A workshop, not a classroom.
I founded the Atelier in 2014, in a small upstairs room in Bambalapitiya, with seven students and a chalkboard. I had just returned from Cambridge with an MPhil in English Literature and one stubborn conviction: that the way English is taught in Sri Lanka is dignified but not alive.
Twelve years later we have taught over 1,800 students across four programmes, and the conviction has only deepened. Language is not grammar. Language is rhythm, instinct, hesitation, courage. We teach all four.
Every cohort still meets in a workshop circle. We read aloud. We argue gently. We rewrite together. And students who arrived terrified to speak — by week eight, they are reading their own essays into a microphone with steady, bright voices.
The Atelier's quiet promise: by the end of your programme, you will not just speak English. You will think in it.
