With a focus on promoting peace though language education, WordWide International Language School fits with its Ocean Beach surroundings. The English language post secondary school and tutoring center has been located on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard since 2007. “I am so in love with Ocean Beach. I’m a total Obecean and I felt that if I really wanted to give somebody the experience of a lifetime learning English, I’d want to do it in OB,” said B. Rose Anderson, director of the schools and a 27-year resident. WordWide has been open in San Diego since 2002. It was located first downtown and then in Mission Valley. When Anderson purchased WordWide in 2006, it was bankrupt and didn’t exactly have the best reputation. “The idea of teaching world peace through language education is very important for me because, before 9/11 — when this was under different ownership — it was the school that had taught two students that are [buried] in the World Trade Center rubble,” Anderson said. “That’s why the school was bankrupt when I bought it.” The school, located at 1811 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., is made up of two distinct language programs — Word-Wide ESL Institute and WordWide Language Tutoring Center. The ESL institute is a nationally-accredited post-secondary school that features an immersion program for those from abroad. “We’re changing how people think,” Anderson said. “If you learn a language, you change how you think for world peace.” The English chool currently has 11 students representing the United States, Saudi Arabia, Spain, South Korea, Germany, Mexico and Slovakia. It recently started a guest speaker series, in which locals — including Hodad’s owner Mike Hardin and KPBS TV’S “Wonderland” creator Noah Tafolla — have come to speak, allowing the international students to ask them questions. “Not only are we rich in personalities and people, but it was a great opportunity to have the community come into the school,” Anderson said. “People that are learning English can spend their lives in institutions like mine but they never really get a chance to talk to people on the outside.” The mission of school’s language tutoring center is to teach Americans and U.S. residents foreign languages. These languages range from the conventional, like Spanish, French and German, to the less conventional — namely Swahili. “There are a couple schools like us out there, but we teach as many languages as we can. If somebody wants to learn a language, we want to be there for them,” Anderson said. “We can even make classes for them.” The tutoring center also offers services for students. A recent claim to fame was helping a University of California, San Diego student pass UCSD’s advanced Spanish placement test with just 30 hours of instruction. “We just follow the program we have in the English school,” Anderson said. Each Saturday, the school also hosts the free Pier Poets writers’ workshop from 9:30 a.m. to noon for locals looking to sharpen their writing or drop in to check out the school. The school has four full-time staff members and its entire staff is made up of Ocean Beach residents. WordWide also offers four- and 12-week TESOL classes for those looking to teach English overseas. For more information about the school, visit www.wordwide.us.