When the CEO of TEFL International promised to change the lies etc that I pointed out on my last blog post on this site of theirs I confidently predicted that they’d only alter the things I mentioned and so I’d be able to do the very same thing on another one of their sites with the same results, even after giving them a month or so to polish them up. As it happens I didn’t even need to go to that much effort, because a closer reading of the exact same site revealed another whole bunch of lies, weasel words, marketing guff, and out of date information. Some of the truth doesn’t make TEFL International look too good either…
Lies
– “At that time I did not know the format of CELTA was that out of every class of 12, two MUST fail.” (Complete lie. The failure and drop out rates on the CELTA are similar to those on TEFL International courses, and based entirely on fixed marking criteria)
– “I failed the [CELTA] course because I used green chalk during a practicum.”
– “our school name is recognized and respected in every country where TESOL teachers work.” (not true in the UK, to just state one, where TEFL International qualifications are not considered adequate to work in a British Council accredited school)
– “Mature teachers are the backbone of many English language schools across the world. This is especially true in Asia, where Confucianism demands respect and dignity for those who have seen more days pass than they will see coming.” (I know of no schools in Asia where the majority of teachers are “mature”, and in fact they are notorious for preferring 23 year old graduates, something shown by a close reading of the stories by their two ex-trainees that show that neither of them went on to work as a TEFL teacher)
– “All TEFL International courses…meet stringent international accreditation standards.” (The closest thing to international accreditation standards are those set by the British Council, and the last thing I heard the BC does not accept TI courses as properly accredited)
Weasel words
– “Our graduates tell us again and again that teaching English abroad has…given them a financial independence they never had before.” (That could only possibly be true if that’s because they weren’t actually working before)
– “Accredited by the Better Business Bureau” (The BBB says that “BBB accreditation does not mean that the business’ products or services have been evaluated or endorsed by BBB, or that BBB has made a determination as to the business’ product quality or competency in performing services”, which is precisely what accreditation usually means for an educational organisation)
– “TEFL International centers are moderated monthly by a Board of Academic Advisors. At the international level, our board has included authors such as Dr. David Nunan, Alan Maley, Mario Rinvolucri, Marc Helgelson, Dr. Brian Tomlinson, Dr. Richard Day, Robb Scott, John W. Miller. All 30 of our centers include a local regional English Language Training expert that moderates all TEFL international pre-service courses.” (Note the attempt to get people who read quickly to think that people like Alan Maley moderate the courses, which is absolutely not true)
– “Our graduates have the tremendous opportunity to teach English virtually anywhere in the world.” (Not if they are non-native speakers and/ or don’t have a degree they don’t, and in the vast majority of places where they do their applications will be looked at after those of people with more respected certs like the Cambridge CELTA.)
Ridiculous/ meaningless marketing guff
– “Need a long, paid vacation in a tropical setting? Take a gander at http://www.tefllife.com to see how easy it is to get that TEFL certificate and settle down on the beach with a fresh mango smoothie and a blackboard!”
– “Schools besiege our TEFL International centers, wanting to interview our certified graduates.”
– “Every single course is critiqued by recognized, certified, TESOL authorities in the educational field on a regular basis.” (TESOL authorities in the educational field? As opposed to TESOL authorities in the non-educational field?? And who recognises these recognised authorities?)
– “excellent trainers teaching modern methodologies with input from some of the brightest minds in ESL.”
– “If those two endorsements were not enough to convince you, TEFL International is regularly visited by some of the biggest names in the industry. Learn about our Board of Academic Advisors here.” (No link given, and notice the use of the word “visited”. Love the idea that two is a huge number of endorsements as well, especially when one ends with “[Note: Professor Silberstein… has no current opinion as to TEFL International operations]”)
– “TESOL courses are now required in most overseas countries to teach in either public or private schools” (Very few countries ask for a TEFL qualification to get a working visa, and the majority of schools who demand a certificate prefer a more well-respected cert like the Cambridge CELTA.)
True, but doesn’t look good for TEFL International
– They state the generally accepted minimum standards for TEFL courses, but don’t actually reach Cambridge standards under most of them, e.g. “At least 6 hours of teaching under the direction and supervision of a trained, experienced teacher.” and “some kind of overseeing body like a university or examining board that externally controls course quality” (As admitted on this blog by the CEO, on TEFL International courses you could be observed and graded by someone with just the same cert as you are trying to get and minimal teaching experience. On the CELTA, all observations are graded by fully trained CELTA trainers who must therefore have at least five years’ experience and an advanced teaching qualification such as the Delta. As proven in my last post on this organisation, if TEFL International currently meet the university-connection criteria they are hiding it very well.)
– “Students have immediate access to supplemental online courses, including the TESOL Diploma Course…” (You need at least two years’ experience to get on the Cambridge Delta and Trinity Dip TESOL, and TEFL International apparently consider their own Diploma as equivalent to those qualifications when it comes to their own trainers. Unsurprisingly, no one else in the world considers their Diploma equivalent.)
Out of date information
– Dave Hopkins is given at many points are a proof of academic standards, but he left over a year ago. There have been several major reorganizations of the site in that time.
– They mention course credit offered by the University of Washington over and over again, despite the fact that they have agreed not to do so and said university has publically stated that they only briefly accepted TEFL International courses for credit
– “Every course is moderated by Dr. Arthur McNiell, an internationally known TESOL expert, under our agreement of cooperation with Asian University.” (Asian University is listed elsewhere as a past affiliation, and all moderation is in fact now done by Brian Tomlinson. It also says elsewhere on the site that moderation is done by local experts, which contradicts both of those things!)
Why is it that these things are still up there? The two most likely explanations seem to be:
– Nothing gets done in TEFL International if their CEO doesn’t get on someone’s case, or:
– They left it up knowing it was no longer true because it makes them look more academically respectable than they really are
In either case, it is a sign of precisely the kind of educational organization that I would most want to avoid. Ditto for the other sections of this blog post, and in fact everything else on this site about them
TEFLtastic 
As I mentioned previously, I have been following the attacks against TEFL International for years, first as a teacher in Thailand, then after moving to China and teaching here. I have no affiliation with them. I just found the back and forth interesting. But as time passes and these attacks continue I have found them disturbing.
The attacks began on TEFLWatch and most of the old posts you see today are quotes from that site. There were all kinds of accusations about TEFL International being investigated by the Department of Justice and losing its non-profit status. But bruce was going to get thrown in in Thailand first! it all sounded very sinister. Most of these claims were made by a guy named Ron and the admin of TEFLWatch, Nemesis. Bruce V went back and forth with these guys in the forums for months! there were over 100 pages of discussion, and that was after nemesis would delete posts by Bruce V that he did not like. I think most of us, back then, thought “where there is smoke there is fire”.
Then the discussion shifted to another Thai website called Teakdoor. This was a real eye opener. With an unbiased mod suddenly not only did bruce V look pretty innocent but Nemesis was completely exposed as a fraud. He literally broke down mentally post after post until he became a laughing stock. Lie after lie, inconsistency after inconsistency, everything unraveled. All the accusations that still appear on sites here and there were proven pretty conclusively to be false. Even Ron, who had claimed Bruce would soon be in jail, actually had to hide himself from the police and disappeared.
Now this blog. Day after day. Post after post. Its all obsession with TEFL International. Attacks of TEFL International. I am not into conspiracy theories but its getting to the point where those of us who have followed this story from the beginning have to wonder.
1. Isn’t it odd that most of the complaints leveled at TEFL International are not from actual graduates? They may have been “fooled” into joining but after finishing the course they are free to post whatever they want on the internet. But you rarely see an actual graduate complain. Its always “experts” like Alex or TEFlista. I have come to find that very odd, and I am certain I am not the only one.
The one I can recall made a lot of claims about TEFL International, took TEFL International to the BBB, lost and then praised TEFL and Bruce V personally for allowing her credit on a future course despite the fact that the BBB said she was not entitled to it.
I do not know what experience other people have had, but when I meet people who took the TEFL International course they usually say very good things about it.
2. Is it really possible that legitimate experts, and I mean real experts with PhD’s and multiple books published, would associate their name with an organization that is a scam?
When I read posts like this now, I immediately question them.
–The first two examples of lies were obviously quotes from CELTA students. There is no way of knowing if they are lies or not, so its risky, if not blatantly inappropriate to label them as lies.
–Age and work–the only Asian countries that I have heard of where they will simply not accept more mature teachers is Korea and Japan. The rest gladly hire older teachers. Sure a few Kindergartens may want younger but from my experience as long as you are under 65 (or 55 in China) its pretty easy for the older folks to get a job.
–From documentation I have seen, it seems true that TEFL International does have some very stringent quality checks. I took a Trinity course and the moderator was no Brian Tomlinson! Now, for the conspiracy theory–is it any coincidence that the British Counsel seems intent on keeping TEFL International down?
Also… it took me 30 seconds to find TEFL International under the “Accredited” businesses in the BBB website.
I could continue with your post point by point but I think its already clear–calling TEFL International’s website inaccurate by giving inaccurate examples is not very convincing to us who really take the time to investigate.
There are certainly hundreds of more deserving targets. It raises questions as to why you chose to devote so much passion to their ridicule.
And maybe Bush really did blow up the World Trade Centers. Its looking more likely every day.
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That really truly is one of the most incoherently constructed arguments I have seen in a long time – IELTS Academic Writing 4.0 for you, my son.
There are no quotes from TEFL Watch or Teakdoor on this site, and I have never even read either site. Given that, either you believe that TEFL International should be spared all future criticism because you feel sorry for them, or you are just trying to tar me with the same brush with no proof at all.
“The first two examples of lies were obviously quotes from CELTA students. There is no way of knowing if they are lies or not, so its risky, if not blatantly inappropriate to label them as lies.” This argument truly beggars belief. The failure rate for CELTA is about 3%, so how is that two per course? Even if it was, how would a trainee, rather than a trainer, have privelidged acces to such information? And what respectable organisation would publish negative things about their competition on their own website anyway? And this is certainly not the first time…
https://tefltastic.wordpress.com/tefl/t-training/qualifications/cambridge/celta/tefllife-com/
As I explained very clearly, they are “accredited” under BBB’s terms, but that is a complete misnomer when it comes to educational organisations as they don’t even look at course materials. “Accredited TEFL course” means entirely a different thing.
Japan, Korea and China are the three biggest markets in East Asia where apparently older teachers form the “backbone”, according to this website. Of the countries that they do guaranteed job placement for, that just leaves Vietnam and Thailand. So, why did they claim it is the whole of Asia? And as I said, their own two examples are both people who did not go on to use their qualifications to get jobs.
As I’ve explained, the reason why there are three posts about TEFL International is that there was far too much crap on just that one site to do in just one post. That makes ME look bad, does it?? Before that, my last post on them was about 6 months ago, and in the meantime I have laid into academicjournals.org, TEFLSpain.org, using marking codes, organisations which exploit the TESOL and IATEFL logos, TEFL recruiters who ask for money or too many copies of documents too early in the process, Oxford House, ECC, International House, Bell, etc (those are just the examples until 7th Feb!) In those six months I have also published at least 30 articles and at least 60 worksheets. So, that’s a grudge against TEFL International, is it? Please do explain how…
The other deserving organisations will also get theirs when I get time.
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You are very fast and lose in your accusations. Trying to discredit me does not change that. You also failed to address my points. You and TEFLista make quite a pair.
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There are no accusations. There is no attempt at discrediting. I addressed almost every one of your points. Do you really not know what accusations, discrediting and addressing points mean, or are you just trying to deflect attention from what I have written?
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You do realize you come across as an egotistical jerk, right? People disagree with you and you refuse to accept they have some valid points. Its no wonder your readership is down.
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As I said, I addressed almost all his points. Which of my rebuttals are wrong?
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SCAM ALERT:
Trinity College London TESOL is not a college. Trinity College London is a music college and has nothing to do with Trinity College London TESOL. Any claims that Trinity College London is validated by a university are false. In fact, the very name of this organization is a blatant lie!
SCAM ALERT:
CELTA is operated by and validated by U. Cambridge? It is not. It is part of the external exams unit, a separate subdivision that gives English exams to six year olds. Any claims that its part of U Cambridge are at best a stretch of the truth. The university does not validate the course.
Both of these are at least as valid and probably more significant than the complaints you make about TEFL International. Its easy to tear things down, Alex. It does not take any skill. Just a vindictive personality.
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It did indeed not take any skill to find enough lies etc for these four blog posts, all I had to do was read just one of their many websites and quote them at length. I see that you, however, have been unable to find a single objectionable statement on either Cambridge ESOL or Trinity’s websites, hence the random statements that they have never made “disproved” by writing “scam” in capital letters. But then you obviously don’t think your arguments are very convincing either, which is why you are now onto your fifth (!) name in comments on this blog (something which would get you banned for life in most places). Or maybe you are trying to avoid the question “Which of my rebuttals is wrong?”
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It took opening the website about Trinity College London to find them inaccurately pretending to be a college.
http://www.trinitycollege.co.uk/site/?id=201
That is blatant false advertising.
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I have a question for you. Are you , by any chance, British?
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YAWN. I don’t know why Alex doesn’t ban you Steve/James/Lynn.
I have a better question for you:
In my experience there are two kinds of people who usually become offended enough to post this kind of nonsense whenever someone talks about the many shonky courses and qualifications out there; the scam-artists who run them and the teachers who have shelled out for these courses only to find out that their piece of paper is essentially worthless. Which one are you?
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Cambridge ESOL is a part of UCLES, which is Europe’s largest exam board according to Wikipedia. In fact, the Cambridge CTEFLA was run by UCLES directly for a while until Cambridge ESOL became its own department. UCLES stands for University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate. The British Council criteria demand that a TEFL course be connected to a nationally recognised exam board or a university. As it happens, Cambridge ESOL is connected to both. TEFL International, on the other hand, has the information hidden away somewhere on its site that all the universities it mentions are past connections, and Bruce himself is complaining that they still aren’t accepted by the BC because the BC does not accept those connections as valid. Also, as I said and have just proven again, Cambridge ESOL does not have lies on its site, let alone lies about the competition, and TEFL International does.
Don’t know why I took the time to answer such a fatuous point, but for some reason I did. Now if you don’t do the same for me I will indeed ban you.
Steve isn’t the same person as James/ Lynn/ 3 others, btw.
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And Trinity? Blatant lie.
Calling CELTA a part of Cambridge is obviously a stretch. But you have your obvious bias. We can all see that.
British council make the rules to suit themselves and their partners. no surprises there.
How much do you get from the British Council to be their sucker?
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I looked at that page and found not one mention of being a college. However, it took me a further 45 seconds to find this:
“Trinity College London is a leading international examinations board”
That means “college” in your language, does it? You really are getting desperate…
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Trinity College London is not a college?
Trinity COLLEGE London is not a college?
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All TEFL teachers know that Trinity College London is the exam board. BTW, TEFL International started as a Trinity course, but they didn’t last very long and soon parted ways. From a TEFL International FAQ page:
“TEFL International began as a Trinity course… until December of 1999”
One has to wonder about the reason for the quick split. Was it about actually having to keep some standards? Were they asked to leave? Or was it that they just didn’t want to pay money to people who were telling them to fix there courses?
Yet another meaningless TEFL International affiliation that happened more than a decade ago.
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I must admit that I did search around for a while for an explanation for the name with no luck, but as it has had that name since 1877 and didn’t set up a TEFL course until about 100 years later I think we can write it off as a TEFL scam.
I must say that in this case I take TEFL International’s word for it that they were paying Trinity a lot of money for not very much, as I know people who still run Trinity courses who say the same. The reasons they continue are:
– So their graduates get a genuinely internationally recognised TEFL certificate
– So they can hire and retain the best staff (who aren’t generally interested in going from Trinty trainer to OxbridgeEurolingua TEFL trainer)
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I’d like to know more behind the history of the name, too, so I’ve written off to them. If I get a response back I’ll post it.
Meanwhile, I see that there’s still no response to ‘which one of your rebuttals is wrong’. So much for Steve and the person with the multiple personality disorder.
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Bravo for anyone who is responsible for exposing CELTA trainers for what they are. I took the CELTA in IH Bangkok and I think I have never met such a group of mean-spirited, egotistical assholes.
“I failed the [CELTA] course because I used green chalk during a practicum.”
That must have been at IH Bangkok.
The funny part was I kept asking them, if being such a jerk is supposed to be so effective, why don’t you tell us to treat our students like shit as well? It seems the logical conclusion.
If TEFL International is an organization that strives to make the training humane and, shall I say it, UN-CELTA like, good for them!
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So in other words, you,too have no response to which one of Alex’s rebuttals is wrong and name calling is the best that you can do. Do you by chance run a course that competes with IH Bangkok? Sounds like it. IH is very well respected in Thailand, as is SIT.
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The CELTA I took in New Zealand 7 or 8 years ago was one of the best things I’ve ever done. I grew more as a teacher in those four weeks than at any time before or since. I also quickly realised that the three years I’d spent “teaching” in Japan before I did the course was nothing of the sort.
I feel sorry that you didn’t have the same opportunity that I did but I don’t think this is in any way indicative of the overall CELTA experience.
I have over the years met a few teachers (usually in interviews with teachers who don’t get jobs) who seem to think that they failed their CELTA because of some nonsense excuse like “they used green chalk in a practicum”. It’s usually easier for poor candidates to say this than to admit they failed their CELTA because they didn’t listen for the first 3 weeks, refused to internalise and act on good advice from trainers and threw a tantrum when they finally realised they wouldn’t be able to blag their way through the experience.
Having spent the last 5 years hiring and training ELT teachers I can unequivocably say that CELTA graduates are almost always head and shoulders above non-CELTA graduates in terms of teaching, preparation and student feedback. The fact that industry-leading organisations like the British Council and school accreditation organisations like NEAS here in Australia demand CELTA or equivalent (which TEFL International is definitely not) clearly shows that this course continues to be the most appropriate means of demonstrating a minimum level of qualification in the ELT world.
So that was me being nice. If you still don’t understand, let me put it a bit more bluntly. If you are a relatively new teacher looking for to do a teaching qualification, take a CELTA or a Trinity TESOL. If you feel that a qualification from TEFL International or any number of other shonky training centres and online operators, costing a similar amount of money, is a more useful way of spending your money you are quite clearly either stupid or full of s**t.
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Addressing the original point, no one could possibly fail a TEFL course for using a particular colour of chalk. To start with, don’t you have to fail more than one lesson to fail the course? Secondly, you have to get quite a few aspects of the lesson badly wrong to fail a lesson, you can’t fail the whole thing for doing one thing wrong.
So, the person quoted on the TI course failed the CELTA for other reasons and blamed it on the chalk and the trainers. TEFL International know enough about other TEFL courses to know that the person’s story was not accurate, but they have commercial reasons for spreading that story. Is this acceptable behaviour for a non-profit educational organisation? In my opinion, it would be unacceptable to spread such stories about their competitors even if it was true. That is another thing I challenge anyone to find on the Trinity and Cambridge ESOL sites.
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Sorry for being slightly off the topic of this post, but a few have asked about the history behind Trinity. It’s a long one that began as college of music and was later reestablished as an independent examinations board. Here’s the response I received from their office:
“Bonavia Hunt was the founder of Trinity College of Music, founded in 1872 between the Church Choral Society and College of Church, London with Sir Frederick A Gore Ouseley, Professor of Music at Oxford.
In 1875 the College was incorporated under the title of Trinity College London and in 1876 there was a presentation, by the College, of a memorial to the Senate of London University, asking for the establishment of a Faculty of Music in the University and in 1878 the first practical examinations were held. Since conception all Trinity music examinations have been achieved under the brand of Trinity College London.
In 1880 the College moved to Mandeville Place. In 1993 Trinity College London was established as an independent examination board and moved to Park Crescent, therefore separating from Trinity College of Music which in turn took up residence at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
There is a publication written by Harold Rutland called ‘Trinity College of Music – The First Hundred Years’ which is available from Amazon which you may find interesting but only goes as far as 1972 but there is plans to write an up-to-date revised version.”
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I was thinking about doing a course with TEFL international….
I’m not commenting on the content of their course… I don’t know how good it is, they looked good ….
but I find myself increasingly concerned by the situation as it has progressed for me…. I felt like it might be a calculated risk to enroll on their course… but looked like something that could be great…. they’re page 1 google …. and their website is not too bad.
In haste and as it has been at the last minute… I have been slightly rushing a process of applications and preparations for a trip abroad….
however, alarm bells began to ring as I began to speak with the company…. the first was when I asked about visa’s. I thought surely i needed a work visa to work abroad, so looked into it at the foreign embassy website and this being the case, in order to apply for a visa you would need some documentation from the company you seek to do the course with and your intentions. Upon finding this out, I contacted the TEFL international expecting good advice and was told that I should not mention their name to immigration, nor tell them that i intended to do this course, nor tell them that i intended to work. I thought this was a little disconcerting, but assumed that they knew the rules and gave them the benefit of the doubt. I contacted them again shortly before applying for a visa and was told that I should definately get a tourist visa and that working after the course would be fine with this visa…
upon collecting my visa recently …. it states clearly and prominantly on the front ‘tourist visa. employment prohibited’. I was not expecting such an assertive and exclamed statement on my visa after the friendly advice given.
having looked into the possible penalties for breaching the conditions of this visa, the range goes from a slap on the wrist, to a hefty fine, to deportation, to a jail sentence.
This is a hell of a lot more than a calculated risk over whether the course is good and whether you’ll find work or not….
They seemed like nice people (TEFL International) and were quite helpful. they did not demand money nor did they try to push me or anything….They may well have a decent course… I’m not saying they don’t. I just find this visa situation incredibly hard to understand…. and whilst it may be the way that some people do things…. at least why the parameters weren’t explained to me so I could make an informed choice…. rather than misleading me into getting an innappropriate visa and consequentially rupturing my confidence in their reliability. That’s not to say it is beyond repair…. but concern is an understatement.
I dont mind doing some teaching that was not quite above water, if i was not quite qualified or whatever and the penalty is neglegable, but dealt with perhaps internally within the education system…. but the real prospect of breaking international law, i find a little worrying… I’m not sure that there is a huge risk of anything happening… but upon planning something like this involving travel, expense and the hope to have a nice time, I would not really be wishing to put myself at risk of being deported.
(not the way I’d do it (probably)…. but what are the odds of being penalised for working illegally in teaching? surely they must be very low, or else courses such as this and others would not be able to operate? again I think even such low odds would be too high for me but I would be interested to know)
I find myself completely confused…. as there seems to be a mix of opinion and it’s difficult to gauge the credibility of vast and varied opinion on forums. There seem to be an awful lot of concerns voiced for these types of companies, yet I still find the idea appealing as it could make for a great few months travelling…..
I have heard a lot of good said for celta…. but how do i know the situation is not the same with all of these companies? I was looking at ‘IH bangkok’ in thailand now …. are they reputable and worthwhile?
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The solution is a simple one: don’t do a certificate course that is tied to job. Take a one-month cert of your choosing, finish it and get your piece of paper. Then you can get a job legally. Keep in mind that many countries don’t even require a TEFL cert, just a BA in any field, to work. And getting an entry level TEFL job in Thailand, China or Vietnam is like shooting fish in a barrel. They are easy to get on your own (and you will probably hear about some local offerers while taking your course), but you can also use a recruiter with a good reputation.
As far as Thailand goes, the courses run by International House and SIT TESOL are two good choices.
Getting back to the main point of Alex’s post, part of which was that the TEFL International is full of rubbish, and my earlier point that people should be very cautious about taking jobs offered by them, your experience would seem to support this:
“I contacted the TEFL international expecting good advice and was told that I should not mention their name to immigration, nor tell them that I intended to do this course, nor tell them that I intended to work.”
I’d like to suggest to the people at TEFL International that they put the above quote up on their website under one of their various testimonials and keep it there for around a decade.
BTW, do you have the email they sent? That might be interesting to read.
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thanks for the advice…. I think that should I still go and do this, that I will do something very similar to what you suggest above.
I wasn’t looking to get anyone into trouble in what I have said above, but upon further consideration, it would seem that the same courtesy was not extended to me through their advice. I feel a little less sympathetic now.
I’m sure that plenty of people do work illegally as a result of the advice given by tefl international over visa’s, with some perhaps worried and others perhaps unconcerned. Being a complete newbie to Asia as a continent, let alone Thailand, I would have no way of reliably guessing the extent of the risk involved in working illegally and I feel that my trust of this company has crumbled, not so much for their slightly illegitimate nature (as they are attempting to train teachers – not run protection rackets), but for the witholding of vitally important information and the misinformation given, which could potentially have lead to a very nasty circumstance. If they wish to operate like this, they should give all the neccessary details and be completely open with customers, so that informed choices can be made. Although, this may still be a little improper, at least the trainee’s would know what they were entering in to. The misdirection they demonstrated would seem to be mal-practice at the very least, yet I would deem it far more dangerous than simply conning people out of money, as the potential consequences might involve criminal records or the possibility of incarceration abroad.
If a company is prepared to offer such incomplete and innapropriate advice over such a crucial matter as this, I wonder what the content and quality of their classes and courses are? Again I have no grounds to make any claims, but this incident inspires me with no confidence that they have a well run and critically assessed course. What other surprises would they have for me once I signed up? Would I be setting myself up for a good grounding in a tough career? I have opted not to attend their course, that I was close to booking previously.
Again, it didn’t all seem bad, they seemed quite helpful, but I would advise them to be completely open with future clients, rather than misleading and misinforming them for whatever their reasons. It would inspire far more confidence even if they are running a slightly below deck operation. Why would they not wish to be named at the embassy? Whatever their reason, they should not be putting their clients at risk with poor advice for the benefit of whatever this might be. I did not push for a reasoned explanation.
I do have the email they sent me regarding the advice they gave. It was short and to the point. However, it was advised to me in more detail over the phone and at moderate length as well, with the combination of advice leading me to get a tourist visa (at £84).
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ps …. just from scouting around I have found odds and ends of different reviews and posts all over the place…. one post that I found detailed police invading a tefl course and stating that no-one was allowed to take a tefl course on a tourist visa….
without doing any work of any kind (voluntary/paid)…. am i allowed to take a tefl course on a tourist visa? Surely this would be acceptable….
Here is the page I am talking about…. ‘Anonymous’ writes the post: http://teflblacklist.blogspot.com/2008/06/tefl-international-bruce-veldhuisen.html
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In general, taking a month long course on a tourist visa really isn’t a problem. But working or completing a cert while working and still being on a tourist visa is. In most, if not all countries, the latter is highly illegal.
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Getting back to lies on the TI website, Alex pointed out this one:
“Mature teachers are the backbone of many English language schools across the world. This is especially true in Asia, where Confucianism demands respect and dignity for those who have seen more days pass than they will see coming.”
Here’s the reality of the situation, as told by a mature teacher in a recent post on Dave’s ESL Cafe:
“I am almost 66. I have been offered several jobs recently but had the offers withdrawn when I asked if their countries gave visas to people of advanced years (I had in fact put my age on all applications). I have had three offers in China at universities but the pay is only about $700 a month plus accommodation. I applied for several hundred jobs that in the past I would have had no trouble getting but now I get silence. My young very attractive female friend with basic qualifictaions and no experience sent in applications for fun for many of the same jobs and was given positions by return of email.
TEFL is very much about image. Employers,students and colleagues prefer young people.”
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Hi. thanks teflista. this site has been very useful in explaining some of the potential pitfalls out there and it is nice to have this kind of material out there for tefl virgins like myself who are just trying to understand the truth through the confusion. I am not inspired by the amount of information displayed here and at various other locations regarding Tefl international. I feel that, had I not been so last minute and explored more thoroughly, I probably would not have entertained their course as an option. Lies and misdirection would seem to be a recurring theme, with examples such as the above tefl blacklist article I found, being (if true) beyond reconciliation.
Thanks for your advice about international house. If I go through with this, I think they are the company I will use. It says that a tourist visa is fine for their 1 month intensive course.
Following the information I have come across with regards to a lot of this I still feel a little concerned, especially after the actions of tefl international so I am still a little hesitant, but thank you for your help.
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You can now click on the “TEFL International” category at the bottom of the post (above the comments) for other, and more recent, posts on the topic.
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Latest TI-related post here:
https://tefltastic.wordpress.com/tefl/t-training/qualifications/cert/tefl-int/unitefl-new-ownership/
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