History
Berlitz began over 130 years ago. Maximilian Berlitz, once a Professor of French and German, was in need of an assistant French instructor; he employed a Frenchman by the name of Nicholas Joly, only soon to discover that Joly barely spoke English, and was hired to teach French to English speakers in their native language. Several weeks later Berlitz returned to discover the students responded positively to Joly's instruction given only in French. This made way to the development of the Berlitz Method and the opening of the first Berlitz language school in Providence, Rhode Island, July 1878.
By 1888, and after the success of the school in Providence, Berlitz moved to Boston, Massachusetts and opened additional schools. Soon after Boston, he opened schools nearby in New York and in New Jersey and in 1886 he moved the headquarters and his personal residence to New York City. Before the year 1900 Berlitz expanded further, opening another eight schools in big cities across the country. It was also in the year 1900 that Nicholas Joly sold his interest in the company to Berlitz for a lump sum at the time. Once Joly sold his share in the partnership, Berlitz made his son-in-law Victor Harrison-Berlitz General Manager.
Read more about this topic: Berlitz Corporation
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