About Us

Hi and welcome to our website! I'm Hannah Wilkinson, the founder and managing director of Virtually Fluent and a fully-certified English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher.

I grew up learning languages. I started French at the age of 4, German at 12, Spanish at 21 and went on to study languages with international business at university. Throughout my language learning experience, my goal was always to pass a public exam, get a language certificate or recite a foreign language presentation. By the end of my studies at university, I found that I could reel off a speech about whether I was for or against green energy, but couldn't uphold basic small talk with a native speaker. I knew the vocabulary, I had learnt phrases off-by-heart, but it's quite a different experience applying this to the real world.

What's the point in learning a language and getting an A grade at school if you can't actually use it to communicate with anyone? A vast amount of people, myself included, learn a language at school and can't speak a word of it a few years later.

We believe that language should be taught as a means of lifelong communication, not as a translation or something needed to pass an exam.

In 2018, a few years after becoming a qualified EFL teacher, I set up Virtually Fluent in the hope of connecting people who speak English as a common foreign language. I believe in a rounded learning experience that provides all the tools to learn by yourself but also gives you a lifelong community in which you can use your language and connect to other people who are in the same position as you, learning in the same way as you.

Our private classes allow you to learn about the English-speaking culture through conversation with an experienced EFL teacher. You can also connect to other private class learners on our internal portal to practise your English language. Our self-paced courses provide all the materials required to thoroughly understand a topic, but we ask you to implement this new language by interacting with other members via forums, group pages and quizzes.

At Virtually Fluent, we don't just teach the English language, we want our learners to understand the English language. We explain theories and history of the language, we provide cultural and real-life examples from native resources and we provide a space where you can use this language to connect to others. We want you to have English as a lifelong skill that opens doors for you, no matter what your background.