Today we’d like to introduce you to Christina Ball.
Hi Christina , please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My love of languages started early. As a child, I was fascinated listening to my grandparents speak Italian, and in middle school, French classes opened up an entirely new voice and culture to me. Studying abroad in Italy during college deepened that fascination, although at that point I was equally drawn to art and art history.
After college, I worked in art galleries in New York City, but eventually felt pulled back to Italy and to school. I enrolled in a University of Georgia study-abroad program in Cortona, where I undertook a wonderfully ambitious project: creating an edition of handmade artist books illustrating the poetry of Petrarch with my own pinhole photographs. I made everything, even the paper, and sold the finished books to collectors in the U.S. to help fund my time in Italy.
Somewhere in that Tuscan hill town, however, I had a realization. I was more fascinated by the language of Petrarch’s poetry than by the process of making the books. (And perhaps not quite detail-oriented enough to spend my life as a bookmaker!) That realization sent me back to graduate school, first at the University of Georgia and eventually to Yale, where I pursued a Ph.D. in Italian Language and Literature.
I enjoyed the intellectual world of academia, but along the way I discovered something else: I really came alive in the classroom. I loved sharing languages and cultures with other people and watching their own excitement and curiosity take hold. Teaching, more than scholarship alone, was where I felt most at home.
That became especially clear when I began teaching a continuing education class in Charlottesville called *All Aboard Italy*. From 2002 to 2004, the class was consistently full, often with a waitlist, and at the end of each eight-week session, students would ask me the same question: “How can we keep learning Italian with you?” I began to realize there was a real appetite in our community for lifelong language learning, and I started imagining what it might look like to create something of my own.
At the time, I was also working as a writer and dining editor, which led to a serendipitous connection with a local couple who were opening an Italian-themed business: a gelato and coffee bar alongside a store selling beautiful Deruta ceramics and Italian furniture. I shared my dream of creating an Italian language and culture center, and they offered me the use of their upstairs lounge. In 2004, Ecco Italy was born.
I started very small: just me, teaching Italian to adults and children and leading immersion trips to Italy. But I quickly discovered that the interest extended well beyond Italian. By 2005, I had begun adding Spanish and French and bringing other instructors on board. What started as a way for me to share something I loved was gradually becoming a real business, and I was becoming an entrepreneur almost without realizing it.
Over the next twenty-plus years, both the business and I would grow in ways I never could have imagined when I taught that first class. Ecco Italy became Speak! Language Center, our reach expanded far beyond Charlottesville, and my own role evolved from teacher to founder and director. But what motivates me hasn’t changed very much. I still love seeing what happens when someone discovers that learning another language gives them a new way to connect with the world and with the people in it.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely not! I came to entrepreneurship as an academic, not as someone with a background in business, so there was a steep learning curve. I knew how to teach, develop curriculum, and get people excited about languages and cultures. Learning how to build a sustainable business around that was another matter entirely!
One of my first big wake-up calls came when I moved Speak! into its own space. Almost overnight, my expenses tripled. I quickly realized that I couldn’t survive simply by continuing to offer small group classes in Italian, Spanish, and French. I had to get creative, learn to think like a business owner, and reconsider what a language center could be and whom we could serve.
That challenge pushed me in some important new directions. I began forging partnerships with universities, businesses, and other organizations that needed customized language training. In 2010, we began providing language training to the federal government, including the Department of Defense. Around the same time, we created our signature Personalized Private Lessons, designed around each learner’s goals, interests, and schedule, which proved to be an ideal fit for busy adults and teens. We experimented in other directions, too, including summer French and Spanish immersion camps for children, something I would love to revive in some form! In 2012, we added English language programs, which opened another major area of growth and have since become our most popular programs.
Then, of course, came COVID. Like so many business owners, I suddenly had to rethink how we did almost everything. We moved all of our teaching online, and what initially felt like a crisis ultimately transformed the business in a positive way. Our teachers and students discovered that online language learning could be every bit as engaging and effective as learning in person, while allowing us to connect with learners far beyond Charlottesville. Today, our teaching is roughly 50/50 online and in person.
One thing that has never been a challenge, thankfully, is finding and retaining extraordinary language teachers and attracting wonderful students of all ages. That community of teachers and learners has been the constant through every iteration of the business and has made navigating the inevitable challenges worthwhile.
More than twenty years in, I think one of the most important things entrepreneurship has taught me is to stay curious and adaptable. Some of the moments that felt most daunting at the time forced me to question my assumptions, try something new, and ultimately opened doors I might never have discovered otherwise.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Speak! Language Center is built around a simple idea: language is about human connection. We help people learn to communicate across languages and cultures through personalized, relationship-based instruction with exceptional human teachers.
We work with individuals and organizations, lifelong learners and budding linguists. Some of our students are learning a language for the sheer joy of it; others are preparing for travel, connecting with family or friends, advancing professionally, relocating abroad, or learning English to thrive in a new community or workplace. We also partner with universities, businesses, government agencies, and other organizations to create customized language programs for their employees, students, and teams.
One of the things that sets Speak! apart is that we don’t believe language learning should be one-size-fits-all. Our signature Personalized Private Lessons are built around the learner: their goals, interests, level, learning style, and schedule. We also offer small-group classes and conversation programs for learners who enjoy the energy and camaraderie of learning with others. And because we teach both in person and online, our classroom might be at our home in downtown Charlottesville or it might connect a teacher with a student halfway around the world.
Technology has transformed language learning, and we embrace the ways it can bring people together. But in an age of apps and AI, we’re also more committed than ever to something decidedly human: learning a language from another person. A great language teacher doesn’t simply teach vocabulary and grammar. They listen, encourage, challenge, explain cultural nuances, respond to the person in front of them, and create the confidence that allows someone to actually speak.
I’m especially proud of the community we’ve built around that philosophy. We’ve been fortunate to attract and retain extraordinary teachers from around the world who bring deep linguistic and cultural knowledge to their classrooms, but also warmth, curiosity, and a genuine love of teaching. Many of our students stay with us for years, moving through levels, traveling, building relationships, and making language learning part of their lives.
Our home at Vault Virginia in downtown Charlottesville has also allowed us to expand what “language center” can mean. Through our cultural salons and other community gatherings, we create opportunities for people to come together around languages, travel, art, food, history, and ideas. That cultural exchange has been part of my vision since the earliest days of Ecco Italy, so seeing it flourish more than twenty years later is particularly meaningful to me.
Ultimately, I don’t want Speak! to be known simply as a place where people take language lessons. I want it to be a place where people become more confident, curious, and connected to a world beyond their own. Our tagline is “Connection through Conversation,” and after more than twenty years, I think that still captures what we do best.
How do you think about luck?
Luck has played an enormous role in my life and in the story of Speak!. I’ve always believed that you have to do the work and put yourself in a position where opportunities can find you, but I can point to several moments when the right person or possibility appeared at exactly the right time.
The first was in 2004, before Speak! even existed. Through my work as a writer and dining editor, I interviewed Mark and Victoria Cave, a local couple who were opening an Italian café and retail business called Milano. Mark and I started talking about his experience studying abroad in Venice, and I discovered that his Italian was excellent. We immediately connected over our shared love of Italy and, as it turned out, a shared desire to try our hands at running our own businesses.
I began working with the Caves as a consultant, helping them make sure the experience at Milano felt authentically Italian, from the cappuccini and gelato flavors to the pronunciation of the name itself. When I told them about my own dream of creating an Italian language and culture center, they offered me the use of their upstairs lounge. That became the first home of Ecco Italy.
I consider that pure luck. If my writing job hadn’t brought me into Mark and Victoria’s orbit at exactly that moment, I might eventually have started the business, but I’m not sure I would have had the courage to do it then. Their confidence in my idea helped give me the confidence to try it.
That pattern of the right person appearing at the right time has repeated itself throughout the life of Speak!. Years later, after I had moved into my own space and was wondering how I was going to cover all my new expenses, an ESL teacher named Paula Levine walked through the door. She suggested that we start an English program for adults. We did, and English went on to become our largest and most profitable program, followed closely by Spanish.
I’ve had similar luck finding extraordinary teachers. Again and again, it seems that just when we need someone with a particular language, skill, or idea, the right person finds us. Sometimes it feels almost magical.
Around that same period, language-training leaders from the Department of Defense contacted me to ask whether Speak! could train their linguists in languages such as Russian, Korean, and Arabic. I hadn’t sought out the opportunity. We had simply hung out our shingle, built a reputation for excellent language instruction, and they found us. That relationship opened an entirely new chapter for Speak! and helped me see that our reach didn’t have to be limited by geography or by the languages we had traditionally taught.
I even think COVID brought us a certain kind of luck, although it certainly didn’t feel that way at first. Being forced to move our programs online showed our teachers and students how effective and personal online language learning could be. It ultimately allowed us to reach learners and organizations around the country and the world in ways I might never have pursued so quickly otherwise.
So yes, I believe in luck. But after more than twenty years in business, I’ve come to think of it as an intersection of serendipity, openness, and readiness. You have to hang out your shingle. You have to talk to people. You have to be willing to recognize an unexpected opportunity and say yes to an idea you hadn’t considered. I’ve been incredibly fortunate in the people and opportunities that have found me along the way, and I’ve learned to pay attention when they appear.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://speaklanguagecenter.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/speaklanguagecenter/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-ball-ph-d/
- Other: https://speaklanguageacademy.com
Image Credits
Stephanie Gross (some of the above).
