Swann Formation

Square de Clignancourt

In the mid-1970s, Gordon and Ülker moved to Paris. They settled at 19 square de Clignancourt in the 18th arrondissement, a corner building whose other side faces 50 rue Hermel. Alexander first spent his early years at the château in Touraine with his grandparents, his aunt and his cousin, then joined them.

A trade for a painter

In Paris, Gordon looked for his place. He held a heavy-goods licence from the army; the attempt was short-lived. He turned up to a dustman’s recruitment in a three-piece suit, convinced that a job is a job, and discovered French social codes he did not know.

Ülker saw the resource: he was English, he could teach English. He said he did not know how to teach; she found the client. He said he did not know grammar; she built the course plan, lesson by lesson.

The school

Lessons began at home, then the school grew to fill a whole floor of the Tour Gan at La Défense, with about eighty teachers and host families in England. Its clients were executives and senior managers. In January and February 1983, its advertisements in the International Herald Tribune sought trainers for leading sectors: computing, oil, civil engineering, aeronautics, mechanical engineering. The school also developed English lessons by telephone.

Gordon carried the language, the presence and the sales; Ülker ran the administration and the structure. Together they were very strong.

1978, 1981, 1984

Cecil George Henry Swann died on 27 June 1978 in Sainte-Eanne. On 18 November 1981, a child was stillborn in Montreuil.

In 1984, Gordon died of a heart attack at thirty-six. That same year, Alexander’s brother Emmanuel was born. Ülker was left alone at the head of the school and the family.