A teacher who believes every shy student can speak

LEWS — Learn English With Shaista — began in a small room in Kahuta, a town outside Islamabad, with one whiteboard, one laptop and a teacher who kept hearing the same sentence: “Ma’am, I understand English, but I can’t speak it.”

Shaista Parvez knew that sentence from the inside. As a student she was the one who wrote perfect answers and went silent when a question came — not because she didn’t know, but because speaking felt dangerous. She practised alone for years: repeating radio lines, recording herself, wincing, recording again. Later, during her MA in Education, she finally learned why this happens: anxiety shuts down the exact part of the mind you need for language. Shy students don’t need louder classrooms — they need safer ones.

That insight became our method. Big academies put thirty students in one room and charge city prices, and the quiet ones hide in the back row until they quit. LEWS does the opposite: one teacher, one student, one camera and a plan built around your life. When mistakes are private and progress is celebrated loudly, shy learners transform fastest — we watch it happen every single week.

What started as WhatsApp voice-note lessons has grown into a community of active learners across Pakistan and the world — students, homemakers, professionals, expats and children — supported by more than 100 free video lessons and a small team of specialist teachers. The tools are modern; the promise is old-fashioned: nobody is allowed to feel small here.

Shaista still personally takes most trial classes, because the first conversation sets the tone for everything. Whether your goal is a Band 7, a job interview, or simply ordering coffee without panic, you will be taught by someone who remembers exactly what it feels like to stand on the quiet side of the classroom — and who knows the way out.