OUR STORY

This is the story of EnglishDave.PL: a random South African dude who was raised within a kind teaching family in Cape Town who accidentally found his passion in the English teaching industry in Poland. Here he developed a philosophy and approach of kindness and enthusiasm that helps Polish learners with mental barriers be more free and open to communicate in English. 

David Steenkamp, our founder was born and raised in the Cape Winelands of Stellenbosch, South Africa [1980s]. Upon graduating with a degree in Human Resource Management at the University of Stellenbosch [2008] whilst simultaneously working as a Restaurant Manager, he embarked on a journey to the United Kingdom where he worked for corporations for 4 years [2008-2012]. 

During this time he met a lovely Polish lady called Ania who would later become his wife. After a gap year together in Cape Town [2012], David and Ania moved to Warsaw, Poland [2013]. 

In 2013, there were not many English jobs in Warsaw. David decided that after working full time for 10 years, he needed a change of pace and took up English teaching as a ‘native speaker’. It was the first time according to him that he ‘didn’t experience stress and anxiety the night before work’. He took to it like a fish to water, drawing from his dad’s 30 year experience as a Geography & Athletics teacher. David built a wonderful base of clients over 2 years but had to unfortunately move back to South Africa in 2014 for family reasons. 

Ania and David enjoyed a wonderful life in Cape Town from 2014 to 2020 when in the midst of Covid, they decided to move back to Europe, away from one of the crime capitals of the world (Cape Town) to start a family and this time, rather than being in Warsaw, move to Lodz where they have an old family townhouse. 

David’s old students were very happy that he was back in business and quickly his client base grew to what it was at the end of 2014. In 2021, David realised that although successful and constantly fully booked, most English students develop a great relationship with their teacher but sometimes it doesn’t translate into the same high-level performance with other native speakers. Due to this, Dave decided to implement a new philosophy of providing a different native speaker to his students every week so that they continuously grow within a broad dynamic. 

It worked like a charm and since then Dave created a language school with his philosophy, overseeing each student’s journey with English but within an approach of a team of teachers. Each focussing on different aspects of a student’s needs. 

EnglishDave.PL now provides not only solutions to individual clients, but also to corporations who want their teams and employees to perform better within the European or global market.