With his peer-to-peer language platform, Ryan Jeon ’16 is on a mission to make learning English accessible, easy, and affordable
In 2021, Ryan Jeon ’16 and his sister, Chelsea, launched Immigo, a peer-to-peer English learning platform that quickly gained thousands of students and over a million dollars in startup funding. Forbes recently included the Northwestern graduates in its 2024 “30 Under 30” list. “I was honored to know that other people see the value in what we’re doing,” Jeon said.
The online classes, typically 50 minutes in length, allow students from around the world to practice English skills in small groups, simulating real-world experiences. Immigo then uses AI to assess each student’s abilities and provide tailored feedback on how to improve. “We’re maximizing students’ speaking practice, and we’re telling students how to do better next time,” Jeon said.
Immigo is partly inspired by Jeon’s personal experience of struggling to speak English when his family moved from Korea to Irvine, California. Jeon was 12 years old, and although he’d taken English classes in Korea since he was young, he’d never truly conversed with native English speakers.
“I was so shy and worried about speaking English that I couldn’t even pick up the phone to order a pizza,” he recalled. “I was afraid people would judge my accent or that I would say something wrong.”
Luckily, Jeon had a group of friends at his middle school who had also recently immigrated to the United States. “We kind of created a support group to practice our English, and that’s how I learned firsthand that to learn any language, you have to use and speak it. I had to get out of my comfort zone.”
In fact, Jeon did just that, making another big move at the age of 14 by attending Williston. “I wanted to accelerate my learning and keep challenging myself in a diverse, global environment,” he said. “When I visited Williston, it immediately felt like home. The school sparked my curiosity to learn how to solve problems that I saw in the world.”
Before creating Immigo, Jeon realized that learning English could boost people’s earning potential, but English classes were prohibitively expensive. Immigo seeks to lower the barrier to entry, making English more accessible to students from an array of backgrounds.
“There is a lot of effective English education out there already,” Jeon said. “People can take one-on-one lessons or hire qualified tutors, but that can be expensive. The sad reality is that not everybody can afford that kind of education. We’re trying to make effective English education affordable for everybody.”
Immigo now serves students from 150 different countries and has nearly 170,000 followers on Instagram. The platform has particularly resonated with students in Latin America, and with people working in the tech industry who hope to be hired by American or Canadian companies, even remotely. Many Immigo classes focus on career-based scenarios, like interviewing for a job or meeting new team members.
Jeon hears from Latin American students that proficiency in English can double or even triple their income. And he cites the educational publishing company Pearson’s 2024 study showing that English proficiency is directly linked to earning potential.
“Many of our students are, for example, coders, but they can’t communicate in English with their teams, so they’re not getting promoted or they’re getting passed up in interviews,” he said. “They have a limited amount of disposable income. By using AI and making Immigo scalable, we can lower the cost and maximize the outcome, delivering an experience that mimics living in the U.S. or Canada, allowing students to speak English almost daily.”
Co-founding Immigo with his sister has been particularly fulfilling. “Because we’re family and we know each other so well, we have a bond that is stronger than it would be if I was creating a business with anyone else,” he said. “I’m really proud of what we’re building. English is a powerful tool. It changed my life, and I think everybody deserves the same chance.”