Immerse Languages Institute' Story
Leanna YY Chan didn't take the obvious route into education. While her passion for languages was undeniable, her background was firmly rooted in finance, a world away from language instruction, curriculum design, and the labyrinth of examinations that defines a language school's calendar. When she founded Immerse Languages Institute in Hong Kong in late 2019, she was learning the industry from the ground up. "Everything for me was new," she says. "From marketing to the system, to all the different examinations and different types of school systems. I had to learn from scratch."
The timing was not kind. COVID-19 arrived within months of launch, forcing a sudden pivot to online instruction at a moment when ILI was still finding its footing. But Leanna was undeterred. Her inspiration was a Chinese history teacher from her youth who ignited her love of learning. "She made history come alive," Leanna reminisces. "It wasn't boring at all. You could feel her passion, and she knew everything so well." This experience left a lasting impression, shaping her desire to create a similar learning environment for her own students.
Leanna's background in finance ensured she understood systems and numbers well. What she hadn't anticipated was how much of running a language school would come down to administrative drudgery, and not the educational work she cared about. The frustration came to a head one day when Leanna found herself buried under the old system. A quick online search led her to Classcard. The entire administrative layer of running the academy has become faster, more accurate, and considerably less painful. "It's very convenient for everyone," Leanna beams.
What struck Leanna was how much the change compounded over time. Features she hadn't anticipated needing became part of how the language school operated. "We've built in so many things," she says. The platform grew with the school rather than holding it back.
How Immerse Languages Institute Uses Classcard
Payroll cut from a full day to 2 hours
This was the change that made the immediate difference. A process that had consumed a full day of Leanna's time every payroll cycle now takes around two hours. The hours saved go back into building the school: developing programmes, improving the student experience, and handling the marketing and growth work that a founder-led business always needs.
An estimated 10 hours per week returned across all admin
Beyond payroll, the broader administrative overhead of running ILI has reduced significantly. Scheduling, attendance, record-keeping, and lesson tracking all happen through Classcard rather than through a combination of manual processes and paper logs. For a founder wearing every hat in the business, that reclaimed time is what makes growth possible.
A platform that scales with the school
Immerse Languages Institute has grown considerably since its difficult first year. The system that runs it has grown with it. Leanna doesn't describe Classcard as a tool she uses. She describes it as something ILI has been built around. That's the difference between software that solves a problem and software that becomes infrastructure.