EnglishWD started in 2020 as one Canadian teacher with a laptop and a conviction that his students deserved better. Six years later, it's a multilingual school teaching English, German, and Japanese, with a team from five countries and students from around the world.
EnglishWD didn't launch with a business plan and a round of funding. It started in 2020 as a freelance English teacher who kept saying yes to the next student. Darren Greenwood built the company the hard way: one lesson at a time, one student at a time, one system at a time.
In the beginning it was just work. Good work, but work. Then the stories started adding up.
Roman had tried to learn English more times than he could count. Every attempt ended the same way. Then something clicked. "I did it thanks to Darren." Aoi was so anxious about starting online English she almost didn't try. Now she says she speaks better than she ever believed she could. Konrad walked into an IELTS exam and came out with an 8.5. Kentaro got the TOEIC score his career depended on. Alkım broke through a level she'd been stuck at for years and landed the job.
That's when it stopped being just work. Darren started to understand something he hadn't expected: for a lot of people around the world, English isn't a nice-to-have. It's the thing standing between them and the life they're trying to build. A better job. A new country. A conversation they've been avoiding. The ability to be understood the way they deserve to be understood.
That understanding changed everything. It stopped being about filling a schedule and started being about building something that could reach more people than one teacher ever could.
When demand grew beyond one person, he hired teachers. When students needed better materials, he wrote an entire curriculum from scratch. When he saw that every student's life was different enough to need a different lesson, he brought in AI to make true personalization possible. When students started asking for German and Japanese, he found the right people and built those programs too.
Every layer of EnglishWD exists because a real problem demanded it. Nothing was built for show.
But none of it was built alone. The teachers who brought their own talent and care into the classroom and made the school better than any one person could. The students who trusted a small, unknown school with something as personal as their voice. The partners and collaborators who showed up with skills and ideas at exactly the right time. EnglishWD is one person's vision, but it stands on the work of many.
Six years later it's a team of eight from six countries, a curriculum built entirely in-house, technology that personalizes every lesson, and students from around the world. All of it from zero. And the thing that started it, watching someone find their voice in a language that isn't theirs, that still happens every week. That's still the whole point.
Six years of development produced a teaching infrastructure that most schools ten times our size don't have. Every component was designed, built, and refined in-house.
We're a small team from six countries. Every person here was personally chosen for their skill, their warmth, and their ability to make you better.
We use AI to personalize every lesson to every student. That means your curriculum isn't pulled off a shelf. It's built for you, every single time.
We teach English, German, and Japanese to students from over 40 countries. Here's who we help.
From first click to first class. Here's the path every student takes.
EnglishWD is a Canadian online language school offering personalized 1:1 and small group classes in English, German, and Japanese. We specialize in Business English, Exam Preparation (IELTS, CELPIP, TOEIC), General English, and more. All classes are live on Zoom and managed through our student portal on Wise.live.
Start by choosing your language (English, German, or Japanese) and taking our free online Placement Test. It takes about 10 minutes and tells you your CEFR level. Based on your results, we recommend the right course and teacher for your goals. Then you choose a monthly plan on Wise.live and book your first class.
We offer 4, 8, and 12-class monthly plans. All plans renew monthly and can be paused or canceled anytime. We also have a Speaking Club subscription at $48/month for 4 weekly group sessions. Unused classes do not roll over to the next month.
Yes. After your Placement Test, we'll recommend a teacher based on your level and goals, but the final choice is always yours. If you'd like to switch at any point, just let us know and we'll find a better match.
All lessons take place live on Zoom. Booking, scheduling, payments, and course materials are managed through our student portal on Wise.live. No textbooks are needed. All materials are provided by your teacher using real-world content and custom exercises.
Yes. We offer customized corporate English training programs for teams of any size. We start with a free consultation, assess each team member's level, build a tailored curriculum for your industry, and provide monthly progress reports. Visit our Corporate Training page for details.
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