I entered the language industry as an English as a Foreign Language teacher when I was nineteen. I taught as a freelancer, in language schools, passed my CELTA with flying colours. Then I moved to the UK, where I was asked to pretend my name was Alex instead of Ola, because it sounded better, because I could pass as a native speaker.

At twenty-seven, I became a manager in a language school. Then a teacher trainer. When the pandemic started, I moved a giant international school online. In 2020, I started my own language school, hired six teachers, grew by three hundred percent in a year. For the next four years, I ran a business coaching practice for language professionals. The peak came in 2024: I ran Teachers Talk Sales, a massive international summit with thousands of attendees and speakers from across the industry.

And then something broke.

I was badly bullied at a conference in Barcelona. The institution handled it terribly and treated it like a catfight between immature girls rather than what it was: a deliberate attack. I went into hiding. And something inside me started to unravel.

Over 2024 and 2025, I completely fell apart. I met my mother after thirty years. I lost myself in ways I still do not fully understand. I confused my audience. I made questionable decisions. But somewhere in that mess, I realised something important: I was not actually done. I was just done with the old version of what I was building.

In October 2025, I closed Ola Coaches Teachers. I stopped doing business coaching.

Because something else was coming through. Something bigger than individual success. A social movement. A collective voice naming the things the industry has been too scared to say out loud.

When I started writing the Language is a Woman essays, I got both applause and criticism. I knew I was onto something.

⚡️ Language is not a skill to be optimised. It is the most profoundly human work we can do: emotional, relational, identity-shaping. 
⚡️The language industry was built by women. And it has spent decades pretending otherwise.
⚡️ I believe that systemic change does not come from individuals getting better at playing the game. It comes from people gathering, naming what is true, and deciding to build something different together.

I believe in the feminine foundations of this work: the attunement, the emotional depth, the relational intelligence, not as soft skills but as the whole skill. I believe we are ready. The industry is ready. The world is ready.

🇵🇱 I am Polish but I do not feel very Polish. I live in the UK but I am not English either. I am a forever in-betweener in identity, in culture, in almost every area of life. Fully bilingual, permanently between worlds, and finally at peace with that.

🧩 I am neurodivergent and demand avoidant. I rebel against my own calendar regularly. I have learned to build a life and a business that works with my brain rather than against it.

🌙 I am obsessed with the nervous system and not because it is trendy, but because understanding mine changed how I lead, teach, sell, parent, and rest. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it.

🙃 I do aerial yoga. I listen to everything at 2x speed. I still occasionally whisper "maybe I should just get a job" when I am overwhelmed. And then I remember that doing this alone was never the point.

🌝 I am a Gemini Sun, Leo Rising, Aries Moon. 

❤️ I live in a loud, love-filled home with my soulmate partner Luke, our brilliant neurodivergent son Leon, a grumpy cat named Fang (who recently turned out to be a girl) and a clingy sausage dog named Libby. It is very messy and I would not change it.

I laugh a lot and speak very loudly. I am opinionated and direct and I lift the energy of every room I walk into. I am no longer apologising for that.

I am building Language is a Woman: a movement and community for women across the language industry who are done being quiet.

I coach visionary women on audacity and emotional capacity helping them reach new heights not just as individuals, but as part of something larger.

I am also deeply engaged in identity work and body-led practices for understanding ourselves and the world. These are not separate from the professional work. They are central to it.

If you want to contribute to The Gathering or the Language is a Woman community, whether as a speaker, a collaborator, or an organiser, I want to hear from you.

If you have a vision for what this industry could be and you are ready to stop playing small, let us talk.

If you are a woman who has spent too long performing a self that was never yours, and you are ready to act on the vision that's calling you, I'm here for you.

Send me a DM on Instagram, LinkedIn or email me at hello@olakowalska.com

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