeply in my young heart, and became my motivation for entering the field of English education in the future.

In 1999, after I had been working in the field of English and kindergarten education for over ten years, I made the decision to found a different kind of school—American Eagle School.  I made up my mind not to use the teaching methods of E.S.L. (English as a Second Language), and to directly import the North American educational system as a whole. Whether it was teacher credentials, curriculum, or teaching materials, I decided that the environment would be in step with North America. Whatever the students of North America studied, we could study. This kind of thinking and method was ahead of its time, and no one in my field thought it would fly. Some people even discouraged me. It seemed that, in the blink of an eye, I had composed a rhapsody that was too lofty for some to follow.

In fact, the reason that I suddenly made up my mind like this was because, after I enthusiastically joined up with an English education organization that was famous at the time and I tried out the fashionable so-called bilingual education, I found the results to be limited. It was just like the nightmare of my childhood when English was a foreign language that could never be mastered. Even though that school emphasized everyday conversation and being able to say formulaic English phrases, it still had a problem that I could not get to the bottom of.  After I sent my three daughters to school in Canada, and I saw their English improve by leaps and bounds, it suddenly came to me. What we are missing is a complete, enriched English environment.  Therefore, I insisted on giving students a real American school. When students come to Eagle they can enjoy educational resources that are on track with the rest of the world, and English is no longer a foreign language that can never be mastered. It is their other mother tongue.

To carry out my dream that came to be only because I'm ordinary, in the beginning our business and education teams diligently insisted on our ideals in the face of pressure. It wasn't easy since there was no precedent to follow, and there was no support. There was only doubt and criticism.  After the sweat and tears of a few years, my ordinary, nothing-special way of thinking was finally put to the test—as long as I could give the students an English environment in step with North America, they could master English and let it just roll off their tongues. Now Eagle's excellent English education—directly importing the North American educational system as a whole, being in step with North America, being on track with the rest of the world, the mother tongue teaching method, and the immersion environment—has become the new guidepost for English education and the goal to duplicate in this field. 

I often think about the suffering that I went through in my own childhood and the regret that I felt, all because of the fact that I couldn't master English. A dream was born out of this regret, and because of this dream we now have Eagle. It is because of Eagle that I feel like I have my feet on the ground and I understand the hardships of having a mission. The gratification that I feel in my heart is hard to express. An ordinary person like me has the same kind of regret as everyone else, and also has the same kind of dream, just because I'm ordinary. It brightens the sky, and allows me to see a road leading to the world of English. It gives me a mission to forge a path to internationalization for Taiwan's next generation. Setting out on the road to success, English education in Taiwan is about to enter a new era. I feel blessed to be the founder of Eagle. At this point in the road, our business and education teams will continue to work hard to provide quality English education into the future.