We began as a small English-only company in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1996. Our company name was branded as Small World Language Services. We began with private one-to-one lessons and small groups and then expanded to include in-company classes, featuring all native English teachers from all over the world.
In 2025, our CEO and founder Kimberlee Thorne decided to rebrand the online language tutoring division to Empalingua, "where empathy meets tutoring". This is because her belief in offering understanding, kindness and compassion in an empathetic environment that caters to our clients' needs is more than just the teaching. In her 30 years of experience, she has discovered that students thrive better when they feel cared for and encouraged as a person. In other words, for her, it is all about the interpersonal relationship.
We now offer three languages: English, Spanish, and Portuguese, the languages spoken in the Americas part of the world.
In video format (How I started my online language tutoring company):
https://youtu.be/kW-7Xk_7RQA
For more info: www.empalingua.com