The China afficionado teacher

Spry septuagenarian passes on his passion to every one of his 450 learning centers worldwide

He has a Chinese name, Li Wenhao, he loves Chinese culture and carries the classic Chinese text by Laotzu, Tao Te Ching, in his pocket every day. His enthusiasm and fascination with Chinese culture makes him want to spend the rest of his life in the country.

Luigi T. Peccenini, is the founder of Wall Street English, one of the leading English training bodies in the world, which now has more than 450 learning centers in 27 countries and regions around the world, the number of its learners surpassing 2 million.

An English training center in Beijing. The English training market in China is now worth around 30 billion yuan ($4.7 billion). [Photo/China Daily]

The 73-year-old is energetic and effervescent, vigorous and vibrant. He passes on his enthusiasm and passion to the training centers at Wall Street English, which is regarded as part of the reason for their popularity.

Despite his great success in business, however, Peccenini prefers to regard himself as an educator built on a rich life experience.

He has repeatedly emphasizes during his lectures to college students and young entrepreneurs his mantra: "I was not born to be a businessman, instead, I have been and will always be an educator. My business is only a small tool, which helps me become an educator on a more spacious international stage, which enables me to serve more people. This is my ideal, one that advocates freedom and independence."

Peccenini was born in 1939, the only child of a modest Italian family. As a young man he worked in a factory and later became involved in sales. But always on his mind was the nagging existential question: "What is the meaning of life?"

He said: "Today, this question is still present in my mind. I've always thought that life is a wonderful gift and that anything I would do and anybody I would meet along the way would help me to find the answer."

The path through his life was not always smooth or easy. Like many entrepreneurs, Peccenini experienced numerous hardships and frustrations on the road to starting up his business.

In 1972, he stepped into the English training sector with the foundation of the Wall Street Institute after having tasted some sweetness during his entrepreneurial career in the computer literacy training business in Italy in 1968. By 1980, the institute had more than 50 learning centers in Italy.

Peccenini invested all his money into developing English Online, a state-of-the-art multimedia language instructional program at that time. He also borrowed heavily from banks and individual investors, planning to face heavy financial exposure through high sales. But it didn't work out. As a result, his company closed down. Only the franchisees could continue their activity, but disconnected from his company.

"I lost everything, including my physical health," he said. "But I didn't lose my desire or let go of my vision."

In 1986, Peccenini placed an advertisement in Switzerland with his last $2,000 in his pocket in search of a business partner. He found one and together they successfully set up Wall Street Institute Switzerland and restarted his business. After a series of hardships and perseverance, Peccenini regained control of its Italian operations.

When recalling his bumpy career path, Peccenini said: "I have experienced both highs and lows in my life as an entrepreneur. As long as there is a dream, there is definitely hope. I can create such an achievement because the dream in my heart has never waned."

What now makes him proud and excited is developing the business in China, a land where he saw "opportunities and future" for Wall Street English.

Peccenini established the first English training center in the country in Beijing in 2000. Now Wall Street English has more than 60 learning centers in China's developed cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Nanjing, with more than 160,000 graduates and students. It has become one of the most prestigious high-end English training bodies in the country.

"Here I see people with great passion for learning English," said Peccenini, who has mastered six foreign languages, adding "Chinese students have some misunderstanding about learning English" as he repeatedly urged the abolition of exam-oriented education.

"I found a typical mistake of Chinese students who are learning English when we first entered the Chinese market," he said. "When studying English, Chinese students like to translate it word for word and memorize each word without understanding the real meaning of the overall context. However, to fully understand the context is more important than anything else."

Q+A: Luigi T. Peccenini