Our aim

The Lounge is about taking different approaches to language training. We strive to see the lessons from our clients’ perspectives and deliver a course which is both engaging and effective.

Our story

In 2000 Mark Buckley Executive MBA, CELTA, was a franchisee of an international language chain in northern Italy. He subsequently became Director of one of their most important schools, with over 1200 students. In 2002 he realised his project, The Lounge, to offer a different method, look and feel to language learning. The name The Lounge reflects the environment and philosophy of the school, to promote a moment of relaxed communication. The Lounge method was also brought into local secondary and primary schools as part of the CLIL bilingual initiative.

Following the success of the method in Italy, he opened The Lounge Lugano (Switzerland) in 2009. The success of the method and the approach to children led to the foundation of Associazione The Lounge in 2013 and the creation of two private bilingual schools (kindergarten and infant school) in the heart of Lugano city under the new Swiss federal regulations “HarmoS”. The Lounge continued to work with local high secondary and primary schools in the region forging alliances both with the CLIL approach, teaching Maths, Science and IT in English, and also the creation of an ad hoc English programme for the entire Elementary section. Mark spent 2 years with Coleggio Papio High-school in Ascona Switzerland teaching English and Geography for the federal bilingual high school diploma. He also teaches Economics in English. In 2017, Mark received his Executive Master in Business Administration. In 2020, Mark received the authorisation from the Dept. of Education in Monaco to teach English to all age groups including support for other school subjects in English.

The team

The Lounge policy has always been one of forging strong bonds with its teachers, whether staff or collaborators, through respect and clear alignment of our goals and standards. All of our partners have been with us for years; we have been learning, growing and innovating together. We have the expertise and experience to give our students the best learning experience whether in-person or on-line. At The Lounge we see diversity as a value and are proud to be, and always will be, an equal opportunities group of people.

Our services

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Reviews

I have been using Mark Buckley's translation services for several years now, both professionally (translation of corporate websites, business letters, various presentations), personally, for my daughter and me (CV, motivation letters, various presentations). I have always been very satisfied because Mark goes beyond simple translation, also improving the expression and effectiveness of the text, with appropriate words. I can only highly recommend this service, which is available both physically and via web conference. Thanks so much Mark!

Mark isn’t a conventional teacher, his approach is completely different from others teachers that I have ever seen in my life. He is a smart and very pragmatic person, his lessons are never ordinary, they are always interesting. The same for his collaborators, who are highly trained. They always strike the target in an unconventional way. Today I would say that Mark isn’t only my teacher but a friend.

My son of 13 has been learning English with Mark since he was 7 years old and has always been enthusiastic about it. Lessons have always been dynamic with practical and interesting topics. Having started from scratch, my son today is already able to follow movies in original English language.

Over the last 4 years, Mark has helped me improve my English, both written and spoken. We started off when in high school I had to take the IELTS exam, he was able to prepare me, even though I went to him close to the exam. Mark’s knowledge and skills helped me obtain a result which allowed me to be enrolled at a university in London. At university, Mark still helped me by reviewing the essays and reports. We worked together to identify where I made mistakes, the reason behind them, and how to avoid recurring errors in future documents. Mark is a great teacher, he is highly skilled and patient. He was able to make English lessons fun, easing the pressure from the exams, while providing an excellent preparation. I really enjoyed working with him.

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