The Coaches

Coach Ridz (Ridzuan A. Ghani) and Coach Sha (Rasheedah Zakariya) are co-founders of ESB Seminars. Before spending their time and energy helping kids and adults be more comfortable using English, both worked in KL – Ridz an IT journalist with NST and Sha a lecturer in IIUM Matric and a part-time lecturer in UNITEN. After a year working in the city, both left their jobs to move to Taiping. That was when they switched profession. Ridz became a cook/caterer, running his late father’s business while Sha tutored students at home. During Ramadhan, they sold rendang at the bazaar.

Their academic background, you might ask? Both graduated from IIUM, Class of ’99. Ridz was a Communication major, although initially he chose Arabic & Literature. Sha studied Political Science and later continued her MA in Sociology (UKM).

What about their secondary education? This is interesting! Ridz was a product of a ‘sekolah agama rakyat’, Al-Masriyyah in Bukit Mertajam. Sha, in contrast, spent her teenage years in a cowboy high school in Texas. Hence, in ESB seminar they share their experience as English language learners who come from different academic and family background with different exposure to the language. They had different reasons to be good at English and their REASONS pushed them to be good at English.

The point that they want students to understand is – anyone can be good at all four language skills if they are ‘*selamba’ enough to USE the language.

Coach Ridz and Coach Sha have appeared on national TV and more media appearance coming soon.

*selamba means not worrying or thinking about what others say or think about you, as long as you don’t go against religion and law.